The shrill, passionate voice spoke of heartbreak and sadness, the well-dressed troubador sharing his pain for our entertainment. It seemed to come out from not just his soul, but from somewhere piercingly ethereal.
He had the singing style of the 50s mixed with a cool 60s sensibility, commanding the stage like a showman combined with a Motown like sound. Despite being very much of his time, his popularity never waned. He had a No.1 hit in the 80s with Marc Almond, the gay tattooed singer with a penchant for big 60s ballads. And when he died, he was in the middle of another sellout British tour.
But, although he didn't write many of his own hits, he was also a songwriter for well-known singers such as Roy Orbison and Ricky Nelson, for whom he wrote "Hello Mary Lou". These songwriting hits came before his own success; his was a voice which couldn't be unleashed all at once.
Gene Pitney could have carried on filling the stadiums, and belting out the hits, the small man singing from the depths of his heart.
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