Reaction amongst friends at the time was a sort of bemused approval: it was a Good Thing for this kind of record to get to number one, but nobody really seemed to love it, and the Pitney/Almond team up was faintly baffling. Of course, that was the odd-couple appeal of it: a gentleman from some ancient past allied to a leathered perv from a more recent one. And even though I remembered “Tainted Love”, in the bright world of Kylie and Jason both pasts seemed equally lost, both sides of this revenant alliance surprising.
Twenty years later, “Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart” has aged well, and seems to look forward rather than back – the cross-generational duet became a 90s fad, then a commonplace, and by the end of that decade we had Tom Jones and Cerys Matthews crooning at each other, and Jarvis Cocker writing for Tony Christie. Placed in that micro-continuum “Something” has aged rather well, mostly because neither singer acknowledges the curiosity value or leans too hard on their particular schtick. Almond, with a chance to be the old-style showman he’s always wanted to be, puts his back into it. Pitney glides witchily over the top with rather less audible effort but still steals the show.
So why Pitney anyway, and why this? Almond may have felt some sympathy for a man who’d began his prime decade as a new star only to not quite fit in. The Gene Pitney past feels exotic partly because it never really happened: he’s a wanderer from a parallel 60s, where rock’n’roll gave the pop establishment a shot in the arm then slipped into history. Or he might just have been attracted to Pitney’s voice, which could give corny material a sense of urgent dread – “24 Hours From Tulsa” being the obvious example, where the compulsion and mystery in the song is all down to Pitney’s delivery. As for the choice of song, Nick Cave had covered it before Almond took it on, identifying the Gothic streak in it which this version acknowledges and ripens. The strings do the heavy lifting, the intro cutting through whatever else was on 1989 playlists and the arrangement helping the two singers locate the exact point where kitsch bleeds into mystery.
Score: 7
[Logged in users can award their own score]
If you’re going to revisit the past, then this is the way to do it
the two singers compliment each other, Gene Pitney with his uncanny howling tone and Marc Almond with his tremulous croon. Each has a heightened theatrical style which enriches the performance in a way that a more obviously ’emotional’ approach would fail to do.
revisiting this made me realise what a fantastic performer Marc Almond is – and how willing he has been to explore different styles over his career – he deserves more recognition than he gets
Didn’t Jarvis write for Tony Christie rather than Tony Bennett.
i love this, particularly the way they’ve no compunction about really going for it – “kitsch bleeds into mystery”, indeed . i’m less sure about gene stealing the show though – for me the big difference between this and a lot of the cross generational duets (other than that both participants are actually alive and consenting) is that it’s the young pretender who’s got the big effortless (if sometimes a bit wobbly) voice with gene himself seeming a remarkably limited, if characterful, vocalist. the two voices do sound brilliant together though, even if rationally they shouldn’t.
hmm thinking about this for the first time now, does the song (as opposed to the record, which clearly does) actually work as a duet?
#2 – oops!
#3 I’ve always found Marc A a bit of a try-hard in crooner mode to be honest – “Tears Run Rings” has some painful bits for me.
Not that he’s exactly crooning in TRR but he sounds strained anyhow, for me. I get why he inspires massive loyalty but his solo material leaves me a bit cold. Though I liked this loads more than I remembered so it might be time to revisit him.
yeah, i do know what you mean, there’s certainly some soft cell songs where marc’s all over the shop but to me he totally nails it here – maybe it’s just that studio technology had improved by this point.
Oh he’s not bad here at all, far from it – he’s raising his game, but Gene for me has a bit more charisma even if as you say he’s not doing much more than “character” (so maybe I’m wrong about not stressing his schtick)
This one is new to me, and at first listen, it doesn’t appeal much I’m afraid. It reminds me a *bit* of that Neil Diamond track ‘Girl you’ll be a woman soon’ which somebody covered well on the Pulp Fiction s/track, and also a *bit* of Almond/Soft Cell’s Say Hello Wave Goodbye, but I’d *much* rather listen to either one of those than SGHOMH (and neither of them got anywhere near #1, right?)
