Another blast from the past

This one’s for Jinksy, but the rest of you can look and listen too.

Jinksy lives in the United Kingdom and started reading my blog fairly recently. In a comment on my March 10th post about Yul Brynner/Rosemary Clooney, she mentioned that she didn’t know what Pat Boone looked like, but thought his voice was sweet.

We must remedy that immediately.

Here is a picture of Pat Boone during his heartthrob days (circa 1957).


According to writer/blogger Dan Wooding, founder of ASSIST News Service (ANS) in Lake Forest, California, “In the years immediately prior to the British Invasion, only one performer rivaled the chart dominance of Elvis Presley, and that was Pat Boone. With his trademark white buckskin shoes, perfectly combed hair and gleaming smile, Boone was the very essence of American values at a time when rock & roll was viewed as a sign of the apocalypse. He wasn’t put off by the dire warnings of preachers and he embraced rock & roll and added his own twist.”

I would add only that the phrase “British Invasion” does not refer to Lord Cornwallis and his redcoats in the 1770s but to John, George, Paul, and Ringo and others of their ilk in the 1960s.

Pat’s first record, “Two Hearts, Two Kisses (Make One Love)” started his career in 1955. That was followed by “Ain’t That A Shame” (originally recorded by Fats Domino), “Tutti Frutti” and “Long Tall Sally” (both originally recorded by Little Richard).

Here is Pat singing another of his hits, “Love Letters In The Sand.”

Again from Dan Wooding’s article: With over 45 million units sold and 38 “top-40” hits, Pat Boone is recognized by Billboard Magazine as the #10 rock recording artist in history, placing higher on that impressive chart than either Madonna or Billy Joel. Entertainment Weekly proclaimed him “Winner of the Week” in 2003 as Pat Boone incredibly landed his 61st hit “Under God” as a top-15 single on Billboard’s Hot 100 Chart from his “American Glory” album. In 2003, the Gospel Music Association took note of these achievements when they inducted Pat into the GMA Hall of Fame.

Wooding caught up with Pat Boone on the Red Carpet on Wednesday, February 11, 2009, at the 17th Annual Movieguide® Faith and Values Awards Gala and Report to the Entertainment Industry at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Here’s how Pat looked that night about a month ago (photo by Alyssa N. Martin):


Let the word go forth from this place, I shall henceforth make every effort to refrain from commenting on the sexiness, imagined or otherwise, of aging members of the entertainment industry at home and abroad (Pat Boone will be 75 years old on June 1st.) After all, as they say, that’s why ice cream comes in many flavors. One man’s meat is another man’s poison. De gustibus non est disputandum. (Enough already with the aphorisms.)

But on behalf of a couple of longtime readers of my blog, I would like to make one final observation about Pat Boone:

He’s no Yul Brynner.