farewell Gene Pitney who died in Cardiff, touring the UK which always revered him.

A favorite of mine since infancy & one of the really great voices of the rock era, whether on Bacharach/David songs like "24 Hours to Tulsa", "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" or his own compositions, like "Mecca", "I Wanna Love My Life Away" (on which he played all the instruments) &c. &c. (He also wrote "He's A Rebel" for Spector, who produced "Every Little Breath I Take" in return, "Hello Mary Lou" for Ricky Nelson, "Red Rubber Ball" for Bobby Vee). Also recorded duets with George Jones & Melba Montgomery as well as having a whole career in Italian. Played piano & percussion for the young Stones--that's him shakin' the "Not Fade Away" maracas! A lot of his filler-free albums are hard to come by (thanks Lary), but there was a good 2-cd best of on Tomato a few years back which scratched the surface effectively. But if anyone deserves a giant collected box its Gene.