This week’s post was prompted by regular WWR contributor
Ross Hamilton: thanks Ross!
Charles Eugene
“Pat” Boone – who has claimed to be the great-great-great-great grandson of
the American pioneer Daniel Boone - was born on June 1, 1934 in Florida, but
grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, where his family moved to when he was just two
years old. He left school in 1952 and less than a year later, shortly before
his 19th birthday, married Shirley Lee Foley. The couple are still together
today.
He began recording in 1954 – managing to fit in a burgeoning
career around his college studies (he finally graduated college in 1958). Boone
became a huge (and I mean enormous, second only to Elvis in record sales during
the 50s) star: his safe, wholesome image won him a long-term advertising
contract with General Motors and the company sponsored his hit TV show The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, which ran for three years and 115
episodes. At the time Boone was the
youngest host of a prime-time TV variety show and would remain so until Donny and Marie Osmond launched their
show in 1976.
Early on in his career he made the decision to concentrate
on covering R&B and rock ‘n roll songs by black artists, toning them down
for the white American market. In 1955 his version of Fats Domino's Ain't That a
Shame was U.S number one hit, and his covers – although bland and sappy,
stripped of sex appeal and with the lyrics bleached clean – did much to help
sneak black artists into the back door of middle America’s homes. Hearing these
songs covered by a good, Christian white college boy encouraged others to
follow suit: Doris Day and Frank Sinatra have both covered Boone’s covers (if
you see what I mean). Some of the accompaniments are rather fine: he certainly
had a powerful and accomplished studio band, but his vocal performances are Ned
Flanders’ nice, with no energy, vigour or danger. His insipid album of Elvis covers – Pat Boone sings…Guess Who? is simply embarrassing. This is rock n’
roll for people who don’t like rock ‘n roll.
He also hit it big on the silver screen, with roles in a dozen
movies; however his conservative Christian beliefs made him (or his management)
back away from songs or roles which they felt would harm his career. A complete
Renaissance man, in the early 1960s he began writing a series of self-help
books for adolescents, including the bestselling Twixt Twelve and Twenty, and his likeness was licensed to DC Comics, who gave him his own (short
lived) series which began in 1959.
During his career he has sold over 45 million albums and
has enjoyed 38 Top 40 hits in the U.S, but by the time he hit 30 it was all
over. His cover of Rolf Harris’s Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport failed to
set the charts alight and the British Invasion in 1964 all but ended Boone's
career as a hit maker, thankfully. Unable to compete on the charts with the
likes of The Beatles and –
apparently – starting to turn to the bottle he switched instead to gospel and
country music, no doubt influenced by the fact that Boone’s father-in-law was
country great Red Foley. The Boone family toured as gospel singers and made
gospel albums; Boone founded the Christian record label Lamb & Lion Records and made plans to open a centre exclusively
for Christian musicians.
And that was that. Or rather that would have been that if
it hadn’t been for his bizarre decision, in 1997, to release In a Metal Mood: No More Mr Nice Guy, a
collection of heavy metal covers. He’s since followed that with an album of classic
R&B covers. Boone’s version of the Ozzy
Osbourne classic Crazy Train
became (in a cover-of-a-cover version) the theme to MTV’s hit series The Osbournes, and the two families
were next door neighbours for three years. Not everyone thought this peculiar
move was funny: an appearance at the American
Music Awards dressed in black leather and a priest’s dog collar caused him
to be dismissed from Gospel America,
a TV show which he had presented for several years…although a grovelling
apology in which he declared that his aim was to parody his own squeaky-clean
image caused Trinity Broadcasting to reinstate him.
In recent years Mr Boone has turned his hand to political
punditry, whose particular stock in trade is repeating the oft-cited claims
that Barak Obama is an African-born Muslim and a Marxist bent on destroying
American society. In 2010 it was announced that the Pat Boone Family Theatre would open in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
the following year, featuring a 600 seat auditorium and a Pat Boone Museum. As of today the theatre has still to open.
So, on to the music. And today I’m bookending Pat’s
career with a couple of his earliest attempts at rocking out and one of the
most recent: his whiter-than-white version of Little Richard’s blisteringly brilliant Tutti Frutti (which appeared on the charts in 1956 at the same time
as the original and, to the world’s shame, was a bigger hit). As an interesting
side note, it is said that one of the reasons Little Richard co-wrote Long Tall Sally was that he wanted to
produce a record that was so fast that Pat Boone could not possibly cover
it…although, unsurprisingly, he did and, in doing so, created what must be one
of the worst cover versions of all time! Hear it now in all of its toe-curling
glory.
