Eugene Sampson Pitt (November 6, 1937 – June 29, 2018) was a black American musician and the founding member of

The Jive Five The Jive Five are an American doo-wop group. They are best known for their debut hit single, " My True Story" (1961), the Nickelodeon bumper jingles in the 1980s and 1990s, and the fact that they outlasted most of their musical peers by re-mod ...

. He formed a group with some school friends in 1954 called the Genies, in which he was the lead singer. There were no recordings from this group. In 1959, he, together with Jerome Hanna, Richard Harris, Norman Johnson, and Billy Prophet formed The Jive Five. Among their classic doo-wop recordings, released on Bel-tone Records, were "

My True Story "My True Story" is a 1961 single recorded by The Jive Five and co-written by the group's lead singer Eugene Pitt, along with Oscar Waltzer and Joe Rene. Chart performance The single was the biggest hit for the group on both the R&B and pop chart ...

", "Never, Never", and "What Time Is It?". In 1985, they sang

doo wop Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chica ...

on the children's cable television network

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

. Pitt and The Jive Five were introduced to New York-based MTV Networks (now

Paramount Media Networks Paramount Media Networks (formerly known as Warner Cable Communications, Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, MTV Networks, Viacom Media Networks, and ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks) is an American mass media division of Paramount Global tha ...

) branding consultants

Fred Seibert Frederick (Fred) Seibert (born September 15, 1951) is an American television producer, co-founder of MTV and the CEO of FredFilms, an animation production company based in Burbank, California. His official biography states he has led five (working ...

and Alan Goodman by his latest producer, Ambient Sound's Marty Pekar. Together, they embarked on an almost 10-year relationship, creating and singing the a cappella signature sound of the children's television network. Terry Stewart, President & CEO of the

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music an ...

, called Pitt "the most underrated soul singer in America". Eugene's cousin, Elijah Pitts, was an

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the maj ...

running back and long-time assistant coach. On June 29, 2018, Pitt died at the age of 80 due to complications from diabetes.

References

External links

* * 1937 births 2018 deaths Musicians from Brooklyn {{US-singer-stub