I dunno, SGHOMH just seems short a hook or two… If someone’s going to emote that much I want more melody or something; more Bacharach perhaps. As for Pitney ‘stealing the show, I just kind of wish he wasn’t there and that Almond would belt it uninterrupted! Maybe this just isn’t my sort of thing, but I’m genuinely mystified by how this got 4 weeks at #1.
Like ‘Mistletoe and Wine’ an incongruous entry considering the current musical landscape, but in a good way this time. Am I right in thinking this was originally Pitney-less but he was added for this single version? I should give the album a try as I’d like to hear a purely Almond version, and I did love ‘Tears Run Rings’ and ‘Bitter Sweet’. Pitters tips it a little too much towards cabaret for me in parts, but still great. A seven!
You’ve gotta like a song that takes a very non-UK “gotten” to the top of the UK charts. Well, if you’re someone who grew up saying “gotten”, anyway.
And I do like this, although not quite love it; Almond’s vocals sound a little too strained for me. No problem in “Tainted Love”, in fact essential to it, but here it sounds like he’s not quite reaching the goal he’s aiming for. Effective backing, duet, and choice of song, though. 6.
Great review Tom, just a pleasure to read and appreciate.
Since Gene Pitney made a pretty good fist of this all by himself, many years earlier, I can’t help wondering what Mr Almond is supposed to be adding to it.
Was this the time of unlikely duets being all the rage? I lose track of time. The sickest of them all was Natalie Cole warbling along to one of her dead dad’s classic recordings. That didn’t add anything either.
Not sure about this one. I don’t remember it at all. The word “cabaret” springs to mind quite a lot here. I’ll have to admit not knowing enough about Pitney to say whether this was a massive leap forward for him and his career, but one suspects a joint #1 isn’t going to do any harm.
Marc Almond’s transition from the synthy sleaze-pop of Soft Cell, to solo success as a new pop Piaf was well documented. And cabaret suggests “intimate”, but here on SGHOMH, both protagonists are giving it the full beans, as if to fill a stadium with tears.
The song? Well those arrow-between-the-eyes love at first sight songs convey more urgency and drama than a thousand Especially For You’s ever could.
An incongruous #1 it maybe, but there’s still room for cabaret acts in the charts. I like it enough to give it a 7.
You. YOU. YOU!
God, I loved this. I still do. There was and is just something so gorgeously odd about it – and it was the first time I’d heard Gene’s voice, which is still one of the oddest pop voices to me. He’s the JOANNA NEWSOM OF BACHARACH POP. Love the bit in the middle-eight in the video where he looks like Frank Carson as well. Poor sod died in a Cardiff hotel too – I’d like to send apologies to his family about that on behalf of all us Welsh.
The thing that strikes me about this is that the artists are listed as “Marc Almond WITH Gene Pitney”. The sleeve is even more revealing “Marc Almond…featuring special guest star Gene Pitney”. This tells us (well, certainly The Swede) that Almond is giving Gene a handout. A bacon roll and a cup of splosh off a stand in Charing Cross. And Pitney hungrily and indeed gratefully partakes. Tom hints himself at an element of sympathy involved and he could be right. Whatever the truth, the project was a success. I now look forward to Robbie Williams recording “Tainted Love” WITH Marc Almond. Then again, perhaps not.
Loved the bombast and drama of this, not enough to actually buy the thing, but sufficient to enjoy the song on Top Of The Pops and not just laugh at Pitney bobbing up and down. Did laugh quite a lot though.
#8/9 Radio One was actually quite Stalinist with this and always played the Almond-only version except on chart rundowns.
Pitney and most 60s artists (except Stones and Quo) were deemed Radio Two territory except on Sunday afternoons. The irony was that since Soft Cell’s demise, Almond himself only got daytime radio play when he did 60s covers.
This was quite a significant number one for me since it got me interested in Gene and I bought a cassette of his greatest hits which I always took with me on walking holidays in the Lakes in the 90s. Therefore I always associate his voice with the minor roads of Cumbria. Wish I’d have gone to see him now.
This led on to an interest in older music generally (pushed along by the rubbish around in 1989-91 ; I was only half-interested in Madchester) and I started tuning in to Alan Freeman’s show and then Classic Gold breaking a lifetime link to Radio One. Although I hate Bannister and Birt I must admit to having deserted R1 before their arrival.
