Gene Pitney
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Biography
Gene Pitney's emotional voice and extensive range made him one of America's biggest pop stars of the 1960s specialising in big, dramatic, heartbreaking ballads like "24 Hours from Tulsa" and "I'm Gonna Be Strong" - though he was also a talented songwriter too. Born and raised in Connecticut (Hartford, 17 February 1940), Gene Francis Alan Pitney formed his first band Gene & the Genials while still at school, before forming a duo Jamie & Jame (with Ginny Arnell) and in 1959 recorded under the name Billy Bryan. He wrote, played various instruments and sang multi-tracked vocals on his first hit "(I Wanna) Love My Life Away" in 1961, then had a major breakthrough with the title song from the film Town Without Pity, which won a Golden Globe Award. In 1962 he had an even bigger hit with the Bacharach-David song "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", while his own songs "He's A Rebel", "Today's Teardrops", "Rubber Ball" and "Hello Mary Lou" became major hits for the Crystals, Roy Orbison, Bobby Vee and Ricky Nelson respectively. Ironically, Gene Pitney's version of Bacharach/David's "Only Love Can Break a Heart" was kept off the Number 1 spot by the Crystals' version of one of his own songs, "He's a Rebel". He had a worldwide smash with another Bacharach/David song "24 Hours from Tulsa", followed by a succession of major hits, including "That Girl Belongs to Yesterday", "It Hurts to Be in Love", "I'm Gonna Be Strong", "Backstage" and "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart" (which he re-recorded in a 1989 chart-topper with Marc Almond). Gene Pitney played piano on the first Rolling Stones album and duetted with George Jones and Melba Montgomery and remained popular into the 2000s until his sudden death from heart disease in a Cardiff hotel room following a successful concert at St David's Hall on 5 April 2006.
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Albums
Top Tracks
- Track Popularity
- Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa
- Half Heaven ? Half Heartache
- I Should Try to Forget (But I Keep Forgetting to Try)
- Quando vedrai la mia ragazza
- Cry Your Eyes Out
- Resta Sempre Accan to a Me
- Vorrei Capire Perche
- Foglie Morte (Autumn Leaves)
- Non Lasciamoci
- E Quando Viene la Notte
- I'm Going Back to My Love
- Going to Church on Sunday
- I'm Gonna Listen To Me
- If Mary's There
- One Day
- She's Still There
- I'm No Longer In Your Heart
- Happy You, Lonely Me
- I Lost Tomorrow (Yesterday)
- Remind My Baby Of Me
- Autumn Leaves
- Lonely Night Dreams
- How Can I Keep from Loving You
- Answer Me My Love
