The One I Just Left Behind
Wednesday, April 5, 2006
I’m well-aware that I’m risking alienating my core indie-rock demographic with posts like this, but I feel it necessary to mention that Gene Pitney has taken a permanent detour onto Death Street. I can’t deny my huge affinity for Pitney’s tendency toward huge, swelling, dramatic arrangements and keenly formed story songs, sung with that classically-formed warble. I’ve always put Pitney up there with Roy Orbison as the pre-Beatles exemplar of theatrical/melodramatic crooning, leading to followers like Neil Diamond and Lee Hazlewood and later, voices as varied as Chris Isaak and Jarvis Cocker. If anyone has anything from his 80s duets with Marc Almond, send it my way and I’ll put it up as well. In the meantime, here are some standards:
“A Town Without Pity” (mp3)
“24 Sycamore Street” (mp3)
“Twenty-Four Hours from Tulsa” (mp3)
(Update) “Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart” (Pitney/Marc Almond) (mp3) Thanks, Daniel!
By the way, I tend to forever associate famous people that die in temporal proximity to one another, and thus Pitney now shares a stage somewhere with Nikki Sudden and Buck Owens. What a bill. For the record, the other one I can remember offhand is Sammy Davis Jr. and Jim Henson.
Thanks so much for these posts. Pitney was such a talent; I am sad to know that he is gone.
BTW, would it be possible to check the link to “Twenty-Four Hours from Tulsa”? … it is not working for me just now.
Thanks again!
yeah..i saw the news on the bbc website this morning that he was on his way to the great gig in the sky. i always liked his stuff even though his voice was a bit dicky at times. his duet with marc almond is a killer…fantastic. i wonder who will be next..seems every other day some great icon passes over. no i don’t think i will specualte as i am kind of superstitious about that kind of thing. thanks for the tracks. i will burn a candle and warble along.
There is absolutely no — none whatsoever — reason to apologize for being a fan of Gene Pitney. The guy was simply amazing. And if some people are alienated by your paying tribute to such a great, then you’re better off without them. You don’t want to associate with those kinds of people anyway!
Link fixed! Thanks for the tip!
And he died in Wales. A fitting resting place to a great talent.
no shame in respecting the greats (and your elders like me
). Without guys like Pitney we would not have the music we have today.
Excellent post Sir!