Best Pitney song : “24 Sycamore” from 1973. Anyone else recall that one ?
My favourite Gene Pitney song is “Mecca”, which koganbot pointed me towards years ago.
re 18 yes, I discovered ‘Mecca’ after reading GPs wiki entry – it’s a compelling piece of exotica
Yeah “Mecca” is a good shout. It doesn’t appear on compilations much partly out of PC concerns and partly because it was only a hit in the US.
This is gorgeous – I’m wondering why it wasn’t a hit in the US. Looking into it, it seems “Tears Run Rings” was in the US charts precisely at this moment. Music marketing is truly mystifying sometimes.
This is as near as we’ve got latterly to a Phil Spector wall of sound production, and it works very well, Almond acknowledging and enhancing vintage material as he always has, from Tainted Love to Brel. I agree with champale at #3 about the respective voices though – “limited if characterful” could be said to apply to both of them, but Almond’s is far more expressive and he easily outperforms Pitney on his own song (or at least a song with which Pitney had had the original big hit in 1967).
For Pitney’s heightened theatrical style see also “Town Without Pity”, his first big hit – delivered here with a strange Gordon Brown thing going on with his lower jaw:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7BRraVMZzc&feature=related
And the Swede (#15) is right, given the timespans a Robbie Williams/Marc Almond team-up now would be almost exactly analagous to this.
“Almond himself only got daytime radio play when he did 60s covers.”
Pretty much – his only top 20 hits after this, with the exception of the re-released ‘Tainted Love’ in ’91, were the decent ‘Jacky’ and ‘The Days Of Pearly Spencer’ covers around that same time.
Not much of a fan of this. The music is certainly very sumptuous but I think the tone of the vocals is over-egging. Is there an echo on Marc’s solo bits? I think there is and it’s too much for me. 4, would be a lot better if it was a bit smaller.
Re 21: Gene’s original didn’t even make the Hot Hundred, but the US tended to go for uptempo Gene more than we did (see the steely Northern sounding She’s A Heartbreaker from ’68 which wasn’t even an A-side in the UK). I do think the original SGHOMH is 10 times better, so creepily intense, even though I was pleased for Gene and Marc in ’89.
I got to see him around this time at the Fairfield Hall in Croydon. Lots of medleys of his hits, and dedications to fans who (as he reads the letter) turn out to be very ill – it was exactly as Nik Cohn had described his 60s shows. Lots of wannabes in the audience who, because Gene was by now a silver fox, made it look like a Steve Martin convention.
Re 17: Oh, 24 Sycamore is a great song isn’t it, originally an album track in 1968. I always picture the house of the title looking like something out of the Brady Bunch – split level, architect designed, but definitely suburban. I remember Gene doing the song on Crackerjack of all places in ’73 (Billy might be able to confirm or deny, maybe it was another song?)
Talking of Billy, my vote for best, most overwrought and obscure Gene P single is Billy You’re My Friend which switches time signatures, volume, and emotional intensity every 30 seconds. Fabulously ambitious.
I’m guessing this is Cook and Greenaway’s last number one.
First and foremost Somethings Gotten Hold… is just a fantastic song.
The tune is so splendid that it lends itself to very different arrangements , the lyrics are wonderfully poetic (somethings gotten into my life/painting my sleep with the colours so bright etc)and the structure of the song rewards imaginative vocal readings. Marc Almond admitted in his autobiography I think that the YOU-YOU-YOU part on this version upped its camp quotient a bit, but really you would need to be utterly tone-deaf to make a hash of this one.
It probably did seem a touch anachronistic at this time (albeit very January-ish), but it certainly held it’s position. The artistes themselves must surely be two of the stranger singing voices to acheive mainstream chart success, but they share the song most admirably.
Wichita @25…”Billy You’re My Friend” is a proper puzzle of a song. Did they want it to be sophisticated widescreen popera, or quirky bubblegum? Instead they chose both. Ambitious indeed!
Re 21: It wasn’t a hit in US because radio stations refused to play a love song sung as a duet between two male singers. At least that was the official reason given to Marc Almond, who saw the records non-promotion as specifically directed against him.
