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Gene Pitney wrote upbeat hits for others - Bobby Vee's "Rubber Ball" (UK no. 4, US no. 6 '61), Ricky Nelson's "Hello Mary Lou" (UK no. 2, US no. 9 '61), the Crystals' "He's a Rebel" (UK no. 19, US no. 1 '62) - but picked other writers' songs for himself that tended to see his composure gradually crumble inside three minutes, whether through love's intensity ("Twenty-four Hours from Tulsa", UK no. 2, US no. 17 '63) or through despair ("I'm Gonna Be Strong", UK no. 2, US no. 9 '64); most extreme of all was 1968's "Billy You're My Friend", a traumatic love triangle that sounded like it was being sung with Gene inside a straitjacket.