Ernie Maresca

Who is Ernie Maresca?

Ernest "Ernie" Maresca is an American singer-songwriter and record company executive, best known for writing or co-writing some of Dion's biggest hits.

He began singing and writing in a doo-wop group, the Regents, who later had a hit with "Barbara Ann". His song "No-One Knows" came to the attention of Dion DiMucci, who recorded it successfully with the Belmonts on Laurie Records, the record reaching #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 record chart in 1958. Maresca then began songwriting full-time, writing "Runaround Sue" with Dion, and then "The Wanderer" - his biggest success, although his run of hits with Dion continued with "Lovers Who Wander" and "Donna the Prima Donna".

In 1961, he was offered a recording contract with Seville, a small New York label. His protestations that he was not much of a singer were brushed aside, and he wrote a hit for himself, "Shout! Shout!", which reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in early 1962. He continued to record, with less success, for the remainder of the 1960s, but also continued as a writer with hits including "Whenever a Teenager Cries" for Reparata and the Delrons, and "Party Girl" for Bernadette Carroll.