Heard again, it does sound much better than I was expecting, though still not as good as the original. There is a feeling of technical exercise about it – Singer X + Singer Y = Hit Z – that can’t quite override the innate massive excitement of the grand song. I bought it at the time though, being excited to see Marc Almond returning to the public eye. Gene Pitney meant 24 Hours From Tulsa to me at the time, and nothing else. His distinctive vocal stylings were something of an acquired taste, without any obvious parallel in the pop world of the late 1980s, and I amused my friends by impersonating them at the time. Most of my peers automatically disliked this sort of thing as “bender music”, though, I am duty-bound to report.
Number 2 Watch: 3 weeks of Mike & the Mechanics’ ‘The Living Years’. Boo hoo!
TOTPWatch: Almond & Pitney twice performed ‘Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart’ on Top Of The Pops. Its far to early to document the Christmas show…;
19 January 1989. Also in the studio that week were; Roachford, Robert Howard & Kym Mazelle, Holly Johnson and Fine Young Cannibals. Richard Skinner & Bruno Brookes were the hosts.
Robert Howard & Kym Mazelle – Now that is a classic duet!
Light Entertainment Watch A: Marc Almond will always raise the tome of any programme that he appears on;
BLISS: with David Cassidy, Marc Almond, The Cult, Duran Duran, Scritti Politti (1985)
THE LAST RESORT WITH JONATHAN ROSS: with Steve Nieve & The Playboys, Mel Brooks, Marc Almond (1987)
LATER… WITH JOOLS HOLLAND: with The Killers, Pendulum, Fleet Foxes, Little Boots, Al Green, Marc Almond, Monkey Journey To The West (2008)
RIVERSIDE: with Danny and the Nogoodniks, Marc Almond, Victoria Studd (1982)
THE TUBE: with Jools Holland, Leslie Ash, The Cocteau Twins, Kevin Smith, Death Cult, Chris Sivvey, Mark Hurst, Marc And The Mambas, Tony Fletcher (1984)
THE TUBE: with Jools Holland, Paula Yates, Elton John, Mark Smith, Brixie Smith, Comic Strip Team, Marc Almond & The Willing Sinners, The Fall, Carmen (1985)
THE TUBE: with Jools Holland, Paula Yates, Marc Almond, Patrick Donovan, Jaz Coleman, Paul Raven, Joanne Brown, Gordon Blacklock, Clint Ruin, Monochrome Set (1985)
!VIVA CABARET!: with Mike McShane, Marc Almond, Harry Hill, Greg Proops (1993)
WHISTLE TEST: with Marc Almond, The Bangles, Richard Thompson, Gary Moore & Phil Lynott (1985)
THE WHITE ROOM: with Blur, Cast, Lou Reed, Marc Almond (1996)
WOGAN: with Bronski Beat & Marc Almond, William Hall, Virginia Holgate, Peter Massey, Jimmy Nail, Geoffrey Thomson (1985)
WOGAN: with Marc Almond & Gene Pitney, Leonard Nimoy, Dick Vane-Wright (1989)
WOGAN: with Gary Glitter, Andrew Strong, Marc Almond, Peter Benchley (1991)
THE WORD: with Frank Bruno, Marc Almond, Sleeper, Loveland, McAlmont (1995)
That 1991 gold-lame-and-an-orchestra-of-millions Wogan performance of Jacky was one of the great pop television moments of my teenage years. Never seen it since…
Light Entertainment Watch B: Aw! So many performances of Gene Pitney in his sixties prime are lost to posterity;
BILLY COTTON’S MUSIC HALL: with Jimmy Edwards, Gene Pitney, Petula Clark, Don Maclean, Kathie Kay (1968)
CELEBRITY SQUARES: with Kenny Everett (Voice Only), Elaine Delmar, Diana Dors, Noele Gordon, Larry Grayson, Don Maclean, Gene Pitney, William Rushton, Christopher Timothy, Terry Wogan (1978)
COLOUR ME POP: with Gene Pitney, Mike Cotton Sound (1969)
DEE TIME: with Gene Pitney, Brenda Lee, The Peddlers (1967)
DEE TIME: with Jill Day, Gene Pitney, The Duke of Bedford (1968)
THE EAMONN ANDREWS SHOW: with Bob Monkhouse, Clement Freud, Gene Pitney, Mary Wells, Pamela Mason, Spike Milligan (1964)
THE EAMONN ANDREWS SHOW: with Anita Harris, Burt Bacharach, Gene Pitney, Gillian Reynolds, Maurice Woodruff, Wilfrid Hyde-White (1965)
GADZOOKS! IT’S IN THE IN CROWD: with Gene Pitney, The Who, Dana Gillespie (1965)
