B-side "Hawaii" Recorded 1964 Length 2:34 | Released July 1964 Genre Rock and roll Label Musicor Records | |
"It Hurts to Be in Love" is a song written by Howard Greenfield and Helen Miller which was a Top Ten hit in 1964 for Gene Pitney. The song was one in a long line of successful "Brill Building Sound" hits created by composers and arrangers working in New York City's Brill Building at 1619 Broadway. Although not characteristic of Pitney's pop sound, as heard in "Town Without Pity" and "(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance," Allmusic noted that "It Hurts to Be in Love" "was about as close as any of his major hits came to straight-ahead rock & roll."
"It Hurts to Be in Love" was originally intended to be sung by Pitney's childhood friend and sometime collaborator Neil Sedaka, but Sedaka's employers at RCA Victor refused to release Sedaka's new recording, because he had not recorded it in their studios, as stipulated by his contract. Sedaka attempted another recording of this song in RCA's studios, but the results were unsatisfactory. Howard Greenfield and Helen Miller, the song's co-writers, offered it to Gene Pitney instead, and he took the existing musical track, replacing Sedaka's lead vocal track with Pitney's own. Everything else was Sedaka's, including his own arrangement and backing vocals, piano-playing, and usual female backup singers. Pitney ended up with a top ten hit in the Billboard Hot 100 for himself and his record label, Musicor, in 1964. The personnel on the original recording included Artie Kaplan on saxophone, Bill Suyker, Charles Macy, and Vinnie Bell on guitar, Milt Hinton on bass, Artie Butler on organ, and Gary Chester on drums.
In the US, "It Hurts to Be in Love" peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song has been covered by many other artists, notably Bobby Vee. In 1981, Dan Hartman recorded a version which peaked at #72 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was included on his same-titled album It Hurts to Be in Love.
In 2007, Razor & Tie Records released the original Sedaka demo as part of the anthology album The Definitive Collection.
Pitney's recording is not to be confused with a similarly titled song, co-written by Julius Dixson and Rudy Toombs, and recorded by Annie Laurie on De Luxe Records (1957).