what Frank is listening to #66 – PAT BOONE – Sings "Guess Who?" – (London) – 1963
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Pat Boone gets knocked a lot for his music and I'm not sure why. Well, I know why but I wonder why so many others are forgiven for for their flaws.
If you put aside:
- his (or more likely his manager and record companies) blatant "whitening" (see below re "whitening") of rock and r&b songs in the 50s;
- his hard core born again Christian / charismatic Christian religious beliefs;
- his wholesome "American pie" cuteness;
- his overweening love of middle America, and;
- the stereotyped critical responses to him.
some of his music wasn't half bad.
At worst it could be bland. He is a lot better than someone like Guy Sebastian who can be levelled with an Australian variation of the same blandness.
Unfortunately for Boone he tends to be reviewed because of issues of race. In the 1950s he covered black R&B tracks, "whitened" them up, and had bigger hits. I've never liked the concept of "whiten-ing" though, there was a lot of "white" music which was as raw as R&B and pure, clean acts weren't limited to white artists … Nat King Cole, Billy Eckstein, Roy Hamilton, and any number of black vocal groups for example. What Boone (or his producers) did was "soften" the tracks by removing any harsh tones, screeching voices, regional accents, overt emotion, twangy instruments, dodgy lyrics and sex. I don't think this was part of some conspiracy to keep black music down (Nat King Cole was one of the biggest stars of his era) but rather to sa ploy ell more records. Because then (as now) people like their pop bland. And they normally like it in the background where it doesn't offend you or make you think. There are a lot of "casual" music listeners out there … and there are a lot more who are "casual" listeners who don't think they are. But hey who's to say they are wrong? Maybe music should be listened to casually?
In any event Boone sold truck loads in the 50s but has taken the blame for white America (and who knows maybe even urbane Black America) buying his records. He is also the prime victim of poor, sloppy ,rock journalists (a laughable concept at best) who dish out the same old stereotypes of "black" and "white" music in the 50s.
Music is a morally bankrupt business and a lot worse has been done over the years, so why single out Boone?
In the 50s Boone was the only artist to even remotely look like a rival to Elvis. Musically speaking there was always a fair degree of pop in rock as well as in R&B and country. The young Elvis was not adverse to covering The Ink Sports, Dean Martin, Mario Lanza or Bing Crosby. Perhaps we give Boone the rough end of the stick because we cant accept a rock singer sounding so "white" or better still, so "middle of the road".
But what if we look at him as a young crooner singing rock songs ? If so, I would argue that the music, then, is less offensive or, at the very least, more palatable. Sinatra, Como, Tony Bennett and Harry Conick Jr (especially poorly) all eventually covered rock songs as "popular standards" but Boone was actually doing it at the start of rock more or less. And he was actually better at doing standards than doing rock or R&B tracks. So, whether he is a "rocky" crooner or a "crooning" rocker I leave to the musicologists but I will say that amongst his repertoire of songs there are a few memorable tunes.
And, in any event, a number of rockers – like Tommy Sands, Bobby Darin, Roy Orbison and later P.J. Proby ended up recording with orchestras just like Boone did. That's how popular that sound was.
That sound (Boone's sound) was really aimed at;
- older and educated teenagers (seriously – 50s rock was considered to be a blue collar music);
- parents (to buy for their kids), or;
- for anyone who liked the tunes but did not want any of the (sexual or other) emotions to go with the tunes.
Anyway, I always give Pat Boone the benefit of a doubt and I can honestly say he doesn't offend me though he doesn't normally move me either. His possibly most annoying feature is that all hints of any regional accent is hidden. I've never heard a Southerner (from Nashville) sound so neutral.
Pat Boone has put out some weird albums, and this isn't the weirdest. He has done a slightly MOR psychedelic album and he even did an album of hard rock / heavy metal songs done as popular standards a few years back (1997) which I have and which I bought for the sheer bone headed funniness of it (and it was on sale). Surprisingly it actually swings. (Paul Anka did a similar thing a couple of years later). The metal album caused a controversy amongst Boone's born again Christian fan base. Having said that I think he is smart enough to have his tongue firmly in his cheek (or maybe he is being smarmy but I don't think so). That "tongue in the cheek" I have noticed through a number of his recordings going back to the 50s. Bit, is that enough to put an album over?
