266 Goodbye Gene Pitney - Blue Angel

Chart  entered : 2  November  1974

Chart  peak : 39

Gene  had  hurdled  Beatlemania  well  enough  scoring  a  couple  of  number  2s  in  the  mid-sixties and  a  steady  string  of  top  tenners. By  the  time  "Something's  Got  A  Hold  Of  My  Heart" started  dropping  from  its  number  5  peak  in  1967 it  was  clear  that  his  heyday  had  passed  but unlike  many  of  his  contemporaries  his  fanbase  was  strong  enough  to  give  him  minor  hits when  he  had  the  right  song.

"Blue  Angel"  was  written  by  Roger  Cook  and  is  a  cautionary  observation  of  a  childhood  friend  who  became  a  prostitute  and  drug  addict  when  she  didn't  make  it  as  a  singer, one  of  a  number  of  songs  about  fame  casualties  around  this  time  ( see  also  It  Never  Rains  in  Southern  California  and  Emma ) . The  jaunty  music  hall  backing  disguises  the  nature  of  the  song  well  so  the  bluntness  of  the  third  verse's  lyric  e.g "Your  flesh  is  just  a  souvenir  of  London  for  a  while " ( shades  of  The  Jam's  Butterfly  Collector )  comes  as  quite  a  jolt  . It  goes  without  saying  that  Gene's  delivery  is  impeccable,  teasing  out  all  the  pathos  in  the  song. In  Australia  it  made  number  two.

The  immediate  follow-up  was  "Trans-Canada  Highway"  a  rather  episodic  country  pop  tune  about  running  off  with  a  lawman's  wife. It's  not  a  bad  song  but  the  pace  doesn't  really  suit  Gene's  style. It  was  a  Top  20  hit  in  Australia, his  last  new  song  to  chart  in  any  Anglophone  country. "Train  Of  Thought "  from  October  1974   was  a  US  hit  for  Cher  in  1974. Gene  gives  it  a  disco  treatment  with  electric  piano  and  sax  breaks  and  it  wouldn't  have  been  out  of  place  on  the  Saturday  Night  Fever  soundtrack. I  haven't  heard  "You  Are"  from  April  1976  but  " Hold  On"  an  early  song  from  Chris  de Burgh  gets  a  kitchen  sink  production  and  is  the  sort  of  overblown  ballad  that  only   Gene  can  really  pull  off. It  was  his  final  single  for  Bronze.

Gene  signed  for Epic  and  released  "Sandman"  in  February  1977  a  Neil  Diamond-ish  country  pop  number  that  takes too  long  to  get  to  the  chorus.  "Love  On  Our  Hands"   is  light  Dooleys  pop  with  some  nasty  synthesiser  sounds  and  a   young  love  lyric  that's  a  bit  undignified  for  someone  of  Gene's  standing.

At  the  end  of  1977  Gene  released  his  final  single  for  over  a  decade  and  drove  the  point  home  by  doing  a  medley  of  two  different  songs  called  "It's  Over"  the  Roy  Orbison  classic  and  a  Jimmie  Rodgers  number. It's  a  skilfully  executed  finale  but  wasn't  a  hit  and  perhaps  he  didn't  want  it  to  be.

Gene  retired  from  the  recording  studio  and  established  a  routine  of  touring  for  six  months  of  the  year  and  spending  the  rest  of  the  time  with  his  family  which  he  largely  stuck  to  for  the  rest  of  his  life. His  profile  in  the  eighties  was  subterranean  until  1988  when  Marc  Almond  recorded  "Something's  Gotten  Hold  Of  My  Heart "  for  his  album  The  Stars  We  Are . When  it  was   decided  to  release  it  as  a  single  Almond  tentatively  approached  Gene  who  was  up  for  a  full  duet  and  just  weeks  later  had  the  number  one  single  that  had  always  eluded  him. Meanly  Radio  One  , having  long  since  consigned  Gene  to  Radio  Two, insisted  on  playing  the  album  version  except  on  chart  rundowns  despite  the  fact  that  if  Almond's  previous  solo  career  was  anything  to  go  by  it  wouldn't  have  got  close  to  number  one  without  Gene. For  this  piece  of  Stalinism  they  perhaps  deserved  the  Bannister  blitkreig.

Gene  re-released  the  "It's  Over"  medley  as  a  follow-up  but  it  didn't  make  the  charts. He  was  then  tempted  back  into  the  studio  to  record  some  fresh  covers  to  pair  up  with  his  biggest  hits  on  the  album  "Backstage: The  Greatest  Hits  And  More". None  of  them  are  very  inspired  and  his  voice  has  lost  some  of  its  power. A  girl  in  the  office  I  worked  in  at  the  time  regularly  went  to  see  him  with  her  mum  and  said  he  had  a  younger  guy  with  him  on  stage  to  fill  up  the  gaps. The  album  sold  modestly  and  his  version  of  Sayer  and  Courtney's  "In  My  Life"  ( very  dull )  went  nowhere  as  a  single

Gene  accepted  that  his  return  to  the  spotlight  was  temporary  and  resumed  his  normal  schedule. His  last  TV  performance  was  unfortunately  an  oft-repeated  miming  disaster  on   This  Morning  where,  after  a  grovelling  introduction  from  Richard  Madeley , the  crew  cocked  up  the  playback  so  the  record  started  without  Gene  being  able  to  hear  it. Thankfully  he  saw  the  funny  side  of  it. Gene's  last  recording  was  a  duet   part  on  "Half  Heaven  Half  Heartache"  as  recorded   by  June  Olivor.

In  April  2006  Gene was  found  dead , fully  clothed  ,on  a  hotel  bed  in  Cardiff  after  a  successful  concert  there. He  was  a  fitness  fanatic  but  his  heart  had  just  stopped. A  good  way  to  go  if  you  ask  me.