Talk:Gene Pitney

Comment
No mention of his highschool band "The Embers" He wrote many of their finest songs, such as the beautiful "Darkness." Keeley

Comment
Discussion point: It seems to me that Gene Pitney was actually one of the few American singers to survive the British invasion of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. He had an unbroken string of hits during that so-called invasion, and he certainly was responsible for introducing the latter to the American public, befriended them and played on their first album. Most British bands had the greatest respect for Pitney, considering him a consummate performer, arranger and engineering whizz-kid, so the intense rivalry between British and US artists was exaggerated by the media, though it's true that The Beach Boys refused to talk to The Kinks (see "X-Ray" by Ray Davies). Cheers, everybody! 202.150.34.8 07:16, 31 March 2006 (UTC) Frank

Personal Life?
There's nothing known about his personal life? If he were married and who he was married to, and if he has children? If he were gay, and so forth? There must be something somewhere?

Pitney's sexuality was well-known but not acknowledged because of his good humour and friendliness to the press. He was well liked by those who knew him, and equally, well-respected, too.

I recall seeing him on an Australian television show, talking about the record he made with Marc Almond. He said, "he's gay and I'm straight." Eligius (talk) 04:56, 25 July 2011 (UTC)

Pitney born in 1941
Link to story in Hartford Courant:

http://blogs.courant.com/news_opinion_hunter/2006/04/_quite_a_few_ge.html

Epigraph
JA: I think it's a cryin' shame that a web search took as long as it did to track down the fact that GP wrote this immortal couplet, so I epenned it as an epigraph. Jon Awbrey 16:30, 20 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Gene wrote this article? BTW I think we need more info on what singles and albums he released, not just "songs performed by Pitney".  R o  gerthat  Talk  02:32, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Ginny Arnell
Ginny Arnell had some degree of success of her own. To say that Gene worked with a "lady called" Ginny Arnell implies that she was unimportant, or unknown. Certainly there are links to information on her?

Fair use rationale for Image:GenePitneyGreatestHits.jpg
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 * I love deletion-bots SO MUCH. MrBook 02:58, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Polish American
Polish language "Rock Encyclopedia" by well respected music journalist Wieslaw Weiss contains an information, that Gene Pitney was Polish American by his father's side. It was also confirmed by popular radio DJ Marek Niedzwiecki. I haven;t found however anything about it in any English language source. Could please someone help?. 87.205.174.149 18:50, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

No, it was his mother. Source (from Gene himself) - http://www.genepitney.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=20 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.205.174.149 (talk) 20:29, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

Interesting trivia - his mother, Anne Orlowski, is actually listed as the writer of one of his songs. Aaron Schroder and Gene worked up a scheme to determine how royalties worked best. I think Gene wrote song on one side for BMI, and his mother's maiden name was used on the flip side for ASCAP - the song eventually was a hit for Bobby Vee called Rubber Ball. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.101.71.184 (talk) 00:03, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

About his voice
I'm getting so tired about some articles being over-edited. Why have any remarks about Gene's voice been removed? There used to be a note on the special sound of his voice. Matthijs J

Withstanding the British Invasion
This is stated in the page: "He and Orbison were practically the only American soloists to withstand the British Invasion, both displaying an astounding vocal range." I would add Bobby Vinton to this list of American solo artists to continue to have hits after The Beatles appeared on the "Ed Sullivan Show" to start that Invasion. (With such mid-1960s hits as "Mr. Lonely" and "Long Lonely Nights," among others.) See the book The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (1985 edition), p. 162. It's neat to note that Vinton had the very last American hit single when that British Invasion began--"There! I've Said It Again." BTW: Then there was also Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder.... 71.113.98.7 01:17, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Not sure where this belongs - there is a comment about Gene liking football and especially Lincoln City? Is this bogus? I had not seen this in previous visits to the article and I do not know how to track the source. (I have a little knowledge of Lincoln and the imp, so I think I would have caught this previously.) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.101.71.184 (talk) 22:34, 13 June 2009 (UTC) The story about Gene and Lincoln City is faily easy to explain. One of his fans is a secretary at Lincoln City F.C. and at the time the club were looking for sponsors for the seats at the ground where they play as they were trying to rause some funds. Linda, the fan, wrote to Gene asking if he would sponsor some seats and he agreed to do so. He sponsored 10 seats in the main stand.

Orthography of song titles
Wikipedia seems to have three methods of representing song titles: (a) title surrounded by single quote marks; (b) surrounded by double quote marks; (c) no quote marks, but title in italics. Sometimes various combinations of these styles. This article has a mixture, and I have no idea what the Wikipedia style is.Alpheus (talk) 04:10, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

involvement with the Stones
first, i agree with the "orthography" point made above - i think italics are for titles of "large works" like albums, films & books; song titles should be in quote marks. that's the principle i've used to tidy up a bit for consistency's sake, but i've probably missed a few.

then: i have some doubts about this part:
 * "The Mick Jagger-Keith Richards song, "That Girl Belongs to Yesterday", which became a hit for him, was the first song by that duo to be a success in the United States, and it was partly Pitney's endorsement of the group which helped them to find favor in America. He was in the studio in England with the Stones on some of their early recording sessions, including those which resulted in both sides of their first Top 10 single "Not Fade Away" and their debut album, apparently playing piano, though the extent to which his contributions and those of "Uncle" Phil Spector were used is uncertain."

