Gene Pitney - Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart

[The Mollusk]

Something's gotten hold of my heart
Keeping my soul and my senses apart
Something's gotten into my life
Cutting it's way through my dreams like a knife

This song deserves to be held in the same high regard as the big hitters of Spooky Roy Orbison. Absolute barnstormer.

The lonesome country edge of the music is complimented perfectly by the dark and restless reverie of the lyrics, where our uncertain hero is hesitant to completely succumb to the feelings of romance that have upended his peaceful existence, peaking in the bombastic bridge section with its rousing swell of snare drums where he begs "I've got to know if this is the real thing!"

Pitney's voice is sublime. He's got a handful of other great hits - Looking Through the Eyes of Love, Liberty Valance, Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa - but this song towers above all. I am enraptured by it from start to finish and always compelled to wheel it up and run it again when it's done.

No I have not heard the duet version with Marc "Dirty Old Bollocks" Almond and I do not care to. I like Soft Cell as much as the next person but I'm not having this belter tarnished by anyone. It's bad enough that my greatest hits CD has an alternate version where he sings different notes on "changing the grey, changing the blue" and most of the singing in the bridge section is omitted (WHY?), and that's as far as I'm letting this song slip from my otherwise pristine esteem.

[phantom_power]

It's a belter. And Town Without Pity is just as good:

[another Mr. Lizard]

'Backstage' gets my vote. Scott Walker levels of intensity. You could almost imagine 21st century Scott performing it with a couple of mallets and a strung-up animal carcass.

[sevendaughters]

ah I don't think Pitney's got the voice to carry the emotional peak of the song, it goes a bit crooner with ambition, no gravitas.

I would do a similar thread for 'Rose Marie' by Slim Whitman, which is absolutely the equal of the Orb's 'Crying'.

[Dr Rock]

In my top three songs, I discovered this, the 45 played at 33.

[monkfromhavana]

I like it when he performed it sitting on a tractor.

[Captain Z]

[Cleveland Steamer]

I do like the song, the intro in particular, but it's not on the level of Raw Bison. There's something about his voice that doesn't quite get there for me. I prefer "Town Without Pity".

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

He sounds a bit like Vincent Price on the Almond duet.

[Chicory]

ah I don't think Pitney's got the voice to carry the emotional peak of the song, it goes a bit crooner with ambition, no gravitas.

This is where YOUR BLOCKED's vocals on the '88 version really help it soar where the original sort of hovers.  Pitney's voice is much better too.

[Clatty McCutcheon]

Some vibrato ol' Gene had, eh?

Was the version with Almond really 1988? Christ. I would've placed it around 1990. I remember seeing it on TOTP, and thinking 'who is this old bloke?'.

Almond's always mucking around with other people's songs though isn't he? Like adding his own extra verse to 'The Days of Pearly Spencer', although I like both the original and the Almond version, to be fair.

[The Mollusk]

I am a particularly big fan of the bit after the first soaring ALL OF MY DAAAAAAYYYYSSSSS chorus where he goes "I gotta tell you now". The way that line tumbles down into the next verse is so satisfying.

[BlodwynPig]

Some vibrato ol' Gene had, eh?

Was the version with Almond really 1988? Christ. I would've placed it around 1990. I remember seeing it on TOTP, and thinking 'who is this old bloke?'.

Almond's always mucking around with other people's songs though isn't he? Like adding his own extra verse to 'The Days of Pearly Spencer', although I like both the original and the Almond version, to be fair.

The song soundtracked my coming of age. i.e. discovery of masturbation.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

I see. What exactly was it about the song which made you reach into your pyjama bottoms?

[BlodwynPig]

I see. What exactly was it about the song which made you reach into your pyjama bottoms?

It was not that it kick started it, more that it soundtracked the first explorations.