Gene Pitney, who died yesterday at 65 after a performance at a hotel in Wales, was a singer and songwriter whose wailing tenor could be heard in such early 1960s hits as “Only Love Can Break a Heart,” ...

For a guy who was a dominant figure on the U.S. charts for a good stretch of the early ’60s, wrote big hits for Ricky Nelson and The Crystals, and later gained great popularity overseas, Gene Pitney ...