Gene Pitney – Legend Who Had It All

By David Parker

Gene Pitney, the singing genius who was perfect…

That wonderful pop singer, songwriter, and musician Gene Pitney was amazing.

He had many hits in many different countries as a singer, and he wrote superb songs that were giant hits for other singers and groups. As a musician, he was brilliant on the guitar, piano, and drums.

Gene was born on February 17, 1940, in Hartford, Connecticut, USA. His full name was Gene Francis Alan Pitney and he was the third of five children whose mother was Anna, and father Harold. Gene lived and grew up with his family in Rockville, Connecticut. Rockville was a small New England village, which nestles in the valley, east of Hartford. He attended Rockville High School where he formed his own first amateur band called Gene and The Genials.

He also sang with a group called The Embers. Gene loved singing doo-wop songs and in 1959, aged only 19, he began recording as part of a duo named Jamie and Jane (Gene was Jamie and Ginny Arnell was Jane). Later in that same year, Pitney recorded a solo single using the name Billy Bryan. But his initial success began as a songwriter in 1960/61 and he provided hits for the Kalin Twins (“Loneliness”), Roy Orbison (“Today’s Teardrops”), Bobby Vee (“Rubber Ball”), Ricky Nelson (“Hello Mary Lou”), but other performers also did his songs.

In 1962, a song Gene wrote for The Crystals (“He’s A Rebel”) reached No.1 in America. In 1961, under his own singing name Gene Pitney, he recorded a demo disc of a song entitled “I Want To Love My Life Away”, written by himself. This demo disc was accepted by the Musicor label and it became Gene’s first-ever single to make the charts.

Musicor, a newly-formed company, was owned by Aaron Schroeder who had started preparing Gene for a great and long career as a songwriter and soon afterwards as a performing singing artiste. Also, later in 1961, Gene had a USA Top 20 single that sold eventually a million copies titled “Only Love Can Break A Heart”, followed up in 1962 by “Town Without Pity”, which also made the Top 20.

That song was from the film of the same name and at the Academy Awards in 1962, Gene performed it and became the first pop artist ever to do something like that. That hit song “Town Without Pity” received the Golden Globe’s award as the Best Song. He had started performing in 1959, but the 5ft 10ins, brown-haired, hazel-eyed, 10 stone 10lb Gene Pitney had, in 1961, really made a name for himself as a star in America. Soon after, he became a star in many other countries, including Great Britain and then he soon became worldwide famous.

He had an amazing voice range and could sing any style of song. So, following his initial breakthrough, he had an unbroken sequence of hits everywhere: “Town Without Pity”,”Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa”, ”That Girl Belongs To Yesterday”, ”It Hurts To Be In Love”, “I’m Gonna Be Strong”,”Backstage” and many more! Gene regularly had many great hits in America, and in late 1963, he had his first giant British hit that reached No. 5 entitled: “Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa”,written by Bacharach/David. That established him as a real pop idol in Great Britain, and so for many years he was a great, popular and true star, while still having his amazing run of hits in America.

Everything he was doing was totally unique! Gene eventually had 21 hits in Britain as a solo pop singer, starting in early 1961 with “I Wanna Love My Life Away” and ending in late 1974 with “Blue Angel”. He also had, of course, some successful LP albums.

In the USA, he eventually had 16 Top 40 hits with quite a few million-sellers. In Europe, he was also, of course, a big name especially in Italy, Spain, and Germany, where he recorded many of his songs, especially in their languages.

In March,1964, Gene was present alongside Phil Spector at some of the early recording sessions by top group The Rolling Stones, for their first-ever album, made in London, featuring 12 tracks on the United Artists label. Gene had become a good friend of The Stones a year earlier when he was in England doing a tour. So Gene sat in on the recordings. He played piano on a couple of the tracks that included “Little By Little” and “Not Fade Away”. The Rolling Stones really liked Gene, so Mick Jagger and Keith Richard wrote a song for him called “That Girl Belongs To Yesterday”, which was released as a single by Gene. This became the first song composed by Jagger/Richard to have ever charted in the USA and also the first to hit the Top 10 in the UK, peaking at No.7 in March,1964. From 1961 until 1968, Gene was one of the most successful male solo pop singers in his own country, America. He had his final US Top 20 hit in 1968 with: “She’s A Heartbreaker” which reached the Top 40 in Great Britain a few years later, in 1974. Back in 1962 , Gene had done his first tour of Great Britain, helped by him having a hit in the charts called: “Town Without Pity”.

In 1963, he was back in Britain for another big tour, plus some television appearances, his popularity all helped by his big smash hit: “Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa”. Gene Pitney became one of that very small group of top American pop stars who became an almost permanent part of the British pop scene.

In late 1962, British beat groups started to dominate the pop music scene and also the hit parade. Gene, being a “loner”, figured that if you can’t beat them, join them! So, soon after, he started to get mixed up with a few beat groups, including of course, The Rolling Stones. That’s what got him to become such good pals with them.

