Gene Pitney

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2003

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the singer-songwriter Gene Pitney. Gene grew up in Rockville, Connecticut, the middle child of a large family. His father worked in the local mills and the family sold fruit and vegetables from their garden to supplement this income. A shy child, Gene says that performing couldn't have been further from his mind, although he enjoyed singing. His first solo performance at school resulted in an embarrassing whimper as Gene was petrified by the expectant audience.

In his teens he began to learn the guitar and piano, and formed a local band whilst at high school, finding that performing was a good way to overcome his shyness. Spotted by what Gene calls "the proverbial fat man with a cigar", he was taken to New York and recording contracts soon followed. Soon his songs were being recorded by some of the biggest stars of the time - Hello Mary Lou was released by Rick Nelson, Roy Orbison recorded Today's Teardrops as the B-side to his million-selling single, Blue Angel, and Rubber Ball became a worldwide hit for US artist Bobby Vee and UK artist Marty Wilde. By the mid sixties Gene had found international success with the Bacharach song Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa. In 1990 he had his first number one in this country with Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart, a duet with Marc Almond.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Krestey Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.
0:05.0	For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.
0:08.0	The program was originally broadcast in 2003, and the presenter was Sue Lolly. My castaway this week is a singer. Anyone with half an air on the radio or the gramophone
0:26.7	in the 60s will know his greatest hits. He had 40 of them in the UK alone. Town without pity. Something got a hold of my heart and of
0:34.6	course 24 hours from Tulsa one of the most successful singles ever released.
0:39.5	All delivered in his unique high-pitched compelling voice. Success came as something of a
0:45.3	surprise to this boy from Rockville Connecticut and the family rallied round.
0:49.4	His mother even ran his unofficial fan club. He's never strayed far from his roots even though today at 62 he's still
0:56.9	touring and performing. His enduring popularity is founded on two things, the strength of his material and the power of his
1:05.0	performance. Live performing is terrific he says on a night when everything works
1:10.0	it's just magic. Here's Gene Pitney.
1:13.0	And is it still magic for you, Gene, even after all these years?
1:17.0	I mean, 25 concerts I think you did in the UK last year.
1:19.0	You must like it some.
1:20.0	Yes, I'm very happy that I really love what I'm doing. I think that you could you
1:25.1	know wear it thin and and not like it anymore. A lot of things I've been blessed
1:29.8	with like the songs themselves. People say you know don't she get sick and tired of
1:34.0	Singing like the same songs that were hits I don't think there's one song that I had that was a hit
1:39.0	That wasn't so well crafted and such a good song that I mind doing it.
1:44.7	But what is interesting, I'm sure people always want you to sing those old songs because they
1:47.9	take us right back, it's the smell, the sound, the feel, everything, we're right back to
1:52.0	when we were kind of teenagers. But I think that the
	...

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