Fact #84392
When:
Short story:
Gene Pitney performs Town
Without Pity on daily tv show American
Bandstand, recorded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Full article:
Gene Pitney : The success with Town Without Pity was a bit freakish. The film was released before the record came out, and hadn't done too well, but then about six months later, my record of the song was issued by the record label, and that went Top 10.
I realise now looking back that it was probably one of the first, if not the first, protest song in pop music. rnNow when the record became a hit, there was a lot of interest in the movie, so the studios re-released the film and all of a sudden, mainly due to the song, the film became a hit! Next thing is, we're being inundated with songs from films, soundtracks, scores etc., and most of them we passed on. But when "Liberty Valance" came in - well the song had been written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, John Ford was directing, it starred Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne and Lee Marvin - I mean, you couldn't turn it down, and we didn't, and am I glad!rn(Source : unknown)
Tweet this Fact
I realise now looking back that it was probably one of the first, if not the first, protest song in pop music. rnNow when the record became a hit, there was a lot of interest in the movie, so the studios re-released the film and all of a sudden, mainly due to the song, the film became a hit! Next thing is, we're being inundated with songs from films, soundtracks, scores etc., and most of them we passed on. But when "Liberty Valance" came in - well the song had been written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, John Ford was directing, it starred Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne and Lee Marvin - I mean, you couldn't turn it down, and we didn't, and am I glad!rn(Source : unknown)