THE GOLDEN SHOT: with Bob Monkhouse, Carol Dilworth (Golden Girl), Gene Pitney, Andrea Lloyd (Golden Girl), Norman Chappell, Anita Richardson (Golden Girl), Jack Parnell’s Orchestra (1967)
INTERNATIONAL CABARET: with Kenneth Williams, Gene Pitney, Lavedos, Irene Brethier, Robbie Royal (1967)
JOE: with Gene Pitney, Sheila Bernette (1970)
LATE SHOW LONDON: with Adam Faith, Alexis Korner, Gene Pitney, Trevor Evans, Victor Serebriakoff, Nicholas Tomalin (1966)
LULU: with Sue and Sunny, Pan’s People, Johnny Harris and his Orchestra, Gene Pitney, Terry Reid (1969)
THE MORECAMBE AND WISE SHOW: with Millicent Martin, Eric Burdon and the Animals, Gene Pitney, Gladys Whitred, Dinny Powell, Jenny Lee-Wright, Sally Douglas, Jackie Poole, Jonathan Barrett, The Paddy Stone Dancers (1968)
READY STEADY GO!: with Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, Kathy Kirby, Gene Pitney, The Hollies, The Zephyrs (1964)
READY STEADY GO!: with Gene Pitney, The Beach Boys, Dusty Springfield, The Fourmost, Eden Kane (1964)
READY STEADY GO!: with Adam Faith, Marianne Faithfull, The Roulettes, Gene Pitney, The Zombies (1965)
READY STEADY GO!: with Gene Pitney, The Hollies, Herman’s Hermits, Chris Farlowe (1966)
STARBURST: with Gene Pitney, Maggie Moone, Peter Saint, Steve Bor, Jim Bowen (1983)
THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS: with Tony Orlando, The Karl Denver Trio, The Viscounts, Dan Charles, Barbara Kay, Gene Pitney, Sir Jimmy Savile (1962)
THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS: with Brian Matthew, Cliff Richard, The Shadows, Bobby Rydell, Ronnie Carroll, The Rolling Stones, Christopher Sandford, The Breakaways, Gene Pitney, Dave Curtis and the Tremors (1963)
THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS: with Brian Matthew, Gene Pitney, The Four Pennies, Patsy Ann Noble, Twinkle (1964)
THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS: with Brian Matthew, The Dave Clark Five, Mike Hurst, The Overlanders, The Applejacks, Gene Pitney (1964)
THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS: with Brian Matthew, Adam Faith, Herman’s Hermits, Jackie Lee, Gene Pitney (1965)
THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS: with Brian Matthew, Adam Faith, Petula Clark, Gene Pitney, Lulu, The Moody Blues (1965)
THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS: with Brian Matthew, Gerry and The Pacemakers, Gene Pitney, The Yardbirds, Joni Adams (1965)
THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS: with Brian Matthew, Tom Jones, Gene Pitney, The Yardbirds, The Marionettes, Kiki Dee (1966)
TIME FOR BLACKBURN!: with Gene Pitney, Esther & Abi Ofarim, P. P. Arnold, Grapefruit (1968)
TIME FOR BLACKBURN!: with Gene Pitney, Malcolm Roberts, Cupid’s Inspiration (1968)
TIME FOR BLACKBURN!: with Gene Pitney, Spencer Davis (1968)
What does survive is a more modest list;
THE BIG TOP VARIETY SHOW: with Gene Pitney, Showaddywaddy, The Brother Lees (1982)
FROST ON SUNDAY: with Ronnie Corbett, Josephine Tewson, Ronnie Barker, Richard Murdoch, Sam Costa, Kelly Britt, Michael Bentine, Lou Rawls, Gene Pitney (1970)
THE LITTLE AND LARGE SHOW: with Warren Mitchell, Gene Pitney (1986)
SEZ LES: with The Syd Lawrence Orchestra, Les Girls, Gene Pitney, Aimi MacDonald, Design, Roy Barraclough, Anthony Verner, Sylvia Stoker (1972)
SUPERSONIC: with Catherine Howe, Osibisa, Gene Pitney (1976)
THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS: with Brian Matthew, Roy C, Keith Fordyce, Ray Ellington, Herman’s Hermits, Cleo Laine, Helen Shapiro, Gene Pitney, Miss Ruby Miller (1966)
WHEELTAPPERS AND SHUNTERS SOCIAL CLUB: with Bernard Manning (Compere), Gene Pitney, Rivendell, Paul Daniels, Royal Polynesian Revue (1975)
WOGAN: with Marc Almond & Gene Pitney, Leonard Nimoy, Dick Vane-Wright (1989)
Re 25: Sadly, no 1973 editions of Crackerjack survive at all. Something tells me that they would have been the very first tapes that the BBC would have elected to wipe over.
