Gene Pitney

American singer/songwriter, musician and engineer. He was born February 17, 1940 in Hartford, Connecticut and died in a hotel after a gig on April 5, 2006 in Cardiff, Wales, UK. At the beginning of his musical career Pitney cut a few records under different pseudonyms, as [i]Jamie & Jane[/i] with [a=Ginny Arnell] in 1958 and as [i]Billy Bryan[/i] in 1959. Between 1961 and 1964 he recorded 7 songs by songwriters [a=Burt Bacharach] and [a=Hal David], getting into the the U.S. Billboard Top Ten in 1962 twice with songs by the team ("Only Love Can Break a Heart" and "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"). Pitney's greatest success as a songwriter came with [a=The Crystals] recording of his composition "He's a Rebel," which was number 1 in the U.S. at the same time that Pitney's recording of the Bacharach-David song "Only Love Can Break a Heart" was at number 2.

During the mid-1960s, Musicor Records, owned by his manager Aaron Schroeder, frequently paired Pitney in the recording studio with Musicor country artists [a357982] and [a444580]. Later in the decade, Pitney found more success in the U.K. and Europe.

Inducted into Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 (Performer).