as far as i know, Pitney's recording of "That Girl Belongs to Yesterday" was the first MJ/KR tune to be a top-10 (or top 20?) hit in the UK; if someone can verify that it might be cool to add. i don't know anything about its success in the US.

and: this is the first i've heard about Pitney's friendship/mentorship gaining them favor in the States, so i feel like a citation is really needed for that.

then: i know Pitney was in the studio with the Stones on february 4th 1964, when they recorded "Little By Little" (the b-side of "Not Fade Away") and some of their first LP, but i've never heard about him being there on january 28th/29th when they recorded "Not Fade Away". so i've altered that and added a reference: the website http://www.nzentgraf.de/books/tcw/works1.htm (select "1964" from the list on the left, then do a search for "Pitney"). Andrew Loog Oldham's autobiography Stoned also has a section about the session, and some quotes from Pitney.

i hope that helps. Sssoul (talk) 08:33, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

Discography
I've reinstated the discography that was written by rudyardk, then removed and replaced with a vastly inferior (and woefully incomplete)discography by another user. While there may still be gaps to be filled, rudyardk's discography is well laid out, has great chart info, and can be sourced against Billboard charts for the US and Guinness charts for the UK (which I've done).

If somebody wants to create a sourced separate discographical section for chart hits Pitney wrote but did not perform, they are more than welcome to do so. 172.129.142.168 (talk) 03:43, 20 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Hey, DreamLover50s -- you're obviously a Pitney fan, but the discography you keep putting up is unsourced, and clearly incomplete, as it does not contain numerous UK and US chart singles by Pitney. No wonder it keeps getting replaced.


 * Rather than criticize the 'amateurishness' (as you did in a recent edit) of the person who put up a sourced and clearly more complete discography than you, perhaps you should look at providing sources for your information. Then -- assuming you can provide sources -- you can add to what is (I'm sorry to say) an obviously much more detailed, sourced, and useful entry than what you keep trying to provide.  Otherwise, if you persist in simply reposting your list again, be prepared that your amateurish effort will be continually replaced with what is unquestionably an all-round more complete (and better researched) discographical entry.  192.30.202.22 (talk) 16:50, 24 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Hi, I'm the one who put up the discography with chart info. I never claimed it was complete, just more complete than what was there before it.  The information I posted was based on singles that charted in the US and the UK -- I have now gone back and, using other sources, included non-charting singles by Pitney as a performer.


 * There are still at least a couple of singles I'm trying to nail down info about before posting, so there will be more (though perhaps not much more) added as I get it. Cheers!  Rudyardk (talk) 19:21, 29 May 2008 (UTC) There were two more singles released after 'Somethings Gotten' was number one. Gene released ''You're The Reason'  and 'In My Life' on his own Pittfield label. Neither song was a selling success.

Final Concert
According to the BBC News reports that are linked to, Gene's final concert was in St Davids Hall, Cardiff the night before his death, NOT in Worthing as suggested by the current text. Anyone know which is correct? Gloveman (talk) 00:15, 26 November 2008 (UTC) Gene's final concert was definately at St. David's Hall in Cardiff. He died during the night following this concert in his room at the Holiday Inn in Cardiff. His next concert was to have taken place in Bristol the same day that his body was found. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.96.36.248 (talk) 20:29, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Man Who Shot (Liberty Valance)
I heard somebody say on the Australian radio station 2UE-AM "The Man Who Shot (Liberty Valance)" was not included in the film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance because director John Ford didn't want a pop song in the film. Anybody have any information on that? Eligius (talk) 05:14, 25 July 2011 (UTC)

Album discography
I have added an album discography. I note an old editing conflict concerning the singles discography from 2008 which appears to have been resolved (or the conflict abated).

The list is mainly based on sources here and here. I am aware that these are secondary sources as well but it is the best I could do from information available over the internet.

I have included in the list all of Gene's Musicor albums, including compilations and greatest hits albums, as well as any post-Musicor albums that contained new material.

I have used the US album titles but noted where albums appeared under different titles in the UK. Some album titles are ambiguous. For example, Gene Pitney Sings Just For You is sometimes listed as simply Sings Just For You. I am happy for people to change or update if they can point to why an album should be named differently.

I am going to start working on pages for the albums themselves as and when I get the time.

Shadow007 (talk) 03:53, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

Sound Engineer?
The first sentence describes Gene Pitney as "an American singer-songwriter, musician, and sound engineer". There is no citation for his being a sound engineer, nor is there any mention of this in the article. Apparently he studied Electrical Engineering at the University of Conneticut - see http://rockhall.com/inductees/gene-pitney/bio/ - but an admittedly quick google did not reveal anything about him being a sound engineer. Needs a source and a short mention in the article, or removal.StefanosPavlos (talk) 12:36, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

I heard one of Gene's songs a while back on "Sounds of the 60s" on BBC Radio 2, and I'm sure the presenter said he was an electrical engineer (though maybe briefly) before his singing career took off. Meltingpot (talk) 13:22, 30 July 2016 (UTC)

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