Song:Town Without Pity
Album:25 All Time Greatest Hits
Gene Pitney was one of the most popular singers of the early 60s. Town Without Pity was one of his first hits and established a long run that petered out when the British Invasion took hold. He was born Feb. 17, 1941 in Hartford, CT. He had a band as a teen called Gene & The Genials and recorded some singles with Ginny Arnell as Jane and Jamie He also recorded as Billy Bryan in 1959. But his big break came when he wrote the Ricky Nelson hit Hello Mary Lou. He also wrote He's A Rebel for The Crystals. In 1961, he recorded a demo for (I Want To) Love My life Away that earned him a contract with Musicor. Pitney not only wrote the song but played all the instruments and multi tracked the vocals. Town Without Pity was Pitney's first hit in 1961. It reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was written for the 1961 film Town Without Pity starring Kirk Douglas and was written by veteran film composer Dmitri Tiomkin and legendary songwriter Ned Washington. The song won a Golden Globe for best movie song and was nominated for a Best Original Song Oscar. Pitney performed Town Without Pity on the Oscar telecast. The song would launch Pitney to stardom. His biggest hit was Only Love Can Break A Heart in 1962. All of his hits are on this Varese comp. Pitney hung in pretty well at the start of the British Invasion with hits like It Hurts To Be In Love. But he eventually moved to the country music market and recorded with George Jones. His final US chart hit was in 1968 but he continued to be a draw in Europe and even had a UK hit in 1989 with a remake of Something's Got A Hold Of My Heart as a duet with Marc Almond. Gene Pitney still toured the nostalgia circuit when he died while on tour in Cardiff, Wales on Apr. 5, 2006 at age 66. Here's Gene Pitney performing Town Without Pity 1961.
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