Gene withstood the initial onslaught of the British Invasion, quite well and even though in about 1968 he was getting into serious pop music trouble in America, in England it was easier for him. He had become a much bigger star GB, making the UK Top 10 six times in 1965-66. In 1965, Gene recorded two successful albums with country singer George Jones. Together, they were voted the most promising country-and-western duo of the year.

In January 1966, Gene landed firmly in the finals of the big yearly International San Remo Music Festival in Italy. His lady singing partner in this amazing competition was Caterina Caselli and they both sang separately, in the Italian language the song: “Nessuno Mi Puo Giudicare.” It became the runner-up in the giant music festival final that contained 14 songs. The tremendous final was watched by a big audience at the San Remo Casino, and on TV, 250 million viewers all over the world saw it. Thanks to this, Gene became an ever more huge star in some lands, especially in Italy.

Gene Pitney had, of course, hundreds of show-biz friends, one of them was the singer originally from Texas, P J Proby. He was also a contestant in the 1966 San Remo Song Festival and P J’s singing partner was the famous Italian opera singer Giuseppe Di Stefano. Sadly those two special singers did not reach the final. The song is sung by Gene in Italian, that got him second place, translated into English as “Nobody Can Judge Me”.

His partner Caterina’s Italian version was released soon afterward as a single and reached No.1 in the Top 10 of Italy. Gene’s version, also sung in Italian, reached No.8 in the charts at the same time and was a big seller.

If you want to hear it sung by Gene, go to YouTube, you’ll see the performance at San Remo on-stage 54 years ago. The following year,in January 1967, Gene entered the popular Italian song festival for the second time, and once more he reached the final. He sang a song called “La Rivoluzione” with his new partner for 1967, a girl called Gianni Pettenati. Translated into English it was called “The Revolution”.

This time he and his singing partner came 13th. Gene once more sang well in a strong vibrato voice and it made his Italian stardom even bigger, so much so that he was even asked to do his own TV show in Rome. While still in San Remo, Italy, in early 1967, this time Gene, aged 26, was accompanied by Lynne Gayton, his American lady partner, aged 25, who used to be his childhood sweetheart. They were in love and decided to marry right then while in San Remo. Later, when back home in America, they had three different places where they lived together: a house in Rockville, Connecticut, an apartment in New York, and also a place in Miami, Florida. No problems for Gene to get those places…..for quite a few years he had easily been a musical millionaire! Later on, Gene and Lynne had three sons, Todd, Chris and David.

In 1989, amazingly and unexpectedly Gene, after not being in the UK charts for 15 years, was back in the Top 10, when he and Marc Almond recorded with each other a duet version of “Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart”, written by Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway. As we know, this song had been a UK No.5 for Pitney in late 1967. The new duet, recorded in late 1988, brought Gene his first British No.1 in late January, 1989. It remained at the top for four weeks and reached No.1 in Germany, Switzerland, Ireland and Finland. Gene and Marc appeared together singing this giant hit on many British TV shows. In 2000, Pitney sang harmony vocals with American singer Jane Olivor’s recording, of his own 1962 hit: “Half Heaven -Half Heartache”, released on her “comeback” album titled “Love Decides”.

In 2001, Gene was inducted into the Rockville High School Wall of Fame. On March 18, 2002, Pitney was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I had seen Gene a couple of times in the mid-1970s at nightclubs in my hometown of Birmingham. He was fantastic on stage and in great form doing his 90-minute act, and his chatting to the audience was brilliant, as were his dedications. The whole audience was enthusiastic and they really enjoyed it.

Sadly and very unexpectedly, Gene, while doing a big, annual tour all over Great Britain in the Spring of 2006, passed away. On that tour, he was receiving great show reviews. His manager had found him dead in his hotel room in Cardiff, Wales, while he was midway through his tour. He had not shown any signs of illness at all. An autopsy found the cause of his death, at the early age of 66, to be a heart attack.

His final big show was seen by a packed theatre at St David’s Hall, Cardiff, which had earned him a standing ovation, after he performed his closing song: “Town Without Pity”. Gene Pitney’s body was transported back home to Connecticut, America, on behalf of his shocked and terribly sad widow Lynne and his three grieving sons. Gene was buried in Rockville, Connecticut, the USA at the Somers Cemetery. Many of Gene’s family and friends were deeply saddened by the unexpected death of this great and very special US singer. I’ll tell you all about a very special slow ballad song written by Weil/Mann for Gene and recorded by him in 1966. It was entitled “Angelica”.

One of Gene’s very many show-biz pals P J Proby was so shocked to hear that Gene had passed away in 2006, so about a year after, Proby, who was doing an Easter show in Blackpool, England, in April 2007, sang “Angelica” on-stage “live” as a wonderful tribute to the late, great Gene Pitney. P J always had loved this song, as did the Proby fans in Blackpool. After Gene had originally recorded it in 1966, P J also decided he wanted to sing it and put on his own latest LP called “Enigma” soon after.

Gene Pitney was a real, true, special, and unique singer, songwriter, and musician. He’s a never-to-be-forgotten LEGEND!