>>Re 17: Oh, 24 Sycamore is a great song isn’t it, originally an album track in 1968
I could have sworn this was a hit for Wayne Fontana back in days of yore….at least, his is the only version I know of.
At the beginning of 2003, I was 14 years old and a bit frustrated with the Pop Idol/Fame Academy crap in the charts at the time. I turned on the ‘Magic’ music channel, and they were playing this. I was convinced it was a brand new song, so to find out it was released just months after I was born surprised me.
That channel introduced me to a hell of a load of songs, mostly from the 80s, that I’d never heard before, but this one always stuck in the mind – there’s just an incredible, movie-like feel to it that sounds so different to anything else in the Stock Aitken Waterman dominated charts at the time. It’s also never become overplayed – in fact I never see or hear it played now at all, which is a shame as I agree it’s never dated. The version of it on my iPod is copied from a cassette tape of a Now album, as I’ve never been able to find it on any CD compilations.
So, heh, are any Popularistas going to (try to) watch the Arcade Fire youtube live-stream concert tonight (bit late for those in the UK I know)?
Although he was still registering Top 40 entries as late as 1974, the original “Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart” was Gene Pitney’s last UK top ten hit, reaching #5 at the tail end of 1967; fittingly, since the song seemed to provide his tortured story with a belated happy ending – and where else was there to go from there?
From “Town Without Pity” via “24 Hours From Tulsa” to “Backstage (I’m Lonely),” Pitney as a balladeer (as opposed to Pitney as a rocker, who did exist but hardly registered with British audiences) was never allowed to be happy; ignoble defeat in love and life was his thing, his tarnished beauty mark. Something like “I’m Gonna Be Strong,” one of his biggest records (#2 in the autumn of 1964), manages even to outdo Orbison’s “It’s Over” in its slow-dawning realisation that all is ash. When Frankie Laine recorded the song to Jack Nitzsche’s arrangement the previous year, he maintained poise and stalwartness; but Pitney made his voice move up, along with the chords ascending to his private hell, on the final extended “cry” (and thus was the missing link between Johnnie Ray and Godley and Creme). In addition, his high-pitched androgynous voice suggested other subtexts; the about turn in “Tulsa” has been interpreted in gay terms, though the happily-married grandfather Pitney would have doubtless good-naturedly scoffed at such a thought.
When Marc Almond came to tackle the song, it had been some five years since Soft Cell had fallen apart. Since then he had seldom troubled the Top 40 but had reined back on the life-threatening excesses of Soft Cell’s later days to reinvent himself as a respected songwriter and nearly matchless song interpreter (see, for instance, his 1987, lyrically unaltered reading of Cher’s “A Woman’s Story”) and established a comfortable and loyal cult following. In the wake of Nick Cave’s recording of “Something’s Gotten Hold” on his 1986 covers album Kicking Against The Pricks, Almond was inspired to have a go and, idolising Pitney, made overtures towards him to contribute at least some backing vocals to the track. Since Pitney’s teenage daughter’s bedroom was at the time covered with posters and pictures of Almond and Soft Cell, he didn’t need much persuading, and suggested turning the track into a full-blown duet.
