Gene Pitney found dead in hotel

Last Updated: Wednesday, 5 April 2006, 10:42 GMT 11:42 UK

Gene Pitney found dead in hotel

Gene Pitney

Obituary: Gene Pitney
American superstar Gene Pitney has been found dead aged 65 in his bed in a Cardiff hotel.

Pitney - who found fame with Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa - was pronounced dead at the Hilton hotel at 1000 BST.

He was on a UK tour and had shown no signs of illness. The cause of death is not yet known but is not suspicious.

When I was about 14 or 15, I used to be glued to the radio, listening to the Beatles, Stones, Animals, all the great bands. But my hero, the greatest singer of them all was Gene Pitney. The first record I ever bought was a Gene Pitney 45.
The only record player available to me was a non electric wind-up 78 phonograph. It was in the external laundry of a railway house in Irymple. I would screw in the sharp needle and spin the platter by hand to an approxiamate but wavering 45 rpm, and sing my heart out!
Over the years I collected virtually every LP of his that I could get hold of, including second-hand items which he sang totally in Italian.
Since CD's came out it has been very hard to get anything but the same core songs repackaged as Best of, Greatest Hits, and the like, along with some later material.
But his 60's and 70's albums were superb, and very innovative.
Gene had a huge vocal range.His trademark was multitracked vocals, of which he was the unrivalled master. (Of course, Les Paul had done it earlier on guitar!) In live performance, Gene would sing one part, and his pianist/musical director another.
The orchestrations were lush, but exciting, with superb arrangements.
The dynamics in his songs were superb.Gene did with voice and orchestra what Cream did with a trio: start a song simply, gradually build up to a huge finish. Usually with a soaring falsetto.
There were some great guitar parts, (one of the best 60's whammy bar solos was "Lips Were Redder")and the piano solo in "Billy You're My Friend" is as good if not better than it ever got in popular music.
The songs were very carefully chosen and varied, but one of his favourite personae was the shy romantic, who either lost or never managed to get the girl. Believe me, I used to thoroughly identify with that!
Back when we all grew up with the daily fear of nuclear annihilation, he sang
"Let's put our hearts together, there's nothing we can't face,
Now hate has gone forever, and love has taken it's place".
He sang of family separation (Don't Let the neighbours know), was a seasonal worker in "Follow the sun', running off to join the circus, gave advice to a young runaway, (Fool Killer), he told us East is East and West is West, and about a town without pity (Perhaps it was Tulsa, or maybe a town 24 hours away).
Then there were his girls: Maybe Mary Lou had eyes of Cornflower blue, but Brandy was his true love's name!
There is an industry full of Elvis, Buddy, Roy, imitators. Gene was simply inimitable.
A true great, who will be sadly missed.