This site is dedicated to the life and music of Gene Pitney.
Gene Francis Pitney was born in Hartford, Connecticut on February 17th 1940. 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.
Pitney was the first pop singer to perform at the Oscars, singing "Town Without Pity" at the 34th Annual Academy Awards on April 9, 1962.
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."
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.
GENE PITNEY 1940-2006 RIP
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