Chart entered : 23 March 1961
Chart peak : 26
Number of hits : 21
The first of two great voices entering the charts in the same week. Gene's arrival also represents a personal watershed as the first artist we've come to whose music I've physically purchased.
Gene was born in Connecticut in 1940 and formed his first band Gene and the Genials at school. He got his first chance to record in 1959 as part of a duo with Ginny Artell known as Jamie and Jane. Their first single was "Snuggle Up Baby" and it's not very good; he sounds like a bad Buddy Holly impersonator and she sounds like Brenda Lee on helium and the backing vocals are really irritating. The second was "Faithful Our Love" which Gene had a hand in writing and it's better with Gene sounding more like himself and some Tex-Mex influences in the arrangement although Ginny's voice is still an acquired taste. The partnership dissolved after that and Gene put out a solo single "I'm Going Back To My Love" under the name of Billy Bryan on New York's Blaze label. It's a skilful impersonation of The Platters showing how Gene could move between different styles with ease.
By this time he was involved in the Brill Building set up as a writer and this first single under his own name was released on Aaron Schroeder's Musicor label ( London in the UK ).
It's unique in being the only self-penned song in Gene's run of hits despite his success writing for other artists. Gene found he couldn't write on the road and often Schroeder was hawking his songs out before he got the chance to record them himself. It has to be said this does sound suspiciously like Rubber Ball in places. Gene double tracked his voice to give the vocals more oomph and played most of the instruments so after Buddy Holly this is probably the most autonomous single we've covered. Gene himself said in an interview it was "done really as a demo but released as it stood " and it's by no means his best record, just a solid start for one of pop's more intriguing singers.
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