Gene Pitney

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Pitney portrayed on the cover of one of his collections.
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Pitney portrayed on the cover of one of his collections.

Gene Francis Alan Pitney (February 17, 1940 – April 5, 2006) was an American singer and songwriter. Through the mid-1960s, he enjoyed considerable success on both sides of the Atlantic, and charted more than 20 Top 40 hit singles. He was also an accomplished guitarist, pianist, drummer, and skilled sound engineer.

[edit] Biography

Pitney was born in Hartford, Connecticut. In his youth, he lived primarily in Rockville, part of the town of Vernon. He attended Rockville High School from which he earned the name "The Rockville Rocket," and where he formed his first band called "Gene & the Genials." He also made a couple of records as part of a duo called "Jamie and Jane" with a lady called Ginny Arnell and then released a single as Billy Bryan.

In 1961, Gene Pitney released his first solo single, "(I Wanna) Love My Life Away," on which he played several instruments and multi-tracked the vocals, followed by his first big hit, "Town Without Pity" that same year. This song won the Golden Globe Award for "Best Song in a Motion Picture," and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song.

Pitney helped his musical career by writing hit songs for others. Notable songs include "He's a Rebel" for The Crystals and Vikki Carr, "Today's Teardrops" for Roy Orbison, "Rubber Ball" for Bobby Vee, and "Hello Mary Lou" for Ricky Nelson (Nelson is often inaccurately credited as the songwriter). "He's A Rebel", by The Crystals, kept Pitney's highest peaking Hot 100 record "Only Love Can Break A Heart" from being atop that chart on November 3, 1962.

Pitney is also well remembered for his stirring rendition of the title song to the movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, (1962) which starred Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, Vera Miles, and Lee Marvin. Pitney's strong and distinctive vocal performance of the Burt Bacharach and Hal David song told the story almost as well as the movie itself. Although it was a certified Top 10 hit for Pitney, it was never used in the movie due to a publishing squabble between Famous Music and Paramount Pictures. A theatrical trailer included with a DVD release mentions a forthcoming title track, but not by name.

His 1963 hit, "Mecca," is considered by some to be a precursor to psychedelia in its use of Indian musical influences, two years before The Beatles began incorporating these influences. The use of exotic musical instruments became something of a Pitney trademark, judging by the Mariachi trumpets employed in "Lonely Drifters," the ukuleles in "Hawaii," and the gypsy fiddle in "Golden Earrings." The [Jagger-Richard] song, "That Girl Belongs to Yesterday," which became a hit for him, was the first Rolling Stones song to be a success in the United States, and it was partly Pitney's endorsement of the group which helped them to find favor in America. He was in the studio in England with the Stones on some of their earlier recording sessions, including those which resulted in both sides of their first Top 10 single "Not Fade Away" and their debut album, apparently playing piano, though the extent to which his contributions and those of "Uncle" Phil Spector were used is uncertain. His ongoing popularity in the UK market was ensured by the chart success of "Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa" at the end of 1963.

Pitney released an unbroken string of hit singles in the early 1960s, with the unrequited love classic "It Hurts To Be in Love" and "I'm Gonna Be Strong" in 1964, and "Nobody Needs Your Love" in 1966 (the first two were top 10 in the US; the last two peaked at No. 2 in the UK). He and Orbison were practically the only American soloists to withstand the British Invasion, both displaying an astounding vocal range. Pitney maintained a successful career in Britain and the rest of Europe. Pitney decided to spend six months of each year on the road, and the remainder with the Rockville sweetheart he married, and his three young sons. One of the few star performers to have survived the 1960s unscathed, his fitness regime built the stamina he required for his singularly dithyrambic stage act. Pitney's last American top 40 hit was "She's a Heartbreaker" (1968). Pitney last hit the UK charts after an absence of fifteen years with 1989's duet with Marc Almond, a new version of "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart," a song by British writers Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway, which had originally been a No. 5 solo hit for Pitney in 1967, and which belatedly brought him his first UK Number 1 hit, staying there for four weeks. Sales were boosted particularly by the two vocalists' appearance on the Terry Wogan TV show as it was climbing the charts. Pitney's US record company declined to issue the record in America on the grounds that buyers would mistake it for a vocal duet by two gay men, Almond being leather-clad as usual, and Pitney dressed in a white tuxedo.

Pitney also recorded songs in Italian and Spanish, and twice finished second in the Sanremo Music Festival, where his strong vibrato may have reminded older listeners of the Italian tenor Caruso. He had a regional hit with "Nessuno Mi Puo' Giudicare." [1]

In 2002, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His vocal timbre and phrasing clearly influenced the young David Bowie–just compare Pitney's rendering of "I'm Gonna Be Strong" and "Half Heaven, Half Heartache" to Bowie's vocals on "Changes" and "Lady Stardust," for instance. Pitney's vocal power fit his producer Phil Spector's famous Wall of Sound like hand in glove, and his melodramatic celebration of teenage life in a nutshell seems to have stood the test of time rather better than the pretentious concept albums of the Swinging Sixties. (see challenge to this in Discussion)

Pitney died on April 5, 2006 at the age of 66. He was found dead by his tour manager in the Hilton Hotel in Cardiff, Wales in the middle of a UK tour. His Final Show at Cardiff's St David's Hall was deemed a huge success, with a standing ovation. An autopsy confirmed the singer died of natural causes. [2]

He is remembered for his instantly recognisable Italianate tenor and consummate showmanship.

[edit] Selected songs written or performed by Pitney

  • "(I Wanna) Love My Life Away"
  • "Every Breath I Take"
  • "Town Without Pity" [often misprinted on Continental covers as "Down"]
  • "Hello Mary Lou"
  • "(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance"
  • "Only Love Can Break a Heart"
  • "If I Didn't Have a Dime (To Play the Jukebox)"
  • "Half Heaven - Half Heartache"
  • "Mecca"
  • "Tower Tall"
  • "True Love Never Runs Smooth"
  • "Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa" - #3 Australia
  • "That Girl Belongs to Yesterday"
  • "It Hurts to Be in Love"
  • "Lips Were Redder on You"
  • "I'm Gonna Be Strong"
  • "I Must Be Seeing Things"
  • "Last Chance to Turn Around"
  • "Looking Through the Eyes of Love"
  • "Princess in Rags"
  • "Backstage (I'm Lonely)"
  • "Nobody Needs Your Love"
  • "Just One Smile"
  • "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart"
  • "She's a Heartbreaker"
  • "Yours Until Tomorrow"
  • "24 Sycamore"
  • "Stop! in the Name of Love"

[edit] External links

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