#5: Half Heaven-Half Heartache by Gene Pitney

City: London, ON
Radio Station: CFPL
Peak Month: January 1963
Peak Position in London ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #20
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #12
YouTube: “Half Heaven-Half Heartache
Lyrics: “Half Heaven-Half Heartache

Gene Pitney was born in 1940 in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a songwriter who became a pop singer, something rare at the time. Some of the songs he wrote for other recording artists include “Rubber Ball” for Bobby Vee, “He’s A Rebel” for The Crystals and “Hello Mary Lou” for Ricky Nelson. Pitney was more popular in Vancouver than in his native America. Over his career he charted 14 songs into the Top Ten in Vancouver, while he only charted four songs into the Top Ten on the Billboard Hot 100. Curiously, only two of these songs overlap: “(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Vallance” and “I’m Gonna Be Strong”. Surprisingly “Only Love Can Break A Heart”, which peaked at #2 in the USA, stalled at #14 in Vancouver, and “It Hurts To Be In Love” stalled at #11 in Vancouver while it peaked at #7 south of the border.

Pitney fronted a doo-wop group in his teens at high school called Gene & The Genials and for his next group called The Embers. He was influenced by the doo-wop group, The Crows, and by R&B singer Clyde McPhatter who was the lead singer for The Drifters. He also recorded in 1959 under the alias of Billy Bryan to record “Cradle Of My Arms”. In 1959, Pitney was also one half of the duo Jamie & Jane who recorded “Snuggle Up Baby” and “Faithful Our Love”.

He was signed up with to songwriter Aaron Schroeder’s new label, Musicor, in 1960, Pitney scored his first chart single. The disc climbed to #39 on the Billboard Hot 100. The self-penned “(I Wanna) Love My Life Away”, on which he played several instruments and multi-tracked the vocals. Next, Gene Pitney released “Town Without Pity” in the winter of 1961. The song was featured in the film of the same name. It climbed to #13 in the USA.

Pitney wrote “Hello Mary Lou”, a hit in ’61 for Ricky Nelson. In 1962, he released “(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance,” which peaked at #4. The song shares a title with a 1962 John Ford western with the same title, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, starring John Wayne. However, Gene Pitney’s “Liberty Vallance” wasn’t used in the film due to a publishing dispute between Famous Music and Paramount Pictures.

In August 1962, Pitney released “Only Love Can Break A Heart”, which was kept out of the #1 position by The Crystals recording of Pitney’s composition, “He’s A Rebel”. But in Vancouver (BC), it was the B-side – “If I Didn’t Have A Dime (To Play The Jukebox)” – that began to chart on CFUN the week of August 25th. Pitney’s next single was “Half Heaven-Half Heartache”.

Half Heaven-Half Heartache by Gene Pitney

“Half Heaven-Half Heartache” was written by Aaron Schroeder and Wally Gold. The song is about someone who is going steady with a new love. Each time he kisses her lips it’s half heaven. However, he concludes she has a former boyfriend on her mind: “But when you touch my lips you’re kissing him not me.” He wonders, “Can’t you forget the other love you knew?” He prays that his love for her will be strong enough to take away the heartache of knowing she’s thinking of a former love whenever she kisses him. It’s a messy dynamic, as expressed in Pitney’s emotive treatment of the song.

In 1928, Wally Gold was born in Teaneck, New Jersey. He formed the Four Esquires in 1956 who had a Top 30 hit with “Hideaway”. Gold wrote “Look Homeward, Angel”, a hit for Johnnie Ray in 1957. In the 1960’s he co-wrote Elvis Presley’s “Good Luck Charm” and “It’s Now Or Never”, “Because They’re Young” for Duane Eddy, “She Can’t Find Her Keys” for Paul Petersen, Lesley Gore’s “It’s My Party” and Gene Pitney’s “Half-Heaven, Half-Heartache.” He also wrote minor hits for Dodie Stevens, Frankie Avalon, Gene Vincent, Brook Benton, Pat Boone, Jackie De Shannon, Cliff Richard, Shirley Bassey, and the Diamonds. Later in the decade, he produced albums for Barbra Streisand, Jerry Vale, and Tony Bennett. In the 1970’s, he discovered the group Kansas, who had a Top Ten hit with “Dust In The Wind”. Gold was later the music coordinator for Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert television series. Wally Gold died at the age of 70 in 1998.

