He is probably most famous for the song 'Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa'.

Pitney - who found fame with Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa - was pronounced dead at the Hilton hotel, Welsh Capital, Cardiff, UK Wednesday, April 5, 2006 at 10 am, after giving the "performance of his life" the night before. On April 4, 2006, during a tour of the UK, he performed at St. David's Hall in South Wales and received a standing ovation following the show; his final song that night was Town Without Pity. The following morning he was discovered dead in his bed at the Hilton Hotel in Cardiff, Wales. He died from natural causes.

Gene was born on February 17, 1940, in Hartford, CT the son of the late Harold F. and Anna A. (Orlowski) Pitney. He was passionate about his work, but most of all he loved being home with his family. He will be dearly missed, but will live on through his music. He is survived by his loving wife Lynne (Gayton) Pitney, his three sons, Todd, Chris and his wife Shannon, and David; his Akita, Gracie; two brothers Francis Pitney and Dennis Pitney; two sisters Shirley Stutz and Nancy Pike; several nieces and nephews. He also leaves his many close friends, associates and dedicated fans from around the world.

Gene Pitney is an interesting figure on the face of the rock-and-roll map. He was a good singer with a distinctive voice who sang songs written by others, and he was a good songwriter, whose songs were recorded and made into hits by others.

He was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1941, but spent most of his youth in Rockville, Connecticut. He formed a band while a student at Rockville High School, then headed for New York City and the Brill Building.

In 1959 Gene Pitney joined with a young singer named Ginny Arnell and recorded some tunes for Decca as Jamie & Jane. After a stop at Blaze and some solo recordings under the assumed name, Billy Bryan, Gene recorded under his own name for Festival in 1960. He was also a budding songwriter and tried to push his songs to anyone who would listen. Brill Building veterans Burt Bacharach and Hal David liked what they saw and formed an alliance with the ambitious young singer/songwriter

Under the guidance of Phil Spector, Gene recorded a song for Musicor in 1961 that was to be his breakthrough hit. Town Without Pity, a song from the film of the same title, was a smash hit record in 1962 and the record-buying public began to take notice. Bacharach and David were churning out songs in the early 60's that Gene turned into hits: [The Man Who Shot] Liberty Valance, Only Love Can Break A Heart -- his biggest hit ever, and Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa. Valance was inspired by the John Wayne/Jimmy Stewart movie of the same name, but the song was never actually sung in the movie itself.

And he wasn't just singing. Some of the songs he wrote [or co-wrote] were just as popular as those he sang -- the Crystals with He's A Rebel, Ricky Nelson with Hello Mary Lou, Bobby Vee with Rubber Ball, Roy Orbison with Today's Teardrops, and the list goes on.

As the 60's wore on, Gene continued to sell records: Mecca, It Hurts To Be In Love, I'm Gonna Be Strong.

As big a star as he had become in the United States, Gene Pitney was an even bigger star in the United Kingdom. His publicist, Andrew Loog Oldham, acted in the same role for the Rolling Stones and Gene did some things with them. A song written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, That Girl Belongs To Yesterday, was recorded by Gene and went to number seven on the UK charts. He played maracas on the Stones' recording of Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away, and piano in the background of some other songs by the Rolling Stones. Pitney had 16 top forty songs in the USA from 1961 to 1968, and he had more than forty such songs in the UK all the way up to 1989.

In later years Gene sang some country music, and made some recordings in Italian. Pitney continued touring and performing throughout his life. Gene always had a strong voice and was well liked in the music business. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

http://www.rockhall.com/hof/inductee.asp?id=1774

One of the most interesting and difficult-to-categorize singers in '60s pop, Gene Pitney had a long run of hits distinguished by his pained, one-of-a-kind melodramatic wail. Pitney is sometimes characterized (or dismissed) as a shallow teen idol-type prone to operatic ballads. It's true that some of his biggest hits - "Town Without Pity," "Only Love Can Break a Heart," "I'm Gonna Be Strong," "It Hurts to Be in Love," and "Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa" - are archetypes of adolescent or just-post-adolescent agony, characterized by longing and not a little self-pity.

