Big Twenty: All the U.K. Top 40 Hits, 1961-1973

The concept behind this compilation is to assemble all 20 of Gene Pitney's U.K. chart hits onto one CD. But while this naturally has very good music and includes a lot of his best songs, it's not synonymous with a greatest-hits collection. For a bunch of Pitney's biggest American hits didn't chart in Britain, particularly in his early career. That means this disc is missing a number of songs that most would think essential to any basic best-of, including "Only Love Can Break a Heart," "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," "Mecca," "Half Heaven -- Half Heartache," "Last Chance to Turn Around," and "She's a Heartbreaker." On the other hand, in addition to including some classics that were big hits on both sides of the Atlantic, it has a number of U.K. chart singles that didn't make it big in the U.S., like "Nobody Needs Your Love," "Just One Smile," and "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart," though the handful of smaller-selling items from 1968-1970 aren't as good as either these three songs or his best earlier work in general. As is customary for the Ace label, the packaging and annotation are excellent. But those looking for one or two Pitney comps are truly better off going with Varese Sarabande's 25 All-Time Greatest Hits anthology, or with that and Varese Sarabande's More Greatest Hits, if they want to be more comprehensive. There's one obscure bonus here, though, in the use of the mono single version of "That Girl Belongs to Yesterday," which has extra vocal overdubs not present on the stereo album version. ~ Richie Unterberger