GENE PITNEY
Gene Pitney stumbled onto a good thing early on, becoming one of the singular voices of the '60s in the process. After some trial and error, he made his first recordings with Ginny Arnell for Decca Records in the spring of 1959 as Jamie and Jane (the unsubtle "Snuggle Up Baby" and Gene's own composition "Classical Rock and Roll"), then appeared that fall on the Blaze label as Billy Bryan with "Cradle of My Arms," sounding much closer to what would become his signature style. At the start of the new decade, the Hartford, Connecticut native made up his mind to write and record using his own name. Scoring a chart single in the fall of 1960 with "Harmony," recorded by North Carolinian Billy Bland, provided encouragement. "I Wanna Love My Life" ... MORE ››
