Gene Pitney, "Only Love Can Break a Heart", charted #2, 1962

Teen Idol - Gene Pitney

Gene Francis Alan Pitney (February 17, 1940 – April 5, 2006) was an American singer-songwriter, musician, and sound engineer.

Pitney charted 16 Top-40 hits in the United States, four in the Top 10. In the United Kingdom he had 22 Top-40 hits, and 11 singles in the Top Ten. He also wrote the early 1960s hits "Rubber Ball" recorded by Bobby Vee, "He's a Rebel" by the Crystals, and "Hello Mary Lou" by Ricky Nelson. In 2002, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Gene Francis Alan Pitney was born on February 17, 1940, in Hartford, Connecticut. The third of five children of a lathe operator, Pitney lived with his family in Rockville, Connecticut during his formative years. He grew up in Rockville, now part of Vernon, Connecticut.

Pitney’s early influences were Clyde McPhatter, country-blues singer Moon Mullican, and doo-wop groups like the Crows. He attended Rockville High School where he formed his first band, Gene & the Genials. Pitney was an avid doo wop singer and sang with a group called the Embers. He made records as part of a duo called Jamie and Jane with Ginny Arnell (who in late 1963 had a solo hit, "Dumb Head"), and in 1959 recorded a single as Billy Bryan.

Signed to songwriter Aaron Schroeder's newly formed Musicor label in 1961, Pitney scored his first chart single, which made the Top 40, the self-penned "(I Wanna) Love My Life Away," on which he played several instruments and multi-tracked the vocals. He followed that same year with his first Top 20 single, the title song from the 1961 Kirk Douglas United Artists film Town Without Pity. Written by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington, the song won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song, but lost the award to "Moon River". Pitney performed the song at the Oscars ceremony on April 9, 1962.

Pitney is also remembered for the Burt Bacharach–Hal David song "(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance", which peaked at No. 4 in 1962. Though it shares a title with the John Wayne western, the song was not used in the film because of a publishing dispute. That same year "Only Love Can Break a Heart" became his highest charting song in the US at No. 2, followed in December by "Half Heaven, Half Heartache", which reached No. 12 on the Billboard chart.

Because of his success on the music charts, and as Pitney explained to his friend Oldies DJ “Wild” Wayne, an unknown radio disc jockey at the time dubbed him with the nickname “The Rockville Rocket,” which caught on.

Meanwhile, Pitney wrote hits for others, including "He's a Rebel" for the Crystals (later covered by Vikki Carr and Elkie Brooks), "Today's Teardrops" for Roy Orbison, "Rubber Ball" for Bobby Vee, and "Hello Mary Lou" for Ricky Nelson. The Crystals' version of "He's A Rebel" kept Pitney's own No. 2 hit "Only Love Can Break a Heart," his highest-charting single in the U.S., from the top spot, the only time that a writer shut himself (or herself) out of #1.

His popularity in the UK market was ensured by the breakthrough success of "Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa," a Bacharach and David song, which peaked at No. 5 in Britain at the start of 1964. It was only Pitney's third single release in the UK to reach the singles chart, and the first to break into the Top Twenty there; it was also a hit in the U.S, peaking at No. 17 on the Hot 100.

After another low-charting single, 1964's "Yesterday's Hero", Pitney rebounded with another string of hits in the mid-1960s, including the 1964 singles "It Hurts to Be in Love" and "I'm Gonna Be Strong", which reached No. 7 and No. 9, respectively, in the U.S., and 1966's "Nobody Needs Your Love", which peaked at No. 2 in the UK, matching the No. 2 UK peak of "I'm Gonna Be Strong". "It Hurts to Be in Love" had been planned for and recorded by Neil Sedaka, but RCA refused to release it because Sedaka had recorded the song outside RCA Victor in violation of his contract. The writers, Howard Greenfield and Helen Miller, presented the song to Pitney. Miller replaced Sedaka's voice with Pitney's, though Sedaka's trademark backing harmonies were left intact.

 

"Half Heaven Half Heartache", charted #12, 1962

"It Hurts To Be In Love", charted #7, 1964

 

 

 

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