Gene Pitney.......

[sheldonm]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6040501731.html

[J.A.W.]

Sad news. He wrote several good pop songs.

[GA Russell]

I was only 24 hours from Tulsa!

When the British Invasion hit, Pitney and his contemporaries were wiped off the map. He left the music business, and was always referred to as a "successful businessman", aparently in an attempt to portray himself as a winner rather than as a has-been. I have no idea what he did. Maybe he really did have his money invested wisely.

edit: By the way, he co-wrote Hello, Mary Lou for Ricky Nelson with Chuck Mangiaracina (sp?), who was a Dominican priest in the parish I grew up in in New Orleans. Twenty years later, Fr. Chuck found himself in the parish I attended in Atlanta!

Edited April 5, 2006 by GA Russell

[paul secor]

Sorry to read this. Gene Pitney was a good pop songwriter and had a unique vocal style.

I believe I read some years ago that he owned a golf course/country club in Connecticut.

[J.A.W.]

I was only 24 hours from Tulsa!

When the British Invasion hit, Pitney and his contemporaries were wiped off the map. He left the music business, and was always referred to as a "successful businessman", aparently in an attempt to portray himself as a winner rather than as a has-been. I have no idea what he did. Maybe he really did have his money invested wisely.

Pitney didn't quit the music business. He kept performing all those years, mainly in Europe, and he had a hit again in the U.K. in 1989.

BBC obit.