The answer is "No".
But, it can still be listenable.
At last we get to the LP in question.
Boone knew Elvis personally and Elvis was still the biggest act in music in 1963 so this album isn't out of the blue.
The most interesting feature on the LP are the arrangements. Boone has concentrated on Elvis' 50s material by and large and rather than just doing pop standard versions of Elvis' songs he really mixes things up a bit. There are many crazy things going on … crazy enough to catapult this LP into cult-dom and make it worthwhile. I don't think Boone was behind that but he had the good sense to go along with it. The real force behind the sounds on this LP is probably the arranger, conductor and pianist Paul Smith who is a legendary jazz pianist (and who was a bit of a maverick himself). Some of his early 50s "cool jazz" and "bop" stuff really goes off. Smith here arranges all the tracks as jazz tracks but even then he adds bits and pieces that make them left of centre. The band is his hand picked octet (Barney Kessel is in their somewhere as is Red Mitchell and Don Fagerquist).
The tracks:
- Love Me – The soothing sexuality of Elvis' original is done here as a jazzy torch ballad.
- Teddy Bear – weird – a bouncy Hammond(?) organ does the guitar breaks …
- Hound Dog – really weird … the songs fist verse and last are done with a harpsichord and Boone singing as if he was a choirboy. There is also a half smart (or half condescending ) reference to the street vernacular in the song … changing "ain't" to "aren't" and emphasising it. (I suppose they could have been referencing Stan Freberg's similar parody of poor language usage in "Elderly Man River")
- All Shook Up – done as a up-tempo Caribbean dance number.
- One Night – a cleaned up version of the cleaned up Elvis song – Elvis sang the original "One Night (of Sin)" and then re-recorded it as "One Night ("with you") which was released as a single. Boone here takes any of the foreplay out of the re-recorded song and makes a pleasant if dull romantic ballad.
- Wear My Ring Around Your Neck – done as big band swing … with the Hammond doing the lead breaks .
- Love Me Tender – done as a lullaby (well more of a lullaby than the Elvis version)
- Don't Be Cruel – done as a big band swing.
- Blue Suede Shoes – another swing number with a in joke … at the end Boone starts to say "Stay off a my white buck shoes" … the white buck shoes were his trademark in the 50s.
- My Baby Left Me – they have taken the pace of the earlier song and put it firmly in the jazz idiom … lots of jazz piano, flutes, clarinets etc.
- Heartbreak Hotel – done as a slow torch song with piano replacing the guitar of the original.
- It's Now or Never – it starts off as a lullaby before turning into a ballad. It never reaches or attempts the faux operatic moments of Elvis' original. Perhaps better than most it shows of the limitations of Boone's voice … especially when compared to Elvis'. Boone's voice really only works with ballads or crooner type pop.
Does this all work – no. But it's good enough to fit in well in anyone's "exotic lounge music" collection. A definite curio, and quite inventive.
I'll keep it because of the Elvis connection (and also because I have that metal album of Boone's)
Sounds:
attached
hmmm:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9aBeRVToGk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyqqDbCYzH0&feature=PlayList&p=972F73A520E0D40D&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=69
from the metal album:
the James Ronnie Dio song-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfmcrXNuCwg&feature=related
Website::
http://www.patsgold.com/
Bio:
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:kifrxqw5ldde~T1
Paul Smith:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Smith_(pianist)
Trivia:
- Pat Boone has claimed to be a direct descendant of the American pioneer Daniel Boone. He is also a cousin of two stars of western television series: the late Richard Boone of CBS's Have Gun, Will Travel and Randy Boone, one of the co-stars of NBC's The Virginian and CBS's Cimarron Strip.
