Today’s “forgotten” artist is another Hall of Fame inductee. Gene Pitney entered the Rock Hall in 2002, which feels like a bit of a reach given that he had fewer hits and less influence than some of the others acts I’ve featured.
Pitney’s best-known single is ‘(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance,’ a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David that was not included in the movie of the same name (despite Paramount paying for the recording session).
He had a hit with another song that did appear in its titular film: ‘Town Without Pity.’ That melodramatic track won a Golden Globe but lost the Academy Award to Breakfast at Tiffany’s‘ ‘Moon River.’
Pitney took another Bacharach/David composition, ‘Only Love Can Break a Heart,’ all the way to #2 and he made it to #7 with rockier ‘It Hurts To Be in Love.‘ The latter is the one Pitney song I recognize.
Pitney died of a heart attack in 2006 after playing a concert in Wales. He was 66.
The women folk would hide, they’d hide
When Liberty Valance walked around
The men would step aside
Because the point of a gun
Was the only law that Liberty understood
When it came to shooting, straight and fast
He was mighty good
From out of the east a stranger came
A law book in his hand, a man
The kind of a man the West would need
To tame a troubled land
‘Cause the point of a gun
Was the only law that Liberty understood
When it came to shooting, straight and fast
He was mighty good
Many a man would face his gun and many a man would fall
The man who shot Liberty Valance
He shot Liberty Valance
He was the bravest of them all
The love of a girl can make a man
Stay on when he should go, stay on
Just trying to build a peaceful life
Where love is free to grow
But the point of a gun
Was the only law that Liberty understood
When the final showdown came to pass
A law book was no good
Alone and afraid she prayed that he’d
Return that fateful night, ah, that night
When nothing she said could keep
Her man from going out to fight
From the moment a girl gets to be full grown
The very first thing she learns
When two men go out to face each other
Only one returns
Everyone heard two shots ring out
The shot made Liberty fall
The man who shot Liberty Valance
He shot Liberty Valance
He was the bravest of them all
The man who shot Liberty Valance
He shot Liberty Valance
He was the bravest of them all
Meet Me In Montauk 
His name is not familiar to me, though I’ve heard “Town without Pity” before.