Gene Pitney passed away earlier this week...

He was a Connecticut native, born in 1941, who had his greatest success & popularity in Britain, travelling their after his first self penned hit in 1961. It hit #26 on the UK singles chart & just broke into the top 40 in the US.

Gene Pitney - I Wanna Love My Life Away

His early music is reminiscient of his contemporaries like Buddy Holly, Neil Sedaka & serves as an audio time capsule of a more innocent time.

Gene Pitney - Yesterday's Hero

Incidentally track was written by Vanda & Young circa 1964... Harry Vanda & George Young are actually a Scotsman & a Dutchman who became Australias best known songwriting duo, who scored some hits with their Sixties group the Easybeats. Most notably was Friday On My Mind, which has been covered by David Bowie, Peter Frampton, Gary Moore, and even Richie Scarlet, whose version I posted last week ... Anyhow, I digress as usual... Maybe we'll have to cover the Vnda & Young saga in greater detail since their streak includes ties to AC/DC , Flash & The Pan, Rose Tattoo, Inxs and numerous other groups over the years...

Gene was a Brill Building songwriter who even before his singing career took off, had written one of Ricky Nelson's biggest hits "Hello Mary Lou". He had been helped out initially by Burt Bacharach & Hal David, and later recorded some of their songs which became big hits like "The Man ho Shot Liberty Valance" and the classic "Only Love Can Break A Heart" which hit #2 in the US. At the time his recording was #2, he had written the number 1 song that week , "He's A Rebel" A Phil Spector production , recorded by The Crystals. All in all Pitney himself recorded 16 top 40 songs in the US from 1961 to 1968.



Gene's biggest popularity was in England, where he used the Rolling Stones publicist Andrew Loog Oldham to get his fame established, which has lasted there to this day. In the UK, Gene had 40 top-40 hits through 1974. He finally hit #1 in the UK in 1990, performing a duet with Marc Almond of Soft Cell. Pitney died on tour, reportedly of "natural causes", while fully clothed on his bed at a Hilton Hotel in Cardiff , shortly after performing a concert.



uh... anyway my weekend is starting & I just wanted to stop by & throw some Gene at ya...

which I did...

and now I feel like I can go...

& as long as Libby is squealing like a stuck capitalist pig...

here's sumpin' extra for ya...











Green Lantern w/ Dead Prez & Immortal Technique- Impeach The President

& if that's too nasty to play for your Mom...hey, maybe try the "clean" version

Green Lantern w/ Dead Prez - Impeach The President ( Clean Version )