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Gene Pitney: 1941 - 2006

Gene Pitney was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1941. He formed a band at Rockville High School, where he was a student then headed for New York City.

In the late 50's, Gene recorded under different names until 1960 when he recorded as himself for Festival. He was classed as an ambitious young song writer and formed alliances with veteran Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

In 1962 Gene rcorded a song for a film called Town Without Pity. The song, also entitled “Town Without Pity”, was to be Gene's breakthrough hit. The record buying public went mad and the song was a smash hit.

Gene made it big in the 60's with many songs including his biggest hit ever – Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa. He co-wrote songs, which were also big hits, for Ricky Nelson - “Hello Mary Lou”, Bobby Vee - “Rubber Ball”, Roy Orbison - “Today's Teardrops” to name but a few.

Gene became a big star in the United States, but was even bigger in the United Kingdom. He shared his publicist, Andrew Loog Oldham, with the Rolling Stones. He recorded a song written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards which went to number seven in the UK charts.

Gene had over forty top forty hits in the UK, his last being in 1989, a re-release of “Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart”. He sang the song as a duet with Marc Almond, which made number one.

Sadly, Gene was found dead on Tuesday April 4 th , halfway through a 23-date UK tour, in a hotel room in Cardiff. His death is not said to be suspicious but has caused great sadness to his many fans.

Article written by Tracey Aldous