Gene Pitney
Gene Pitney ( born February 17, 1940 in Hartford, Connecticut; † 5 April 2006 in Cardiff ) was a American singer and songwriter.
Musical career
At the beginning of his musical career, Pitney appeared under various pseudonyms, so in 1958 as Jamie & Jane with Ginny Arnell and solo in 1959 as Billy Bryan. He wrote hits for other artists, such as Today's Teardrops for Roy Orbison, Hello Mary Lou for Ricky Nelson, Rubber Ball ( sung among others by Bobby Vee ) and He's a Rebel for the Crystals. Pitney was a tenor with a distinctive voice and therefore with a high recognition value.
From 1961, he worked with the songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David. This led to his first single (I Wanna ) Love My Life Away and in the same year, Pitney had with the title song of the film Town Without Pity (German: " Town Without Pity "), his breakthrough. This song was honored as Best Song in a Motion Picture Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Oscar, a German language version of the song took on Pitney also - Stay With Me. Early 60s took Pitney Country Duets, inter alia, with George Jones and Melba Montgomery. Very Pitney is also known by the song The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance to the same Western ( 1962, directed by John Ford, starring John Wayne and James Stewart).
In the early 1960s, Gene Pitney had a number of hits, but could oppose in the U.S., the so-called British Invasion little after 1964. However, he remained quite successful in England and the rest of Europe. So it was with Nessuno mi può giudicare together with Caterina Caselli second in the Sanremo Festival in 1966 and sold them in Italy alone 500,000 plates. His last American hit was She's a Heartbreaker (1968), while its last and the largest success in the British charts Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart (1989 ), was a re-recording of his solo hits from 1967, this time as a duet with Marc Almond. The single took the two first places in the charts in the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland and Belgium; in the UK and Germany the title was awarded a gold record.
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
Pitney had given a concert in St. David's Hall in Cardiff on 4 April 2006. The next morning he was found dead in the hotel. Pitney was, according to his tour manager James Kelly fully dressed on his bed and fell asleep apparently peaceful.