I bet $500 I can make you puke within two minutes
That is incredible. That is as mismatched as Frank Sinatra singing George Strait's "Excuse Me But You've Got My Chair". I never heard this before. I'm sure Deep Purple said " If the singer quits we know who we hire next!".
I always thought Tony Bennett and B. B. King together was a strange pair but it's better than Pat Boone doing a Purple song. Wonder if he ever recorded Foxy Lady.
"Like your creepy uncle singing at a wedding." YouTube comment. And it's still fashionable to dump on Pat Boone after all this time for ripping off 'the black man'. The YouTube comments on this still abound. He did a great job on this one, though, just like Cheap Trick who never get criticised along those lines. Guess Boone was a trumper before there was a trumper.
@tenorsfan Try this:
I really hate to speak ill of the dead. Honestly I do. Pat Boone (God, love him) was a homogenized blemish on the face of Rock and Roll. He was nothing more than an effort to sanitize some great songs to appease the parents of a bunch of lily-white teenagers whose parents were scared that the authentic versions (especially those by Little Richard) were gong to turn their precious darlings into marijuana-smoking, inter-racial dating zombies. Some say that Elvis was used similarly, but when compared to Pat Boone - Elvis was a bona-fide soul man.
Those recent Pat Boone records - where he "Muzaked" Ozzy Osbourne (et al) were (to me) a freakin' joke.
Cheap Trick doing "Ain't That a Shame"? Only a little better. My opinion, of course.
Peace!
R
"Homogenized blemish" ? ha ha. Ain't that a Shame was a minor hit for Fats til Pat Boone made it and Fats' name a number one hit. He helped him, not ripped him off. Fats said so himself. I admit he should have known when to quit, but I like his version better than Fats', Cheap Trick's too with that smidgen of Duane style guitar. That Robin Zander must weep when he looks in the mirror; he sure was a god like looking guy in his heyday.
Fats had some hits from the mainstream, tit tat for Pat Boone, Blueberry Hill, Blue Heaven. My favourite is Dreamboat, though mostly 'cause of Herb Hardesty's jazzy solos.
@tenorsfan: "but I like his version better than Fats". WHAT!!???? Sorry man I'm with Rusty 100%: "Pat Boone (God, love him) was a homogenized blemish on the face of Rock and Roll." Could not possibly have said it better.
I have no use for Boone musically or otherwise but I believe he is still upright.
@rusty Oh Boone is still living?? Last time I saw him on TV promoting old people's walk in tubs he looked like he had passed away.
The first time I saw a movie and became very attracted to female cast members was in 1962 in the film State Fair. The women were Ann-Margret and Pamela Tiffin. The movie started Pat Boone who was billed as America's clean cut version of Elvis and Fabian.
There is a swimming pool where that downtown theatre in my hometown was. I saw Goldfinger there a couple years later. A big 4 story department store next door had been empty for several years and they put apartments in it and a swimming pool for the apartments next door where the theatre was.
@robertdee Not only is Pat Boone still alive - evidently he just lives about an hour from me in Jacksonville. I wonder if he ever jams with Skynnyrd? 😉 I honestly feel bad for rippin' on him! He's older than Ringo (89?)!
Ann Margaret! Yowzah!
@rusty Yes I had heard Love Letter On The Sand on the radio by Pat Boone but had never heard of Ann-Margret or Pamela Tiffin. I was 16 and my Saturday evening date wanted to go see State Fair. In 1964 at 18 went to the same theatre to see Goldfinger. It was the most exciting movie I had ever seen. Saw it about 6 times as it played for 3 months. Kept getting held over.
Glad to see old Rusty is not so dusty in the end. He was a little hard on the Beaver. It's a bit worthwhile to see a best of 1955 videos just to see what a shock Boone's Ain't That a Shame must have seemed. Just about the only rocker for the whole year. Rock Around the Clock was there but that's pretty tame really, and there was three different Davey Crockets, a lotta shmaltzers, and a great song, Moments to Remember, but no real stompers. I don't know who died and made me a Pat Boone champion, but you gotta give Pat credit, he really changed the face of music. Fats Domino's guru Dave Bartholomew said they were already trying to groom Fats to appeal more to the white audience and it must have felt that Boone had just met them half way and launched their career.
Two years later and Rusty was happy to see Boone had just resurrected an old fogies song in Love Letters in the Sand, where he belongs no doubt, but turned it into the second biggest record of the year, behind Elvis' All Shook Up, a win win for Pat musically and legacy wise, if you feel he opened doors. I'm rendering unto Caesar and all that but I'm not too sure if I want to go hear Long Tall Sally or nothing. Don't get too carried away.
@tenorsfan Not "dusty in the end", but I do fart dust. Comes with getting older. 😉
