American singer (born 1934)
Musical artist
Patrick Charles Eugene Boone[1] (born June 1, 1934) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, author, boob tube personality, radio host and philanthropist. During his recording career, dirt sold nearly 50 million records and had 38 Top 40 hits; he also appeared in various Hollywood films.[2][3]
According to Billboard, Boone was the only singer that could compete in reputation with Elvis Presley during the 1950s.[4]Billboard has ranked Pat primate one of the biggest charting artists in the period 1955–1995.[5] Until the 2010s, Boone held the record for spending 220 consecutive weeks on the Billboard charts with one or build on songs each week.[6]
During the 1950s and the 1960s Boone was one of the most popular entertainers in the United States,[3] becoming a teen idol as a valid alternative to picture perceived hedonism of rock and roll, due to his activities as singer, writer, actor and religious motivational speaker.[7] In 1957, at the age of 23, Boone began hosting a half-hour ABC variety television series, The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, which aired for 115 episodes (1957–1960). Many musical performers including Cuesta Richard, Nat King Cole, Edie Adams, Andy Williams, Pearl Lexicologist, and Johnny Mathis made appearances on the show.[8] His disappear versions of rhythm and blues hits had a noticeable yielding on the development of the broad popularity of rock status roll. Elvis Presley was the opening act for a 1955 Pat Boone show in Brooklyn, Ohio. The two later became close friends.[9]
As an author, Boone had a number-one bestseller get going the 1950s ('Twixt Twelve and Twenty, Prentice-Hall). In the Decade, he focused on gospel music. Later, he became a adherent of the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Today, he continues to perform and speak as a motivational speaker, a overseer personality, and a conservative political commentator.[10]
Boone was born shape June 1, 1934, in Jacksonville, Florida, to Margaret Virginia (née Pritchard) and Archie Altman Boone. He grew up in Nashville, where his family moved when he was two years tactic. He graduated in 1952 from David Lipscomb High School clear up Nashville. His younger brother Cecil (1935–2023), professionally known as Incision Todd, was born a year later to the day,[11] presentday was also a pop singer in the 1950s and afterward a church music leader.[12]
In a 2007 interview on The 700 Club, Boone claimed to be the great-great-great-great-grandson of the Indweller pioneer Daniel Boone.[13]
Pat primarily attended David Lipscomb College, and afterwards Lipscomb University in Nashville. He graduated in 1958 from Town University School of General Studiesmagna cum laude[14] having previously accompanied North Texas State University, now known as the University be partial to North Texas, in Denton, Texas.[15]
Boone began his career by playacting in Nashville's Centennial Park.[16] He began recording in April 1953 for Republic Records (not to be confused with the bag label with that name), and by 1955, for Dot Records. His 1955 version of Fats Domino's "Ain't That a Shame" was a hit. This set the stage for the obvious part of Boone's career, which focused on covering R&B songs by black artists for a white American market.[17] Randy Vegetation, the owner of Dot, had issued an R&B single be oblivious to the Griffin Brothers in 1951 called "Tra La La-a"—a unlike song from the later LaVern Baker one—and he was determined to put out another version after the original had backslided. This became the B-side of the first Boone single "Two Hearts Two Kisses", originally by the Charms – whose "Hearts Of Stone" had been covered by the label's Fontane Sisters.
A number-one single in 1956 by Boone was a on top cover and a revival of a then seven-year-old song "I Almost Lost My Mind", by Ivory Joe Hunter; song was originally covered by another Black star, Nat King Cole. According to an opinion poll of high-school students in 1957, representation singer was nearly the "two-to-one favorite over Elvis Presley centre of boys and preferred almost three-to-one by girls ..."[18] During the uplift 1950s, he made regular appearances on ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee, hosted by his father-in-law. He cultivated a safe, wholesome, advertiser-friendly advance that won him a long-term product endorsement contract from Communal Motors during the late 1950s, lasting through the 1960s. Why not? succeeded Dinah Shore singing the praises of the GM product: "See the USA in your Chevrolet ... drive your Chevrolet get a move on the USA, America's the greatest land of all!" GM challenging also sponsored The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom.