Finally here’s his 1997 version of Dio’s Holy Diver,
featuring no less than Ronnie James Dio
himself on backing vocals.
Enjoy!
6/8/13
ReplyDeleteAnd don't forget about Pat's long-out of print album in 1969 for Tetragrammation Records (titled "Departure")produced by ex-Lovin' Spoonful member Jerry Yester & his then-wife Judy Henske, which features Pat singing unbelievable covers of folk-rock songs such as Biff Rose's "What's Gnawing At Me." Seriously,Pat was desperate to try anything to fit his milky-white persona.
Oh, I just stumbled onto this.
ReplyDeleteI wrote this up. His 45s for Dot after the hits stopped in '62--
Pat Boone: Dot 1962+
Speedy Gonzales/The Locket (Dot 16368)
Ten Lonely Guys/Lover's Island (16391)
Blues, Stay Away From Me/Every Step of the Way (16406)
Mexican Joe/In the Room (16416)
Days of Wine & Roses/Meditation (16439)
Always You and Me/Main Attraction (16474)
Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport/I Feel Like Crying (16494)
Si Si Si/Main Attraction (16498)
Gondoli Gondola/Amor Baciani (16498)
Love Me/Mister Moon (16525)
Some Enchanted Evening/That's Me (16559)
I Like What You Do/Never Put It in Writing (16576)
Rosemarie/I Understand (16598)
Side By Side/I'll Never Be Free (16626)
Sincerely/Don't You Just Know It (16641)
Beach Girl/Little Honda (16658)
Love, Who Needs It/Goodbye, Goodbye (16668)
I'd Rather Die Young/I Want It That Way (16684)
Heartaches/Blueberry Hill (16699)
Baby Elephant Walk/Say Goodbye (16707)
Crazy Arms/Pearly Shells (16728)
Time Marches On/Mickey Mouse (16738)
With My Eyes Wide Open I'm Dreaming/Rainy Days (16754)
Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland/Rainy Days (16785)
Run to Me Baby/A Man Alone (16808)
As Tears Go By/Judith (16825) -- Rolling Stones' cover 45!
It Seems Like Yesterday/A Well Remembered, Highly Thought of Love Affair (16836)
Don't Put Your Feet in the Lemonade/Five Miles from Home (16871)
Wrath of Grapes/You Don't Need Me Anymore (16903)
Wish You Were Here, Buddy/Love for Love (16933) -- pro-Vietnam War single. Easy Listening hit.
What If They Gave a War and No One Came/Hurry Sundown (16998)
Have You Heard, It's All Over/Me (17018)
Swanee River/In the Mirror of Your Mind (17027)
By the Time I Get to Phoenix/Ride Ride Ride (17045)
--Dot 17045 "...Phoenix" was recorded by Pat Boone in Los Angeles, Bill Justis doing the arranged/conducted credit, and supposedly Glen Campbell was in the studio lineup. Boone's "...Phoenix" was recorded about July 20-25, 1967, while Campbell's basic tracks were recorded 8/17/67, but both singles came out at the same time. I think this is where Glen Campbell got the song, did a quicky cut of it, and snuffed Boone's single version.
Green Kentucky Hills of Home/You Mean All the World to Me (17056)
It's a Happening World/Emily (17076)
500 Miles/I Had a Dream (17098)
Deafening Roar of Silence/Gonna Find Me a Bluebird (17122)
September Blues/Beyond Our Memory (17156)
Would you believe Boone also did a few singles in the early '70s for Motown? --Windbag
Pat Boone on Motown:
ReplyDelete1314 Please Mr. Postman/Friend (as by the Pat Boone Family)
1334 When the Love Light Starts Shining Through His Eyes/Viva Espana
(Date: Thelma Houston #1316 is Billboard r&b chart single 9/07/74) -- Windbag
That's me told! I would like to point out though that I've said nothing against No More Mr Nice Guy apart from calling the project 'bizarre'. And I like Andy Williams: Happy Heart, Can't Get Over Losing You and Music to Watch Girls By are all brilliant
ReplyDeleteThat's me told! I would like to point out though that I've said nothing against No More Mr Nice Guy apart from calling the project 'bizarre'. And I like Andy Williams: Happy Heart, Can't Get Over Losing You and Music to Watch Girls By are all brilliant
ReplyDelete