Gene Pitney's Successful Career

Some of the bands and singers I’ve already written about you probably already knew or had heard about. I don’t blame you if now you’re thinking who? Well this very talented gentleman known as Gene Pitney was an American singer, songwriter, musician and sound engineer. He had a very successful career both in the U.S. and in the U.K. in the 60s. In the U.S. Pitney scored with 16 Top 40 hits and had four in the Top 10. In the U.K. he did even better scoring 22 Top 40 hits and in the Top Ten 11. He wrote a number of hits which became great successes for other artists in the 60s like “Rubber Ball” for Bobby Vee, “He’s a Rebel” by The Crystals, and “Hello Mary Lou” by Ricky Nelson. Pitney was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

Pitney was also fluent in other languages and recorded songs in German, Spanish, and Italian. He came in second two times in Italy’s yearly Sanremo Music Festival.

By the time the 60s were coming to an end Pitney scored one last hit in the U.S. with “She’s a Heartbreaker”. His career continued to be successful in the U.K. and elsewhere in Europe. In Australia he scored two hits in 1974 “Blue Angel” and “Trans-Canada Highway”. Other hits followed like “Down This Road”.

Pitney’s last hit in the U.K. was in 1969 which was a duet with Marc Almond titled “Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart”. It hit number one on the U.K. charts and remained at the top for four weeks. He gave a performance in New York in February of 1993 at Carnegie Hall. Pitney was on tour in the U.K. and performing in Cardiff, Wales when his tour manager found him dead in his hotel room at the Hilton on April 5, 2006. He had ended his show at Cardiff’s St. David’s Hall with a standing ovation and this had become his very final