It’s significant that “Something’s Gotten Hold” surfaced at the end of 1967, since it was one of several ballads of the period tinged with hazes of the remnants of psychedelia (though its writers, Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway, were quick to dismiss any notion of its being a drug song) – “painting my sleep with a colour so bright,” “turning me up, turning me down” – but it was also ideal as a “happy ending” for Pitney, since his slightly fearful delivery on the original record suggests that he’s been down and beaten for so long that love now appears to him as something alien and frightening – note the “cutting its way through my dreams like a knife” and especially “dragging my soul to a beautiful land” as though he has to be frogmarched back to happiness, rather than walking back.
Listening to Almond’s demo, Pitney was hugely impressed by the modifications which Almond had made to the song’s delivery, particularly the extending of “grey” and “blue” to three syllables apiece and the “you! You! YOU!” triplet at the song’s climax (“He’s made the song more singable,” Pitney said at the time). With this in mind he charges into the second verse, providing authority to underline Almond’s innocence, and is always prodding and supporting when he is not actually coming forward. He sounded more alive than he’d done for years.
Overall, the Almond/Pitney “Something’s Gotten Hold” was a dream of a record, in the Frankie “Power Of Love” sense; as with the latter, producer Stephen Hague builds it up in layers of angel wings, and aided by the sumptuously relevant string arrangement, the record seems to ebb, flow and peak in total concord with the two singers. Its triumph was a late miracle for New Pop, but also New Pop’s own “happy ending”; its magic had been acknowledged by, and absorbed into, the continuum of history, such that New Pop now formed part of the basic fabric of pop music as a whole. It was its ultimate, and nearly perfect, blessing.
Apropos the demise of Gene. The Swede quotes Wiki:
‘Pitney died on April 5, 2006, aged 66. His tour manager found him dead in the Hilton Hotel, in Cardiff, Wales, in the middle of a UK tour. His final show at Cardiff’s St. David’s Hall was a success, with a standing ovation, ending the show with “Town Without Pity”.’
After which, of course, Cardiff was dubbed “Town Without Pitney”…
Coat.
Dunno about Frank Carson or Steve Martin but in the video (can’t see a link at the top, so here’s one), Pitney reminds me very strongly of Paul Gambaccini.
My dad had a copy of “I’m Gonna Be Strong”, which he bought when it was a hit in 1964, when I was three; it was quite a rare occurrence for him to buy a record, so Gene Pitney, and that song, have been around forever, as far as I am concerned. I can remember (some years later, obv.) noticing that Gene Pitney was the first singer I had heard, apart from cartoon characters and novelty songs, who “put on a voice” when he sang (our house obviously being devoid of Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, Adam Faith et al).
As a result, great though the song was, I could never really take Pitney seriously.
That changed in the 80s, when a couple of his albums surfaced in a job lot I bought at a jumble sale. Most of the songs referred to above were on these albums, and, by now accepting that singers often “put on” their voices, I was amazed at what a fine stylist he was, brilliantly demonstrated in “Billy, You’re My Friend”, as pointed out by Mr Lineman above.
I would like to have seen Gene Pitney, but he had become a bit of an anachronism – he should still have been concentrating on the singing, not visiting hospitals and old folks’ homes and reading out sob stories like some sort of Val Doonican wannabe.
Both of these singers on this track, Pitney and Almond, are rather Marmite-y, and I can understand anyone not warming to their styles, but put them together here, and it works. Almond is outsung by the old master, but it’s not a competition, it’s nominally a joint effort, but to me Pitney bosses it – reining Almond in when he needs to, and showing him how it should be done at other times.
A refreshing and somewhat surprising number one; i’m rather pleased it kept Mike and the Mechanics away from popular. Woo-Hoo. An 8.
Amen to that! “The Living Years” = worst number two EVER*
(*at the moment anyway; the real “winner” is probably “Honey” since it had the nerve to get to number two TWICE)
Oh, God, Marcello. Don’t let’s get started on “the worst number two EVER”. There’ll be fighting in the streets of Lambeth North, mate! Something for another place, surely?
# 41 Honey is terrific ; let’s hope Lena knocks some sense into you when she gets round to it :-). Worst ever ? God knows but that “Raving I’m Raving ” thing must be in with a shout.
