There have been more anthologies of
Gene Pitney's vintage work than all but the most fanatical fans and discographers have been able to keep track of. And it's fair to say that many, and perhaps most, of
Pitney's recordings have been about love. What, then, is the sense in putting together a compilation of a couple dozen
Pitney love tunes from the early 1960s to the mid-'70s, some of them hits, some of them not? Not much, though at least
Pitney did participate in the selection himself. Of the items that made the cut for
Love Grows, about a half-dozen ("Only Love Can Break a Heart," "Nobody Needs Your Love," "Looking Thru' the Eyes of Love," "It Hurts to Be in Love," "Only Love Can Break a Heart," "(I Wanna) Love My Life Away," "True Love Never Runs Smooth") were big hits in the U.K. and/or U.S. -- which means that they've been and are still available on innumerable other collections. That does mean that most of this CD is devoted to less familiar items from the
Pitney catalog, which might make for an interesting release, except that they're not nearly as good as the hits, and not all that interesting in general. Some of them are unremarkable covers of big '60s hits like "A Groovy Kind of Love," "Baby I Need Your Lovin'," "I Can't Stop Loving You," "Stop! In the Name of Love," and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'," and the cuts that date from the early- to mid-'70s just aren't good material. That leaves an assortment of '60s LP tracks as about the most attractive things here for listeners who already have the big hits, and while these are okay for the most part, the dramatic "There's No Living Without Your Loving" is the only one that's similar in quality to his smash singles.
Pitney does supply interesting comments on the tracks in the accompanying liner notes, but this is a collection that won't satisfy either general or specialist fans of the singer.