Saturday August 1, 2020 “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” Gene Pitney
A very distinctive and remarkable voice.
Gene Pitney wrote his first hit, “I Wanna Love My Life Away”, and played all the instruments as well as multi-tracking his vocals, in 1961 when this was unheard of. After that Pitney was asked to sing the Dimitri Tiomkin (think the John Williams of his era) composed title song for the Kirk Douglas movie Town Without Pity. Today’s song was written by legendary composers Burt Bacharach and Hal David and was commissioned for the John Wayne/James Stewart movie of the same name, The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance. It was not included in the film because either the director John Ford hated it or there was a publishing rights dispute, both versions having some credibility.
In addition to his sixteen top forty hits, Pitney wrote "Rubber Ball" for Bobby Vee, "Hello Mary Lou" for Ricky Nelson, and "He's a Rebel" for the Crystals. "Rebel" kept Pitney's own number two hit "Only Love Can Break a Heart", his highest-charting single in the US, from the top spot, the only time that a writer shut himself (or herself) out of the number one position.
Pitney had a continuing successful career in the UK and Australia even though he would fade from the limelight in the US. He was wise enough to mke many successful real estate investments in his home state of Connecticut and owned the Crystal Lake Beach and Boat Club (are you thinking Friday the 13th?)
As an aside, the lyric in the song suggests that the man who shot Liberty Valance (the great Lee Marvin) was ‘the bravest of them all’ when in fact he (John Wayne) was hidden in an alley when he shot him.
Stay safe and well...and don’t mess around with Liberty Valance, or Jim I guess.