Lena and I are in firm agreement that “Honey” is a wretched piece of excrement, the uncalled-for missing link between Presley’s “Old Shep” and Lou Reed’s “Caroline Says.” “Raving I’m Raving” is great, grandad.
#44 I was born later in the same year as you, Mr C. Leaving out any dance-y contenders are you seriously saying “Birdie Song”, “More Than In Love” and “Teddy Bear” (to cite 3 from just one year) are better records ?
Punctum unwittingly articulating the tensions that make Honey such a compelling listen there.
Off the top of my head, I’d nominate the Fat Boys brace of number 2s as the absolute nadir.
(Sigh!)
Back to favourite Gene Pitney singles, I think I’d chose Backstage. This is why;
I can never understand why Gene Pitney doesn’t have the same kudos as Roy Orbison. Both men worked within the same form, the highly melodramatic ballad, and both used highly distinctive voices to extract the maximum possible emotion out of their material. Both singers also always came across as being genuinely humble and modest in interviews.
In Pitney’s case, the voice is a quavering adenoidal tenor, purpose built for the expression of anguish. The amazing thing about this voice is that it will build and build throughout a song, and then – just when the listener thinks that things couldn’t possibly get any more exciting or compelling – build *some more*, reaching a kind of delirious catharsis.
The songs that he interpreted were generally short and unhappy. They are usually tales of lost love, or the fear of being about to lose love. When, less often, Pitney sings about finding love, the effect is equally uncomfortable, because he tends to be consumed by guilt at stealing someone’s girl or cheating on someone, most famously in ’24 Hours From Tulsa’. ‘Backstage’ is a definitive lost love tale, given a metatheatrical spin through being the story of a successful pop star.
A brief drumroll and fanfare sets the scene. “Ladies and gentlemen, tonight’s star attraction”;
A thousand hands –
applaud tonight…
I sing my songs…
My star shines bright…
I stop and smile…
I take my bow…
I leave the stage…
and then some-how –
Hubris is swiftly followed by nemesis;
Backstage I’m lonelee
Backstage I cry
You’ve gone away
Diminuetto;
and each night
I seem
to die
a little…
On the second verse, Pitney becomes notably louder and more desperate-sounding;
Out on that stage
I’ll play the star
I’m famous now!
I’ve come so far..
A famous FOOL!
I let love GO!
I didn’t KNOW!
I’d miss you SO!
It’s taken a while to get there, but the second chorus brings the first extended anguished phrase;
Backstage I’m lonelee!
Backstage I cry
Hating myself
since I let you say –
GOODBYYYYYYYYE!
A middle eight cranks up the tempo, the strings echoing the singer’s manic excitement;
Every night a different girl!
(jajajajajajaJA!)
Every night a different club!
(jajajajajajaJA!)
And yet I’m lonely all the time…
(swirlywirlwirlwirl)
When I sign my auto-graph!
(jajajajajajaJA!)
When I hold an in-ter-view!
(jajajajajajaJA!)
Can’t get you out of my MIIIIND!
The point of self-revelation;
Come back my love!
Come back to me!
I need you now!
So desperatelee!
What good is fame?
It’s just a game!
I’d give it awll to be the same
Backstage I wait now –
ho-ping I’ll see
Your smiling face waiting there backstage for meeee-eeee!
(A trumpet backs that “meeee-eeee!”)
Your SMI!LING! face waiting backstage for meeeeee-eeeeee!
She won’t be there. Surely that’s it?
No. Pitney reminds us of the scene;
BACKSTAAAAAAAAGE!
And them, that astonishing Roy Orbison trick of taking things one stage further than anyone could realistically expect them to go;
BACKSTAAAAAAAAAAAA-AAGE!
I’ve found a new layer of poignancy in this song since the 2006 death of Gene Pitney, alone in a Cardiff hotel room, after a show on a comeback tour. When he was found dead on his hotel bed he was fully dressed and looked, according to his tour manager, “as though he had gone for a lie down”.
Actually the number of dreadful ballads that stopped just short of the top spot in 1989 seems quite hefty. Half of the year’s runners-up qualify and they are ALL untickable/5-or-lower imo, unless you’re feeling very charitable towards Hull’s “finest”…
#48 Best way to go though. In good health to the last minute, just finished a great show then out without a struggle. I’d take that.