Wednesday January 27, 2021 “Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa” Gene Pitney
As the title suggests we are in Oklahoma on our road trip and as hard as it was to resist going with something from the famous Broadway musical of the same name, I did.
Why “Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa”? Because I have always liked Gene Pitney’s very unique almost melodramatic voice which is suited perfectly to this musical story of infidelity on the road.
“Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa” was written by Burt Bachrach and Hal David specifically for Gene Pitney who had a previous hit record with their tune “The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance” which was supposed to be used over the closing credits of the John Wayne movie of the same name, but well it wasn’t.
Pitney was an accomplished songwriter and multi-instrumentalist as well, who wrote “He’s A Rebel'' recorded by the Crystals and produced by Phil Spector, “Rubber Ball” a hit for Bobby Vee and “Hello Mary Lou'' recorded by Rick Nelson. Pitney wrote, produced and multi-tracked all the vocals for his own first hit song “(I Wanna) Love My Life Away” and he also played all of the instruments on it as well.
Stay safe and well...and yes for all of you purists I do realize that if you are twenty four hours from Tulsa you really are nowhere near Oklahoma.