Happy Birthday to Gene Pitney

No one would consider Gene Pitney a country
star, but... he did 2 albums with George
Jones in the late 60's.

The late Gene Pitney was born today, February
17th 1940 in Connecticut. Pitney was known
as a teen-idol, but he was so much more.
Not just a puppet of some producer like Phil
Spector, Gene was a great songwriter, all-around
musician as well. Some of his own songs are the
Crystals, "He's A Rebel" and "Hello Marylou".

Pitney had the honor of being the first performer
to record a Jagger/Richards original "That Girl
Belongs To Yesterday". He was in England
in the early sixties, and Andrew Loog Oldham,
who was managing the Stones at the time, was
doing some publicity work for Pitney as well, and
made the connection.

I think Pitney got pigeon-holed by his image
and tortured vocals. Most producers and labels
wanted to put him in the "teen-idol" slot, but
in the long run, a categorization like that
could end up being severely limiting.

The albums that Pitney did with George Jones
kind of showed the road he could have gone on,
much as someone like Jerry Lee Lewis, who
in the second act of his life went country, without
going completely "Nasvhille". Of course Jerry Lee
was so volatile, he never would have let anyone put
him in a small category.

Pitney would go on to have a fairly successful career
in Europe, recording albums in Italian and Spanish,
as well has touring extensively in England.

Here's the version of "That's All It Took" with George
Jones from Youtube. Enjoy-