Album: Only Love Can Break A Heart (1962)

Charted: 4

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• When Liberty Valance rode to town
  The women folk would hide, they'd hide
  When Liberty Valance walked around
  The men would step aside
  
  Because the point of a gun
  Was the only law that Liberty understood
  When it came to shootin' straight and fast
  He was mighty good
  
  From out of the East a stranger came
  A law book in his hand, a man
  The kind of a man the West would need
  To tame a troubled land
  
  'Cause the point of a gun
  Was the only law that Liberty understood
  When it came to shootin' straight and fast
  He was mighty good
  
  Many a man would face his gun and many a man would fall
  The man who shot Liberty Valance
  He shot Liberty Valance
  He was the bravest of them all
  
  The love of a girl can make a man
  Stay on when he should go, stay on
  Just trying to build a peaceful life
  Where love is free to grow
  
  But the point of a gun
  Was the only law that Liberty understood
  When the final showdown came at last
  A law book was no good
  
  Alone and afraid she prayed that he'd
  Return that fateful night, ah, that night
  When nothing she said could keep her man
  From going out to fight
  
  From the moment a girl gets to be full grown
  The very first thing she learns
  When two men go out to face each other
  Only one returns
  
  Everyone heard two shots ring out
  One shot made Liberty fall
  The man who shot Liberty Valance
  He shot Liberty Valance
  He was the bravest of them all
  
  The man who shot Liberty Valance
  He shot Liberty Valance
  He was the bravest of them all Writer/s: Burt Bacharach, Hal David
  Publisher: BMG Rights Management
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 14

• David from ViennaThere is a great Version of THW song by Henry Kaiser. It's on his Album 'those who know history are doomed to repeat it'
• Kim from Aylesbury, UkWas Covered by John Otway on his album Way and Bar (1979) and was usually played at his live gigs.
• Don from Willoughby, OhioGene Francis Alan Pitney February 17, 1940 – April 5, 2006
  Gene charted 16 Top-40 hits in the U.S., four in the Top 10. In the UK he had 22 Top-40 hits, and 11 singles in the Top Ten.
  RIP Gene
• Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn April 22nd 1962, "(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance" by Gene Pitney entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at position #94; and on June 10th it peaked at #4 (for 1 week) and spent 13 weeks on the Top 100 (and for 5 of those 13 weeks is was on the Top 10)...
  It reached #2 in Canada and #3 in Australia...
  I had the good fortune to see Mr. Pitney in concert at the New York State Fair in 1997, he put on a great show...
  Mr. Pitney performed in concert at Carnegie Hall in N.Y.C. on February 26th, 1993; the day of the first World Trade Center's terrorist attack...
  May he R.I.P. (1940 - 2006).
• Frank from Tucson, AzWhen I heard this the first time I was at Woolworth's, in the record section. With my friends. I was 10 yrs. old. And when it came on, my friend says, 'Chinese Music'. We laughed, thinking how can Chinese Music be part of a Western. Maybe John Ford was thnking the same thing.
• Scott from Columbus, OhThis past week I was in Walmart looking for a movie. I found this in the five dollar section. I took it to work, and was able to play the first part to some of our clients. I had never seen the movie before this day. I watched the entirety of it that morning around two o'clock and afterward. While I watched, I understood why Holy Spirit lead me to it. One of the themes of the movie is the importance of voting and how voting can change the future. That's exactly what happened on November 2. The movie's phenomenal! Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, and a host of memorable actors playing profound characters.. boy Boy
• Jordan from Los Angeles, CaThis song makes use of a kettledrum, or tympani, that strikes a beat that the tone of the drum goes upward. This represents the shots that were fired.
• Wayne from Salem, VaI think that this was Gene Pitney's best song. My parents had the 45 single when I was a kid in the 60s. I belive it was on Coral Records,a brown and yellow label.
  
  The Royal Guardsmen (Snoopy vs The Red Baron) covered this song. They do an identical version,minus the violin or harmonica.
• Sal from Half Moon Bay, CaJohn Ford made a big mistake not using this song for his sound track. Gene Pitney captured the movies with his vocals and it would have been perfect to play at over the closing credits. I saw an attempted interview by Peter Bogdanovich with John Ford on set, and Ford acted like a real jerk and walked off the interview.
• Vin from Boynton Beach, FlWhat was John Ford's real problem with it?
• Steve Dotstar from Los Angeles, Cacool original violin solo at the beginning...
  after that, an empty sound with tymp and drums
  for awhile.....very original
• Bob from Roseville, CoGene Pitney hung with the stone's in 63 even covered a Jagger-Richard's song before they were even heard of in the states.Passe-I think not
• Greg from Victoria, Canada The so called hippy movement was gearing up and guys like Gene Pitney were considered passe as was ALOT of excellent afro american music. Gene Pitney had a wonderful voice. I have heard he dabbled in Opera..whether that's true ot not I don't know. What I do know is some of his songs like, Only Love Can Break a heart...Town without Pity...I Want to Love my Life Away....It Hurts to be in Love...I'm Going to be Strong... to name a few. Oh well the British Invasion(TO ME) was welcome despite the ousting of Gene Pitney and guys like Roy Orbinson and even Elvis (amongst others) that were just so damned good. However THe Man who Shot LV was not one of my big loves. Gene was though and then....THE BEATLES!
• Roberto from Las Cruces, NmEven though I never seen the song it was written for, I can imagine as a movie and the story it tells.

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