Gene Pitney – 20 Greatest Hits

Back in the days when I was working in a printing plant, one of the worst things about the job was the radio. In a job that was mostly manual work, there was always a radio on in the background – a low quality, AM radio set up in the shop window, never blaring (it was too poor quality to let it blare), but always on. The channel it was set to was usually determined by the most senior person working. Most of the time it was set to an oldies station – even as much of a fan of ’60s music as I was at the time, I got so very, very tired of hearing the same damn songs over and over and over. It made me hate a lot of songs. But it did introduce me to some artists that I probably wouldn’t have heard of otherwise. I’d grown up knowing of The Beatles, The Byrds, the Rolling Stones, so there were no surprises there. But I didn’t know much of the more ’50s era stuff, and I didn’t have any familiarity with Gene Pitney until I heard his songs on that tinny radio.

Sometimes, I just had to decide that I liked an artist or particular songs just to keep from going crazy. Most ’50s and early ’60s style music just didn’t turn me on – in fact, I couldn’t stand to listen to it – so if there was something that stood out in some way, I would latch onto it. I think that was the case with Gene Pitney, who had a career that paralleled the British Invasion but was still very solidly in the pre-beat era. Still, in a sea of boring Elvis Presley tunes, there was something about Pitney that stood out and I would welcome his songs when they came on as a respite from what was otherwise more annoying than enjoyable.

Now, Gene Pitney was some pretty square music – whether his own songs or those he got from others. For others, he wrote “Rubber Ball,” “Hello Mary Lou,” and “He’s a Rebel.” That isn’t cutting edge stuff. But there’s no denying he had a unique voice that particularly suited certain songs that were very big hits.

There’s something epic about “Last Chance to Turn Around” (which I always think is called “Last Exit to Brooklyn,” which is the line that precedes the title line). There’s also something epic about “Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa.” He does a great pop turn on “It Hurts To Be in Love,” and delivers a ’50s classic in “Town Without Pity.” I don’t love everything he does, and much of it is not my primary style, but there’s just enough spark there that at some point, I felt the need to add this to my collection. I think I got this around 1981. It does not get much play, I can tell you that.

The greatest Gene Pitney song, I must say, isn’t on this collection. In 1967, Pitney released a Greenaway/Cook song called “Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart.” It hit #5 in the UK but did nothing in the US, which may be why it was left off this collection. However, in 1989, Marc Almond (as I’ve noted before, one of my all-time favorite singers) recorded a duet of the song with Gene Pitney, bringing Pitney back into the spotlight and producing an absolutely soaring version of the song. I can’t recommend it enough. It won’t embed, but you can watch it here:

https://youtu.be/I8ZIErShjw0?si=YRQzdhIz1YnQmyXs