Editing Gene Pitney (section)

===Rise to fame (1961–1964)===
Signed to songwriter [[Aaron Schroeder]]'s newly formed [[Musicor Records|Musicor]] label in 1961, Pitney scored his first chart single, which made the Top 40, the self-penned "[[(I Wanna) Love My Life Away]]", on which he played several instruments and [[Multitrack recording|multi-tracked]] the vocals. He followed that same year with his first Top 20 single, "[[Town Without Pity (song)|Town Without Pity]]", from the 1961 [[Town Without Pity|film of the same title]]. Written by [[Dimitri Tiomkin]] and [[Ned Washington]], the song won a [[Golden Globe Award]] and was nominated for an [[Academy Award for Best Song]], but lost to "[[Moon River]]". Pitney performed the song at the Oscars ceremony on April 9, 1962.

He is also remembered for the [[Burt Bacharach]]–[[Hal David]] song "[[(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance]]", which peaked at #4 in 1962. Though it shares a title with [[The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance|the John Wayne western]], the song was not used in the film because of a publishing dispute.

Meanwhile, Pitney wrote hits for others, including "Today's Teardrops" for [[Roy Orbison]], "Rubber Ball" for [[Bobby Vee]], "[[Hello Mary Lou]]" for [[Ricky Nelson]], and "[[He's a Rebel]]" for [[the Crystals]] (later recorded by [[Vikki Carr]] and [[Elkie Brooks]]). "Rebel" kept Pitney's own #2 hit "[[Only Love Can Break a Heart]]", his highest-charting single in the US, from the top spot on 3 November 1962, the only time that a writer shut himself (or herself) out of the #1 position.<ref>[[Casey Kasem]], ''[[American Top 40]]'', 24 May 1986.</ref>

He followed up in December with "[[Half Heaven, Half Heartache]]", which reached #12 on the ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' chart. Because of his success on the music charts, and as he explained to his friend, oldies DJ 'Wild' Wayne, an unknown radio disc jockey at the time gave Pitney the nickname 'The Rockville Rocket', which caught on.

Pitney's popularity in the UK market was ensured by the breakthrough success of "[[Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa]]", a Bacharach and David song, which peaked at #5 in Britain at the start of 1964. It was only Pitney's third single release in the UK to reach the singles chart, and the first to break into the Top Twenty there; it was also a hit in the US, peaking at #17 on the Hot 100.