- Gene Pitney Trivia: He was born on February 17, 1941 in Rockville, Connecticut. In high school, he was part of the band "Gene Pitney and the Genials".
- Gene Pitney Trivia: Gene's first foray into the music scene was as part of a duet with Ginny Arnell, their first song being 1959's "Classical Rock & Roll".
- Gene Pitney Trivia: He used a pseudonym, Billy Bryan, on his is first solo song, "Cradle of My Arms" in 1958.
- Gene Pitney Trivia: In 1961, he scored his first chart single, which made the Top 40, the self-penned "(I Wanna) Love My Life Away," on which he played several instruments and multi-tracked the vocals.
- Gene Pitney Trivia: Also in 1961 he charted his first Top 20 single, the title song from the film Town Without Pity starring Kirk Douglas.
- Gene Pitney Trivia: In 1962 "Only Love Can Break a Heart" became his highest charting song in the US at No. 2, followed in December by "Half Heaven, Half Heartache", which reached No. 12 on the Billboard chart.
- Gene Pitney Trivia: In all, he charted 16 Top-40 hits in the United States, four in the Top 10. In the United Kingdom he had 22 Top-40 hits, and 11 singles in the Top Ten.
- Gene Pitney Trivia: He was also successful as a songwriter. For Ricky Nelson he wrote "Hello Mary Lou". For Bobby Vee he wrote "Rubber Ball", and for The Crystals he penned "He's a Rebel".
- Gene Pitney Trivia: The Crystals' version of "He's A Rebel" kept Pitney's own No. 2 hit "Only Love Can Break a Heart," his highest-charting single in the U.S., from the top spot, and was the only time that a writer shut himself/herself out of #1!
- Gene Pitney Trivia: In 1965, Pitney recorded two successful albums with country singer George Jones. They were voted the most promising country-and-western duo of the year.
- ... Pitney also recorded songs in Italian, Spanish and German, and twice finished second in Italy's annual Sanremo Music Festival, where his strong vibrato reminded older listeners of the Italian tenor Enrico Caruso. He had a regional hit with "Nessuno mi può giudicare".
- Gene Pitney Trivia: In 2002, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
- Gene Pitney Trivia: Touring the UK in the spring of 2006, his manager found him dead from a heart attack in his hotel room on April 5.
