Mecca (song)

Last updated
"Mecca"
Mecca - Gene Pitney.jpg
Single by Gene Pitney
from the album Gene Pitney Sings Just for You
B-side "Teardrop by Teardrop"
ReleasedMarch 1963
Genre Pop
Length2:18
Label Musicor
Songwriter(s) Neval Nader, John Gluck Jr.
Producer(s) Jerry Ragovoy
Gene Pitney singles chronology
"Half Heaven - Half Heartache"
(1962)
"Mecca"
(1963)
"True Love Never Runs Smooth"
(1963)

"Mecca" is a 1963 song which was a hit for Gene Pitney. It was the first release and greatest hit from his LP, Gene Pitney Sings Just for You .

Contents

Lyrics

The song starts with "I live on the west side, she lives on the east side of the street." [1] "Mecca," a city that most of the world is forbidden to visit, [2] [3] symbolizes her side of the street, as the girl's parents forbid the pair to become romantically involved because of their young age.

Charts

In the U.S., "Mecca" peaked at #12 on the pop chart [4] and #4 Easy Listening. [5] It was a bigger hit in Australia, where it peaked at #7, and in Canada where it reached #2. The B-side, "Teardrop by Teardrop," charted at #130 on the Billboard Bubbling Under the Hot 100 chart.

Chart history

Chart (1963)Peak
position
Australia - Music Maker7
Canada - CHUM2
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 [6] 12
U.S. Billboard - Middle-Road Singles [7] 4
U.S. Cash Box Top 10013

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References

  1. The New Yorker Volume 41, Part 1 - Page 78 "Then, a few years later (in a kind of pulsating weeper click with Casbah undertones), the urban East-West axis came under consideration, with Gene Pitney's “Mecca”: I live on the West side, She lives on the East side of the street."
  2. Peters, Francis E. (1994). The Hajj: The Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca and the Holy Places . Princeton University Press. p.  206. ISBN   978-0-691-02619-0.
  3. Esposito, John L. (2011). What everyone needs to know about Islam. Oxford University Press. p. 25. ISBN   978-0-19-979413-3. Mecca, like Medina, is closed to non-Muslims
  4. Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits: Eighth Edition. Record Research. p. 493.
  5. Whitburn, Joel (1993). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961–1993. Record Research. p. 189.
  6. Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1990 - ISBN   0-89820-089-X
  7. Whitburn, Joel (1993). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961–1993. Record Research. p. 189.