Customer Reviews

The Many Sides of Gene Pitney/Only Love Can Break a Heart

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I saw Gene Pitney in concert last week, and the song that unexpectedly floored me was "Tower Tall," which is on this CD. He was about 22 years old when this was cut, and it brought me to tears almost 40 years later!

Most people remember Gene as the consummate ballad singer, but he was (and is) very versatile. At the early stage of his career he got to stretch his rock/party music muscles a bit, too, so you'll find great up-tempo dance songs on this compilation. But the voice that inspired dozens of Top-20 torch songs was always there. After all these years, I've yet to hear a more heartbreakingly gorgeous vocal than young Mr. Pitney's recording of "Half Heaven-Half Heartache." It still stops me in my tracks! It's extraordinary how much soul he has, and always had.

Then there's the fact that his first single, "(I Wanna) Love My Life Away," was a one-man project -- he cut multiple harmonized vocal tracks, and played every instrument, long before it was easy to do that (as if it's easy to do everything now). In short, what you have here is, in anyone's book, a rare individual.

If you want to hear early rock's most complete talent, from songwriter (half the first album) to incomparable singer and then some, get your hands on this. Gene Pitney earned his place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame right here!

This twofer includes Gene's first two albums, plus a bonus track that didn't originally appear on album.

The first album, The many sides of Gene Pitney, includes his first American top 20 hit, Town without pity, plus his very first hit, I wanna love my life away (which just made the top 40, though it later made the UK top 30) and his second hit, Every breath I take, which didn't quite make the American top 40. This album also includes Hello Mary Lou, a song that Gene wrote but which was a hit for Ricky Nelson. The bonus track is Air mail special delivery, the original B-side of Town without pity.

The second album is stronger, because the hits from Gene's first album meant that other songwriters were keen for Gene to record their songs. Bacharach and David supplied Only love can break a heart, The man who shot Liberty Valance, True love never runs smooth and Little bitty falling star. The first two were top five American hits that each sold a million copies, while the third just failed to make the top 20.

Only love can break a heart was Gene's biggest ever hit in his homeland, kept from number one by the Crystals with He's a rebel, a song written by Gene himself. I haven't come across a recording of He's a rebel by Gene himself. Another big American hit from this album was Half heaven half heartache, which peaked at 12. None of these songs did much in the UK. As ever in those days, Brits were slow to accept great American singers, but ultimately Gene's popularity is greater in the UK than the USA.

So, these are the earliest commercial recordings of the great Gene Pitney. He went on to record over twenty albums and had many more hit singles, especially in the UK, but these two albums provided him with a great start to his career. While they are not my personal favorites, they are brilliant and no self-respecting Gene Pitney fan would be without them.

If you have to buy one Pitney cd,make it this one. Although the greatest hits comps do feature some of his other hits from the mid to late sixties,this cd shows Gene's true sound 1961-1962. Dream For Sale is a great track that should have been released as a single.Half Heaven Half Heartache should have been a million seller.Even though this cd does not have his "most popular hit" It Hurts To Be In Love,this is the Gene Pitney cd you want in your collection

I was really thrilled to listed to "Take me tonight" without hearing all the scratches I had from my old LP. Great songs here. I wish to thank Michael Sassella who referred me to this cd which I just received from Amazon. I had been looking for something with that particular song on it for months. Thanks, Michael, and thanks Amazon.