Singing "Town Without Pity" in 1965

But Pitney was not just an archetype of his style - he was one of the best at his style, and indeed one of the few (along with Roy Orbison) that could pull it off convincingly. Also (like Orbison), he had more range than he's generally given credit for, making forays into tough pop/rock, country, and even borderline rockabilly. Other than Dionne Warwick, he was the best interpreter of Bacharach-David's early compositions. Although he didn't pen much of his material, he was a composer of note, writing "He's a Rebel" for the Crystals, and "Hello Mary Lou" for Rick Nelson. He was also something of a closet hipster - he was the first American artist to cover a Jagger-Richards song ("That Girl Belongs to Yesterday," which was a British hit before the Rolling Stones had ever entered the U.S. Top 100), contributed to an actual Rolling Stones session in early 1964 (during which they recorded "Not Fade Away"), had a brief fling with a teenage Marianne Faithfull, and recorded songs by Randy Newman and Al Kooper long before those musicians became famous.

His 40-year career included hits such as "It Hurts to Be in Love," "(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance," "Every Breath I Take," "Town Without Pity," "Only Love Can Break a Heart" and the operatic "I'm Gonna Be Strong." His last U.S. hit was "She's a Heartbreaker" in 1968.

Pitney was also a highly regarded songwriter -- he wrote the Crystals' No. 1 hit, "He's a Rebel," Rick Nelson's smash "Hello Mary Lou" and Bobby Vee's "Rubber Ball." Some of his own hits, though -- "Only Love," "Liberty Valance" and "Tulsa" -- were written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

He was an early subject of Phil Spector's Wall of Sound -- Spector produced Pitney's version of Carole King and Gerry Goffin's "Every Breath I Take" as well as the Crystals' "He's a Rebel" -- and an early supporter of British bands such as the Rolling Stones.

Pitney recorded Mick Jagger and Keith Richards' "That Girl Belongs to Yesterday" and attended the session at which the Stones recorded "Not Fade Away," according to Allmusic.com.

Pitney was introduced to a new generation of fans in 1989 when he recorded "Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart" as a duet with Marc Almond, the UK's Press Association reported.

The single gave Pitney his first UK No. 1 -- 22 years after its first release, PA added.

Lynne Pitney follows the casket of her husband, singer Gene Pitney, with son Chris, left, and daughter-in-law Shannon, behind, at All Saints Catholic Church in Somers, Conn. on Wednesday. (AP / Jessica Hill)

SOMERS, Conn. -- Condolences and flowers came in from all over the world. Gene Pitney, 66, who died last week while touring in Wales, was remembered during funeral services Wednesday as a friend and neighbor who, regardless of where he traveled, cherished coming back home to be with his wife and three sons.

"He loved being here, not in Hollywood," Somers resident Chett Ladd said.

Pitney, whose keening voice produced a string of hits including "Town Without Pity," died of natural causes. He was found dead April 5 in his hotel room a day after he had played a concert that fans claimed was one of his best.

About 300 mourners attended services at All Saints Church. Fans from around the country and the world expressed their condolences on the Web site of the Rockville funeral home that handled the arrangements.

During a long career, Pitney had hits as a singer -- "24 Hours from Tulsa," "(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance," and "Half Heaven, Half Heartache." As a writer, he penned "Hello Mary Lou" for Ricky Nelson and "Rubber Ball" for Bobby Vee. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

Mourners included neighbors and lifelong fans. Paul Gagliarducci, a longtime family friend, called Pitney "a man full of quiet generosity."

Linda Mallory of Chicago said she fell in love with Pitney and his music when she was 13 and traveled to Connecticut for his wake. She estimates she's been to more than 30 of his concerts since 2000.

"I was in love as I could be as a 13-year-old," Mallory said.

Gary Rue, of Minneapolis, who toured the United States with Pitney as his musical director for nearly 18 years, said working with him was a wonderful experience.

"I'm going to miss him, bad," Rue said.

Born in Hartford, Conn., Pitney married his high school sweetheart, Lynne, in 1967, and kept a base in Connecticut all his life. He built a recording studio in his home in Somers, 20 miles northeast of Hartford.

Pitney was buried in Somers Center Cemetery.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/4878926.stm