Category: Pop (Page 205 of 216)

Gene Pitney has died.

The man who sang “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” “Town Without Pity,” and “24 Hours From Tulsa” was found dead in his hotel room his morning, after having played a show the previous evening. Pitney had been on tour in the UK, where he’d maintained a significant level of popularity since duetting with Soft Cell frontman Marc Almond on a cover of his ’60s hit, “Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart.”

In tribute, I went immediately to CDBaby.com and ordered He’s A Rebel: The Gene Pitney Story Retold, which features covers of Pitney’s songs by the underground power pop community, including contributions from Mark Johnson, the Waking Hours, Michael Shelley, Chris Von Sneidern, Al Kooper, Ed James, Barry Holdship, and Jeremy, among others.

Goodbye, Gene.

Doug Powell is one of the most underrated singer/songwriters in the business…both by major labels and, unfortunately, most consumers. Fortunately, however, his fellow musicians know who he is.

Powell got his first break because, in his words, he “assaulted Jules Shear” with a tape of his songs, which led to Shear producing a demo for Powell in hopes of scoring him a deal with Elektra. The plan failed – Elektra took a pass – but, by 1994, he had a deal with RCA, for whom he recorded Ballad of a Tin Man. Unfortunately, he was dropped before it was released. By ’95, however, Mercury picked him up and released the album, possibly because he’d appeared on the radar by touring as an opening act for Todd Rundgren. Perhaps predictably, Mercury threw little effort into promoting the album, then dumped him when it flopped. Since then, he’s released albums through Not Lame and Parasol, but, after his 2004 release, Day For Night, he more or less retired from the music biz to write a book on Christian Apologetics and work on his Master’s Degree.

Fortunately, he’s coming back…if only with an odds-and-sods collection of demos and rarities, to be released through Paisley Pop Records. Still, somethin’ is better than nothin’. Plus, he’s written some songs for the New Cars…which, at last, gives us a good reason to root for their success.