Dion and the Belmonts Singer Fred Milano Dies
Fred Milano, an original member of the 1950s doo-wop group Dion and the Belmonts who sang on hits including “A Teenager in Love,” has died of lung cancer at age 72. “May he rest in peace and rock on in heaven,” wrote Dion DiMucci, the group’s frontman, on Facebook.
The singer died on Sunday, three weeks after his cancer was diagnosed, in Massapequa, New York. Though Dion left the group to go solo in 1960, Milano was still performing with the Belmonts as recently as a few weeks ago. Between gigs, he worked for the New York City Department of Correction as a legal coordinator at Rikers Island.
Milano and the other members of the Belmonts were unhappy when Dion was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame without them in 1989. “We had our ups and downs through the years but that’s how things go in families,” DiMucci wrote on Facebook.