- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- Gene Pitney has one of the most distinguishing voices of any singer in the 1960’s, and he used it to create a series of melodramatic and theatrical ballads.
Gene Pitney – Gene Pitney’s Greatest Hits (1967): Also known as Gene Pitney’s Greatest Hits of All Times, my copy of Gene Pitney’s Greatest Hits was made in Taiwan on the First Records label; and it even has orange-colored vinyl – rather unusual for the 1960’s. Gene Pitney has one of the most distinguishing voices of any singer in the 1960’s, and he used it to create a series of melodramatic and even theatrical ballads like “Town Without Pity”, “Only Love Can Break a Heart”, “Looking through the Eyes of Love”, “Last Chance to Turn Around”, “Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa”, and “(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance”. Gene Pitney is a fine songwriter and began his music career by penning “Hello Mary Lou” in 1961, one of Ricky Nelson’s most memorable hit songs; he also wrote “He’s a Rebel” for the Crystals.
He is more adventurous than most people give him credit for: Gene Pitney wrote, sang and played every instrument on his first single, a minor hit called “(I Wanna) Love My Life Away”, almost unheard of in 1961. Before the Rolling Stones had even made the Top 100 in the U.S., Gene Pitney was the first American artist to record a Mick Jagger/Keith Richards song, “That Girl Belongs to Yesterday”; and he contributed to a Rolling Stones recording session in early 1964. Gene Pitney was one of the few American vocalists who had hit songs during the British Invasion, with “I’m Gonna be Strong” and “It Hurts to be in Love” being Top Ten U.S. hits in 1964. By 1966, Gene Pitney was more popular in England than in America, having made the U.K. Top Ten six times in 1965 and 1966. He also frequently recorded songs in Spanish and Italian for the European market. Several of Gene Pitney’s hit songs were early Burt Bacharach/Hal David compositions, such as “Liberty Valance”, considered to be one of the greatest Western songs of all time. That side of the songwriting duo is not well known, although their first hit song was “The Story of My Life”, a 1957 record by country and western musician Marty Robbins.