From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Sat Jun 1, 2002  2:04 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Pat Boone
 
PAT BOONE (By Colin Kilgour)

Born Charles Eugene Patrick Boone, June 1st 1934, Jacksonville, Florida

Christened Charles Eugene Boone, his parents had hoped for a girl (to be
named Patricia) and his nickname of Pat developed on from there. What a
start in life! Moved with his family to Tennessee in 1936.

Pat Boone is often quoted as being the second most popular singer of the mid
to late 50s [behind Elvis] and sold many millions of records. Boone's
clean-cut image accompanied by an ever-present smile was however the
antithesis to Presley's rebel leer.

Pat's early trademark were his white bucks, an unusual style of shoe which
became fashionable for a time in the 50s.

He is related by blood or marriage to a number of well known people. He is
a direct descendant of pioneer Daniel Boone. His wife Shirley is the
daughter of legendary country music singer Red Foley. Pat's younger brother
is singer Nick Todd, who had a top forty song of his own with At The Hop in
1958. Pat's daughter Debby married Gabriel Ferrer, who is the son of Jose
Ferrer and Rosemary Clooney. Debby had an illustrious singing career for a
brief time, winning Grammy awards for her very successful You Light Up My
Life, which was the biggest US selling record of 1977, holding the number
one position for ten weeks.

Boonster's professional singing career started while a student at North
Texas State College. In 1953, while still in his teens, Pat married Shirley
Lee Foley, a marriage that has endured to this day in spite of rocky
patches. The following year he appeared on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts
and Ted Mack's Amateur Hour, winning both. He signed his first recording
contract with Republic Records in 1954.

A short while later Pat was signed to the Dot label, one that he would stay
with throughout his run on the charts from 1955 to 1962. Randy Wood, the
owner of Dot Records realised that great songs were being recorded by black
artists but because of the climate of the time, they weren't being bought by
white kids, so he had Boone cover some of them for the white market and
thereby reap the majority of DJ plays.

First up was Two Hearts (covering The Charms) which in 1955 became his first
US Top 20 hit ... basically your man did a crash course in rhythm and blues,
albeit a homogenised version. As a student studying English, he had qualms
about covering Fats Domino's Ain't That A Shame .... asking could it to be
changed to Isn't That A Shame? No it couldn't and untampered, it became his
first Stateside No. 1. Shortly after - filched from The El Dorados - came,
At My Front Door (Crazy Little Mama) - then a further 6 months along, a
cover of The Flamingos divine I'll Be Home.

Boone's cover version of this perfect song for servicemen abroad, became a
top requested record on BBC Radio's stalwart 'Two Way Family Favourites' and
his only British number one (he did subsequently have four No.2s here).

He made the first of his 15 films, Bernadine, in 1957 - the same year that
UK voters elected him World's Outstanding Male Singer. This movie incl. an
upbeat version of an old standard Love Letters In The Sand, complete with
puckered whistle. It was the B side of the title song but DJs flipped it
and a 3 million seller resulted.

Pat became the youngest performer in the 50s to host his own long running
TV show 'The Pat Boone-Chevy Showroom' which ran from 57 to 60.

He certainly varied his songwriters, witness two 1958 hits written by Otis
Blackwell, then Phil Everly (For My Good Fortune & Gee, But It's Lonely).
Able to do no wrong back then, he added 'writer' to his CV .. Twixt Twelve
and Twenty was not only another hit record but also the title of a book he
co-wrote for angst-ridden teenagers.

In '61 a change of style brought the dramatic 'Moody River', an update of
Chase Webster's country version. Wood had his man deliberately record in a
high key so "I really had to bleed to sing the song". The producer got the
tortured sound he was after and another US # 1.

In the following year came a gimmick hit, based around cartoon character
Speedy Gonzales. Boone found the song in The Philippines and took a year
to convince Wood of its merit. The singer wrote the spoken asides for the
character and at first did the voice himself. Not sounding Mexican enough,
they wheeled in top cartoon voice dude Mel Blanc.

Though not a high charter Boone was proud of his lyrics (done in 20
minutes) to The Exodus Song, penned after seeing the movie and some
time after the piano instrumental hit of Ernest Gold's stirring melody. Pat
got to sing the song at the Golan Heights shortly after the six-day War.

He eventually moved from Dot and recorded for a number of other labels
without success. Within the rockin' fraternity there are many, who
favouring the original recordings, regarded the Boone covers as risible and
one can certainly debate the injustice of black performers being done out
of deserved royalties ...

Notwithstanding the ethics of that however, it is fact that some 60 hit
singles between 1955 - 69 isn't too shabby and our subject is cited as the
ninth biggest-selling singles artist of all time.

One rare error of judgment was to decline Henry Mancini's demo of Moon River
saying "It's pretty but it's not a love song".

Pat later became a Christian Minister and continued to remain in the public
eye with a variety of projects. In 1997 he even cut In a Metal Mood: No More
Mr. Nice Guy, covers of heavy metal music! Despite the hopes of many, he
has never really faded away.

His singing range encompassed blue-eyed R & B, 20s standards, surf music
and country rock, although it was surely as a smooth balladeer that he will be
best recalled.

By contrast, one of this writer's Boone faves is the gospel styled toe-tapper
A Wonderful Time Up There. So as not to lengthen this essay, I'll post up
separately, listings of the hit singles and albums + the lyrics to Exodus.

Discs to buy? Any number of hits packages but get the original Dot
recordings
Website http://www.patsgold.com/pat.php3
Book: Paul Davis, Pat Boone : the authorized biography. London : Harper
Collins, 2001 (paperback 2002). US publisher: Zondervan (Grand Rapids,
Michigan). [In fact, the US paperback version is published today. - Dik]