World Without Pitney

The darkly brilliant and too neglected singer Gene Pitney is dead at age 65. His "Greatest Hits of All Times" compilation on Musicor (MS-3102) is one of the few albums I became obsessed with enough to listen to three times and more a day. No one ought be without regular doses of "24 Hours from Tulsa" or "Town Without Pity" or "Only Love Can Break A Heart" or "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance." His voice was eerie, impassioned, maniacal, deep, shimmering, a river of feeling undammed. He will be missed; luckily, his voice is still with us.