Post by Rhonda on Apr 6, 2006 5:20:06 GMT -5
Singer Gene Pitney dies on tour in Cardiff
Singer Gene Pitney dies on tour in Cardiff
Wed Apr 5, 2006 2:50 PM BST
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LONDON (Reuters) - American singer Gene Pitney, who shot to fame in the 1960s with hits including "24 Hours from Tulsa", has died while on tour in Cardiff, his agent said on Wednesday.
Jene Levy said Pitney, 65, was found dead on Wednesday morning in the Welsh capital, where he had given a concert the previous night that won him a standing ovation.
There was no immediate word on the cause of death.
South Wales police said they had been called to a hotel on Wednesday morning and that the death was not being treated as suspicious.
Pitney, who had a string of hit records as well as writing songs recorded by other stars, toured regularly throughout his long career and was in the middle of a 23-show tour of Britain.
Pitney's agent said his wife Lynne had been told of his death. Pitney is also survived by three sons: David, Todd and Chris.
Tour manager James Kelly was with Pitney on Tuesday night and said he was stunned by the singer's death.
"I've never seen him so well, he said. "He was absolutely buzzing and full of life."
He said Pitney had been found fully clothed on his hotel bed as if he had just lain down for a rest after the show.
Born on February 17, 1941 in Hartford, Connecticut, Pitney initially had no real ambition to be a singer. According to his official Web site, as a boy he was more at home collecting stamps and coins, trapping mink and muskrat and experimenting with electronics.
But music gradually began to take over his life and he formed a band while a student at Rockville High School.
After high school, Pitney teamed up with singer Ginny Arnell and recorded for Decca as Jamie & June.
His initial successes came when other musicians recorded his songs and he concentrated on writing rather than performing.
CHART SUCCESS
Roy Orbison released "Today's Teardrops" as the B-side of his hit single "Blue Angel" in 1960, while "Rubber Ball" became a million-seller hit for American artist Bobby Vee and Britain's Marty Wilde.
Pitney then began to record his own songs, working with producer Phil Spector and scoring his first American top 20 hit with the title song from the movie "Town Without Pity".
Another movie theme, "The Man who Shot Liberty Valance" gave him another hit but it was the 1963 release of "24 Hours from Tulsa" that brought him worldwide fame.
Pitney became friendly with the Rolling Stones and his endorsement of the British rock group in the United States is credited with helping them break through there.
Stones' stars Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote "That Girl Belongs to Yesterday," which was a hit for Pitney on both sides of the Atlantic.
Pitney had 16 top 40 songs in the United States from 1961 to 1968, and 40 hit songs in Britain up to 1974.
He enjoyed a revival in Britain in 1990 when his duet with Marc Almond "Something's Gotten Hold of my Heart" reached number one.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
This image dated March 28, 1966, shows singer Gene Pitney. (AP Photo/PA)
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OBITUARY
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Last Updated: Wednesday, 5 April 2006, 10:49 GMT 11:49 UK
Gene Pitney went from being a successful songwriter for other acts to become a major international pop star in his own right.
He enjoyed more than 20 hits, including songs like Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa and Something's Gotten Hold of my Heart.
With an unmistakeable singing voice, at once plaintive and melodramatic, Gene Pitney had hits on both sides of the Atlantic.
A friend of The Rolling Stones, Phil Spector and Burt Bacharach, Pitney was also a noted songwriter.
He was born on 17 February 1941 in Hartford Connecticut and soon gained a reputation as a musician while studying at the nearby Rockville High School, where he earned the nickname the Rockville Rocket.
But his early flirtation as a performer initially failed to lead to anything bigger. Undaunted, Pitney moved to New York, where he worked as a songwriter at the fabled Brill Building alongside titans like Carole King, Gerry Goffin and Doc Pomus.
Success
Success was not slow to come, and he was soon penning hits like Rubber Ball for Bobby Vee and Ricky Nelson's Hello Mary Lou.
By 1961, when The Crystals' He's a Rebel gave Pitney his first US No 1 hit as a writer, he was a star in his own right.
But Pitney's career was anything if predictable. After his own successful 1961 single, (I Wanna) Love My Life Away, he was approached by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.
They co-wrote three of his best known hits, Only Love Can Break a Heart, (The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance and the classic 24 Hours from Tulsa.
Duetting with Marc Almond in 1989
Together with songs like Town Without Pity and Half Heaven-Half Heartache, they constituted a formidable range of work.
Pitney also enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with country music legend George Jones, with whom he recorded an album of duets.
And, in 1964, he met The Rolling Stones, whose then manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, was his publicist - and recorded the Jagger-Richards composition That Girl Belongs to Yesterday
Always more popular in the UK than America, Pitney also made his mark in Italy, Spain and Germany.
More recently, he could be found duetting with Marc Almond on an 1989 version of Something's Gotten Hold of my Heart which gave him his only UK No 1 hit.
Pitney later reflected: "Musically I got along perfect with Marc. The video in the middle of the desert, with me in the white tux and him in the leather, that was great."
"When the power of love becomes stronger than the love of power, we will have peace."
Jimi Hendrix
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