Gene Pitney 's highest rated American 45
(ONLY LOVE CAN BREAK A HEART - #2) was not released with a picture sleeve. Pitney 's
second album, GENE PITNEY Only Love Can Break A Heart , was released with a picture of
Gene Pitney on the cover. Gene Pitney would go on to release more than twenty-five albums
in the United States alone. Gene released hundreds of albums and CDs all over the world,
including The United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Italy, France, Japan, and
other countries throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. |
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Gene
Pitney , Burt Bacharach , Hal David , Aaron Schroeder , Phil Spector |
| After Gene
Pitney recorded the Bacharach / David hit song , The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance , Burt
Bacharach and Hal David composed Gene Pitney 's highest rated US song . ONLY LOVE CAN
BREAK A HEART started with Gene whistling the beginning. Gene 's mother, Anna Orlowski
Pitney , was a world class whistler and Gene learned the craft from his mother. The rest
of the song was pure Bacharach / David genius. Only Love Can Break A Heart peaked at #2
two weeks in a row, stopped by Gene Pitney 's own composition, He's A Rebel , which was
released by Phil Spector . |
| Gene Pitney
's next release, his third Bacharach / David song was Half Heaven - Half Heartache which
peaked at #12. Gene 's next release, his fourth Bacharach / David song , was 24 HOURS FROM
TULSA . The combination of Aaron Schroeder 's personality and the power of Dionne Warwick
's singing , pushed Burt Bacharach and Hal David into a professional relationship with
Dionne for years. Gene Pitney brought 24 Hours From Tulsa on tour through the United
Kingdom . Pitney went to Britain with Phil Spector , who introduced Gene to a fledgling
band called the Rolling Stones . Although Burt Bacharach and Hal David stopped writing
songs for Gene , Mick Jagger and Keith Richards sent Gene back to the States with his next
hit, That Girl Belongs to Yesterday . Therafter numerous UK composers and other American
composers put Pitney 's career back on track with one international hit after another.
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Gene Pitney used his final Bacharach /
David release, 24 HOURS FROM TULSA , to propel his career from national to international
superstar. In late 1963 Gene toured Britain with 24 Hours From Tulsa as his theme song .
The song was already a hit in the UK and hit unique powerful voice and portrayal of
emotional agony for a man was a great change for the British Rock 'n' Roller who was used
to the mercy beat and needed a change from doo wop and songs from the era of Elvis
Presley. Gene fulfilled their need and the Pitney name was known throughout the country
since Waterloo and Trafalgar. |
