Gene Pitney found dead in hotel
American superstar Gene Pitney has been found dead aged 65 in his bed in a Cardiff hotel.
Pitney - who found fame with Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa - was pronounced dead at the Hilton hotel at 1000 BST.
He was on a UK tour and had shown no signs of illness. The cause of death is not yet known but is not suspicious.
His biggest success was in the 1960s and he enjoyed a 1989 revival with his chart-topping duet, Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart, with Marc Almond.
Mark Howes of his management company In Touch Music said the singer was found in his bed.
Mr Howes told BBC Wales that everyone had been shocked by the death and there had been no signs that he was ill.
"He did a good show last night at St David's Hall and it was wonderful," he said.
"I've seen him quite a few times on this tour and he was fit and well. He said it was the best tour he had done for quite a few years."
Pitney has continually toured over the last 40 years.
He received a glowing local newspaper review for what proved to be his final concert in Cardiff.
He received a standing ovation at the end of his 90-minute performance on Tuesday night.
He had nine dates left on his 23-date UK tour and was due to appear at Bristol's Colston Hall on Wednesday.
Rolling Stones
Pitney's songs have been recorded by some of the world's biggest stars - 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.
Pitney returned to the charts with Marc Almond in 1989
He is also credited with helping the Rolling Stones break the American market with his endorsement of the band.
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote his hit That Girl Belongs to Yesterday which became the Stones duo's first composition to reach the American charts.
The son of a mill worker, Pitney said childhood ambitions of becoming a performer could not have been further from his mind.
He once recalled how his first solo performance at school degenerated into an embarrassing whimper as Pitney was petrified by the expectant audience.
Overcoming his nerves over the next few years, Pitney learned to play the guitar and piano and formed a schoolboy band.
It was during one of their gigs that his distinctive voice was discovered by the "the proverbial fat man with a cigar" who took him off to New York.
He is survived by his wife Lynne and three sons who live in his native Connecticut.
Obituary: Gene Pitney
Pitney's career spanned five decades
Gene Pitney went from being a successful songwriter for other acts to become a major international pop star in his own right.
He enjoyed more than 20 hits, including songs like 24 Hours from Tulsa and Something's Gotten Hold of my Heart.
With an unmistakeable singing voice, at once plaintive and melodramatic, Gene Pitney had hits on both sides of the Atlantic.
A friend of The Rolling Stones, Phil Spector and Burt Bacharach, Pitney was also a noted songwriter.
He was born on 17 February 1941 in Hartford Connecticut and soon gained a reputation as a musician while studying at the nearby Rockville High School, where he earned the nickname the Rockville Rocket.
But his early flirtation as a performer initially failed to lead to anything bigger. Undaunted, Pitney moved to New York, where he worked as a songwriter at the fabled Brill Building alongside titans like Carole King, Gerry Goffin and Doc Pomus.
Success
Success was not slow to come, and he was soon penning hits like Rubber Ball for Bobby Vee and Ricky Nelson's Hello Mary Lou.
By 1961, when The Crystals' He's a Rebel gave Pitney his first US No 1 hit as a writer, he was a star in his own right.
But Pitney's career was anything if predictable. After his own successful 1961 single, (I Wanna) Hide My Love Away, he was approached by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.
They co-wrote three of his best known hits, Only Love Can Break a Heart, (The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance and the classic 24 Hours from Tulsa.
Together with songs like Town Without Pity and Half Heaven-Half Heartache, they constituted a formidable range of work.
Pitney also enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with country music legend George Jones, with whom he recorded an album of duets.
And, in 1964, he met The Rolling Stones, whose then manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, was his publicist - and recorded the Jagger-Richards composition That Girl Belongs to Yesterday.
Always more popular in the UK than America, Pitney also made his mark in Italy, Spain and Germany.
More recently, he could be found duetting with Marc Almond on an 1989 version of Something's Gotten Hold of my Heart which gave him his only UK No 1 hit.
Pitney later reflected: "Musically I got along perfect with Marc. The video in the middle of the desert, with me in the white tux and him in the leather, that was great."
Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2006/04/05 10:49:33 GMT
© BBC MMVI
American superstar Gene Pitney has been found dead aged 65 in his bed in a Cardiff hotel.
Pitney - who found fame with Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa - was pronounced dead at the Hilton hotel at 1000 BST.
He was on a UK tour and had shown no signs of illness. The cause of death is not yet known but is not suspicious.
His biggest success was in the 1960s and he enjoyed a 1989 revival with his chart-topping duet, Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart, with Marc Almond.
Mark Howes of his management company In Touch Music said the singer was found in his bed.
Mr Howes told BBC Wales that everyone had been shocked by the death and there had been no signs that he was ill.
"He did a good show last night at St David's Hall and it was wonderful," he said.
"I've seen him quite a few times on this tour and he was fit and well. He said it was the best tour he had done for quite a few years."
Pitney has continually toured over the last 40 years.
He received a glowing local newspaper review for what proved to be his final concert in Cardiff.
He received a standing ovation at the end of his 90-minute performance on Tuesday night.
He had nine dates left on his 23-date UK tour and was due to appear at Bristol's Colston Hall on Wednesday.
Rolling Stones
Pitney's songs have been recorded by some of the world's biggest stars - 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.
He is also credited with helping the Rolling Stones break the American market with his endorsement of the band.
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote his hit That Girl Belongs to Yesterday which became the Stones duo's first composition to reach the American charts.
The son of a mill worker, Pitney said childhood ambitions of becoming a performer could not have been further from his mind.
He once recalled how his first solo performance at school degenerated into an embarrassing whimper as Pitney was petrified by the expectant audience.
Overcoming his nerves over the next few years, Pitney learned to play the guitar and piano and formed a schoolboy band.
It was during one of their gigs that his distinctive voice was discovered by the "the proverbial fat man with a cigar" who took him off to New York.
He is survived by his wife Lynne and three sons who live in his native Connecticut.
Obituary: Gene Pitney
Gene Pitney went from being a successful songwriter for other acts to become a major international pop star in his own right.
He enjoyed more than 20 hits, including songs like 24 Hours from Tulsa and Something's Gotten Hold of my Heart.
With an unmistakeable singing voice, at once plaintive and melodramatic, Gene Pitney had hits on both sides of the Atlantic.
A friend of The Rolling Stones, Phil Spector and Burt Bacharach, Pitney was also a noted songwriter.
He was born on 17 February 1941 in Hartford Connecticut and soon gained a reputation as a musician while studying at the nearby Rockville High School, where he earned the nickname the Rockville Rocket.
But his early flirtation as a performer initially failed to lead to anything bigger. Undaunted, Pitney moved to New York, where he worked as a songwriter at the fabled Brill Building alongside titans like Carole King, Gerry Goffin and Doc Pomus.
Success
Success was not slow to come, and he was soon penning hits like Rubber Ball for Bobby Vee and Ricky Nelson's Hello Mary Lou.
By 1961, when The Crystals' He's a Rebel gave Pitney his first US No 1 hit as a writer, he was a star in his own right.
But Pitney's career was anything if predictable. After his own successful 1961 single, (I Wanna) Hide My Love Away, he was approached by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.
They co-wrote three of his best known hits, Only Love Can Break a Heart, (The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance and the classic 24 Hours from Tulsa.
Together with songs like Town Without Pity and Half Heaven-Half Heartache, they constituted a formidable range of work.
Pitney also enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with country music legend George Jones, with whom he recorded an album of duets.
And, in 1964, he met The Rolling Stones, whose then manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, was his publicist - and recorded the Jagger-Richards composition That Girl Belongs to Yesterday.
Always more popular in the UK than America, Pitney also made his mark in Italy, Spain and Germany.
More recently, he could be found duetting with Marc Almond on an 1989 version of Something's Gotten Hold of my Heart which gave him his only UK No 1 hit.
Pitney later reflected: "Musically I got along perfect with Marc. The video in the middle of the desert, with me in the white tux and him in the leather, that was great."
Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2006/04/05 10:49:33 GMT
© BBC MMVI
