“Ain’t That a Shame” is a song written by Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew. Released by Imperial Records in 1955, the song was a hit for Domino, eventually selling a million copies. It reached #1 on the “Black Singles” chart and #10 on the “Pop Singles” chart. The song is ranked #438 on the Rolling Stone magazine’s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song gained national fame after being re-recorded by white recording artist Pat Boone. Domino’s version soon became more popular, bringing Domino’s music to the mass market a half dozen years after his first major recording, “The Fat Man”. (More from Wikipedia)
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 Boone, the 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 Berry’s 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).
(June 2013/1)