Aaron Schroeder was born in Brooklyn in 1926. He wrote “At a Sidewalk Penny Arcade” for Rosemary Clooney in 1948. Schroeder wrote 17 hit songs for Elvis Presley including five that topped the charts: “A Big Hunk o’ Love”, “Good Luck Charm”, “I Got Stung”, “It’s Now Or Never” and “Stuck On You”. He also wrote songs recorded by Chaka Khan, Roy Orbison, Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers, Nat “King” Cole, Perry Como, Guy Mitchell, The Playmates, Barry White, Tony Bennett, Dionne Warwick, Pat Boone, “Bandit Of My Dreams” for Eddie Hodges, “I’m Gonna Knock On Your Door” for the Isley Brothers in 1959 which was successfully covered by Eddie Hodges, “First Name Initial” for Annette, “Cincinnati Fireball” for Johnny Burnette, “Rubber Ball”” for Bobby Vee, “Because They’re Young” for Duane Eddy, the Staple Singers and Paul McCartney. Schroeder also wrote “French Foreign Legion” for Frank Sinatra. Schroeder also produced numerous hits for Gene Pitney that included “I Wanna Love My Life Away”, “Town Without Pity”, “(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance”, “Only Love Can Break A Heart” and “24 Hours From Tulsa”. Aaron Schroeder later became an international music representative for Hanna-Barbera Productions and provided music, singers and songs for “The Banana Splits” and “Scooby Doo, Where Are You!” Aaron Schroeder had a cameo appearance as a songwriter in the 1957 rock ‘n roll film Jamboree, and once appeared on the TV panel show To Tell The Truth. Schroeder died in 2009 at the age of 83.

“Half Heaven-Half Heartache” peaked at #2 in San Bernardino (CA), and Cedar Rapids (IA), #3 in Washington DC, Toronto, and Boston, #4 in Springfield (MA), Denver, Halifax (NS), and Orlando, #5 in Rockville (MD), Wheaton (MD), Akron (OH), Reading (PA), Erie (PA), and Little Rock (AK), #6 in Palmdale (CA), and Milwaukee (WI), #7 in San Antonio (TX), Bakersfield (CA), Worcester (MA), Wilmington (DL), and Trenton (NJ), #8 in Rockville (MD), Kingston (ON), Ottawa, and Dayton (OH), #9 in Seattle, Chester (PA), Newport News (VA), Providence (RI), and Twin Falls (ID), #10 in Phoenix, Hartford (CT), Chicago, Jackson (MI), St. Louis, and Louisville (KY).

In the spring of 1963, Gene Pitney had his highest charting song in Vancouver titled “Mecca”. Pitney’s next single release was the double-sided “True Love Never Runs Smooth”/”Donna Means Heartbreak”.

While he enjoyed a string of Top 40 hits in both Canada and the USA between 1961 and 1965, his star began to fade. Pitney was very much identified with the Brill Building sound and increasingly seen as a pre-British Invasion pop singer out of step with the times. One of the Top 20 hits Pitney enjoyed in Vancouver in 1964 was “Who Needs It”. Another was “Hawaii”. Pitney tended to get better chart runs in Vancouver than in his native home in America. This included “I’m Gonna Be Strong”.

Another song that did very well for him here on the Canadian West Coast was a psychedelic tune in 1968 titled “Animal Crackers (In Cellophane Boxes)”. Also in 1968, “She’s A Heartbreaker”, reached #16 on the Billboard charts and #5 in Vancouver. After that Gene Pitney faded from view, at least in North America.

In 1974, he had a #2 hit with a song called “Blue Angel” in Australia. This was not a remake of Roy Orbison’s “Blue Angel” from 1960. Pitney’s last hit on the UK charts came in 1989, after an absence of 15 years, when he and Soft Cell singer Marc Almond recorded a duet version of “Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart” by British writers Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway. The song had been a #5 hit for Pitney in 1967. Pitney’s duet with Almond brought him his first #1 hit in the United Kingdom, in January 1989. The single remained at the top for four weeks, and also went to #1 elsewhere in Europe.

Pitney died of a heart attack in 2006, at the age of 66.

February 5, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
Gene Pitney bio, Gene Pitney.com
Adam Sweeting, “Gene Pitney: Chart-topping Singer and Songwriter Whose Quavering Tenor Won him a Loyal Fan Base,” Guardian, UK, April 6, 2006.
Hello Mary Lou,” Song Facts.com
Gene Pitney, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.com
Alex Petridis, “Life After Tulsa,” Guardian, UK, 2003.
Gene Pitney, “Only Love Can Break A Heart“, track listing, Discogs.com.
Paul Weeks, From the Archives: Nat “King” Cole dies of Cancer, age 45,” Los Angeles Times, February 16, 1965.
Wally Gold,” Discogs.com.
Dennis McLellan, “Aaron Schroeder Dies at 83; Prolific Songwriter for Elvis Presley and Others,” Los Angeles Times, December 4, 2009.

Half Heaven-Half Heartache by Gene Pitney

CFPL 980-AM London (ON) Top Ten | January 26, 1963


One response to “Half Heaven-Half Heartache by Gene Pitney”

  1. Tom Locke says:

    “Half Heaven-Half Heartache” is one of my Pitney tunes. And it’s on my jukebox. Little known fact – in 1965, Gene Pitney and George Jones were named the most promising country-and-western duo of the year. Their album had a lot of great tracks – my favorite was “Big Job.”

Leave a Reply

Sign Up For Our Newsletter