 The song is ranked number 243 on the "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.Maresca had co-written Dion's previous number-one hit, "Runaround Sue", but originally intended "The Wanderer" to be recorded by another group, Nino and the Ebb Tides.They passed on it in favor of another Maresca song, so Dion was given it as the B-side of his follow-up single, "The Majestic", a song which his record company had chosen for him.