Gary: “Russell, we do make fun of Pat Boone and I include myself. But I can remember owning “Ain’t That a Shame” and a couple of other of his records.
He is a direct descendent of the frontiersman, Daniel Boone. He won the Ted Mack Amateur Hour and tried out for Arthur Godfrey and that’s where I remember him.
Yes, he did cover some of the great black artists. I remember the first one “Don’t Forbid Me“, but by late 1956 he was doing his own material.
Yes, it was not cool to be a Boone fan and I try to give that impression, but I think back about 54 years ago I might have been a Boone fan. I owned and wore a pair of white bucks.
Pat married country star Red Foley’s daughter and might have wallowed, but he met Randy Wood, President of Dot Records.
As much as we do not want to believe this, he was second behind Elvis and ahead of Ricky Nelson and The Platters in record sales. I know that I contributed to some of those sales on 78 rpm records. Yes, I know, but suck it up and listen, it was not that bad.
These songs (are you ready for this?) are almost 54 years old!
