Pat Boone 2

PAT BOONE – Story of the Month (from June 2013)
 
 
 
 
There are others who helped pave the way for rock and roll as we know it that will have to wait for another time, such as Fats Domino, Pat Boonethe Everly Brothers . . .
 
Hold on: Pat Boone??? Ladies and Gentlemen, this little series of posts is all about Under-Appreciation; and if there is any 1950’s rock star – maybe any 1950’s musician, period – who is more under-rated today as a performer than Pat Boone (one of the original teen idols), I don’t know who it might be. The “crime” that Boone is accused of – recording white versions of black R&B songs – is what almost every white rock and roll artist in the 1950’s was doing; heading that list is Elvis Presley And yet Pat Boone is the only one who gets much guff about it. Pat Boone’s extremely clean-cut image works against his legacy in this regard, especially in retrospect. 
Pat Boone hit the top of the charts with his second single, Ain’t That a Shame, which came out in July 1955 – yeah, a little earlier than you expected I’ll bet. For context, that was just two months after Chuck Berrys first single, Maybellene was released; and Elvis Presley wouldn’t hit #1 until early 1956.
 
Also, Pat Boone was not in competition with the original release of “Ain’t That a Shame by Fats Domino (which also came out in July 1955 and was originally called “Ain’t it a Shame); quite the contrary: White teenagers often bought the original single – actually, both 78’s and 45’s were being released in this period – after they heard Pat Boone’s version. This was a little before my time, but I knew several people from that era who liked both Boone’s recordings and the originals. Pat Boone was a major force in introducing white audiences to R&B music, because the original recordings were not being played on white radio stations more than any other reason.
 
Fats Domino and Pat Boone were friendly with each other; and he praised Boone’s version of this song. Fats Domino once brought Pat Boone on stage with him at a concert and pointed to a large gold ring, saying: “Pat Boone bought me this ring” (with the royalties from sales of his record that soared when Boone’s 45 became so popular).
 
No one can deny that Pat Boone had an ear for finding great songs to record, and he knew how to craft a single that people wanted to buy – otherwise, Boone wouldn’t have put together an impressive 38 Top 40 singles between 1955 and 1963. There is a list you could work on if you want: other rock artists who managed to achieve that feat.
 
As far as I am concerned, Pat Boone had a real feel for rhythm and blues, and his recordings have held up over the decades since they were made. But don’t take my word for it; YouTube has dozens of them available for listening.
 
(March 2016)
 
Last edited: March 22, 2021