Customer Reviews

24 Hours From Tulsa

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This is a very comprehensive collection of Gene's finest music from his peak years. All his British and American hits from the sixties and early seventies are here, including his American country hits with George Jones and Melba Montgomery. Gene's late eighties duet with Marc Almond (a re-recording of Something's gotten hold of my heart) is omitted. Also missing is Gene's original recording of Hello Mary Lou, a song he wrote for Ricky Nelson. Apart from those two tracks, everything else that matters is here.

In the sixties, Gene had many high-charting pop hits in Britain and America. Curiously, none of them reached number one, although he reached number two in both countries with different songs. He finally got to number one in Britain via that Marc Almond duet.

I'm gonna be strong was Gene's only hit to reach the top ten in both Britain and America. Gene's other top ten American hits to be found here are The man who shot Liberty Valance, Only love can beak a heart and It hurts to be in love. Gene's other top ten British hits to be found here are Twenty four hours from Tulsa, That girl belongs to yesterday, I must be seeing things, Looking through the eyes of love, Princess in rags, Backstage, Nobody needs your love, Just one smile and the original solo version of Something's gotten hold of my heart. With a total of seventy-five tracks this collection includes not just the essentials, but all the minor hits and even a couple of songs recorded in Italian.

In the year 2000 a fifty-track double-CD was released by the same label (Looking through Gene Pitney. It contained forty-six of the tracks that you can find her. The other three tracks on that collection are Hello Mary Lou, One has may name (with George Jones), Close to my heart and the duet with Marc Almond. This collection contains two extra George Jones duets (Louisiana man, That's all it took) and a duet with Melba Montgomery (Baby ain't that fine) instead of One has my name. Close to may heart, good as it is, cannot be regarded as essential. So that leaves Hello Mary Lou and the Marc Almond duet. If you consider these tracks to be essential, you may prefer the double-CD. Otherwise, you will find everything you want and much more in this compilation of Gene's music. Of course, if you just want a basic sixties hits collection there are plenty of single CD's to choose from.

This 75-track collection is easily the best one available of Gene's work for Musicor. Some hardcore "Pitneyophiles" may quibble over the the selections of B-sides and album cuts but all in all this is the strongest set yet devoted to the best male vocalist of the 60's. I could have lived without the Italian songs and most of the George Jones tracks (especially since there are several good collections of those as it is) but I will survive.

The sonics are as good as every other CD put out in the last eight years or so of this material, especially considering this is often 40+ year old material on tape that may not have been stored under the best of conditions.

This set is a little expensive, but as usual it seems only the EU can put together an A+ collection of Gene's work. With an artist like Pitney, one CD just doesn't cut it. Plus this includes what may be the last set of liner notes that Gene ever wrote.

The only thing that will pass this set will be when somebody (Bear Family??) puts out a "Gene Pitney: The Complete Musicor Recordings" or something like that.

I LOVE this collection of music from Gene Pitney. There are 75 tracks! They are organised in chronological order which makes it easy to choose which of the three CDs to listen to (his style changes quite a lot over time, in my opinion). Any other CD of his greatest hits that I have seen or own only have a limited selection of music. It's actually incredible that these are all hits between 1962 and 1972. An added bonus is the poster type thing included which has photos and a history of sorts written by him in 2005. I don't know what it is about his music but I love it. It was very sad to hear of his passing.

I have been a Gene Pitney fan for almost 50 years. Some so-called "experts" relegate his work with the minimally talented teen idols of the late 50's and early 60's, which kept him out of the R&R Hall of Fame for many years. The truth is evident to anyone who isn't tone deaf - Pitney's exceptional R&R voice ranks with The Big O, Timi Yuro, The Everly Brothers, Lonnie Mack (...yes, Lonnie Mack sang fantastic blues) and very few others of that era. This superb compilation finally has every major song and more from his peak career in the 1960's. It only lacks the rare cuts from his pre-hit period, such as the demo gem "Make Believe Lover", which alone is worth the price of the excellent Bear CD "Hits and Misses". I only regret missing my one chance to see him in person in Syracuse a few years before he died - rest in peace, Gene.