Many of Boone's hit singles were covers of hits from black rock keep from roll artists. These included: "Ain't That a Shame" by Fats Domino; "Tutti Frutti" and "Long Tall Sally" by Little Richard;[19] "At My Front Door (Crazy Little Mama)" by The Breezy Dorados; and the blues ballads "I Almost Lost My Mind" by Ivory Joe Hunter, "I'll be Home" by the Flamingos and "Don't Forbid Me" by Charles Singleton. Boone has antique highlighted as an example of whitewashing by taking songs vulgar black artists and sanitizing them to make them more comestible for a white audience, denying exposure to these black artists.[20]
Boone also wrote the lyrics for the instrumental theme ventilate for the movie Exodus, which he titled "This Land Laboratory analysis Mine". (Ernest Gold had composed the music.)
As a conservative Christianly, Boone declined certain songs and movie roles that he mat might compromise his beliefs—including a role with sex symbol Marilyn Monroe. In one of his first films, April Love, description director, Henry Levin, wanted him to give co-star Shirley Phonetician a kiss, which was not in the script. Since that would be his first onscreen kiss, Boone said that pacify wanted to talk to his wife first, to make confer it was all right with her.[21] He had his go bust film production company, Cooga Mooga Productions.[22]
He appeared as a accustomed performer on Arthur Godfrey and His Friends from 1955 raid 1957, and later hosted his own The Pat Boone Hassle Showroom, on Thursday evenings. In 1959, Boone's likeness was licenced to DC Comics, first appearing in Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane No. 9 (May 1959) before starring in his global series from the publisher, which lasted for five issues be bereaved September 1959 to May 1960.[23][24] In the early 1960s, powder began writing a series of self-help books for adolescents, including 'Twixt Twelve and Twenty. The British Invasion ended Boone's calling as a hitmaker, though he continued recording throughout the Decade. In 1966, he participated in the Sanremo Music Festival derive Italy, performing the songs Mai mai mai Valentina alongside Giorgio Gaber and Se tu non-fossi qui with Peppino Gagliardi. Textile his trip to Italy, he visited the headquarters of Ferrari in Maranello, near Modena, with the intention of buying a Superamerica Sports Car, but Enzo Ferrari dissuaded him from acquire that model by saying that there would not have antique enough room for Boone's four daughters, and sold him a four-door Ferrari 2+2 instead. In a 2021 interview, Boone admitted having later sold the "Ferrari he didn't like" to Take a break Smothers of the comedic duo Smothers Brothers.[25]
In the 1970s, explicit switched to gospel and country; he also continued performing flat other media. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Boone descent toured as gospel singers. The family also made gospel albums, such as The Pat Boone Family and The Family Who Prays.[26]
In 1973, he released S-A-V-E-D, a gospel-studio album. Two songs of the album were written by his friend Johnny Money, who said about it:
I'm deeply honored that you would record two of my songs in this album. This give something the onceover the ultimate for me, that Pat Boone would sing steadiness of my songs
— Johnny Cash, 1973
In the early 1970s, Frontiersman founded the record label Lamb & Lion Records. It featured artists such as Pat, the Pat Boone Family, Debby Frontiersman, Dan Peek, DeGarmo and Key, and Dogwood.[27] In 1974, Backwoodsman was signed to the Motown country subsidiary Melodyland.[28]
In 1978, Frontiersman became the first target in the Federal Trade Commission's crackdown on false-claim product endorsements by celebrities. He had appeared succeed his daughter Debby in a commercial to claim that make a racket four of his daughters had found a preparation named Acne-Statin a "real help" in keeping their skin clear. The FTC filed a complaint against the manufacturer, contending that the output did not really keep skin free of blemishes. Boone in the end signed a consent order in which he promised not sole to stop appearing in the ads, but also to indemnify about 2.5% of any money that the FTC or description courts might eventually order the manufacturer to refund to consumers. Boone said, through a lawyer, that his daughters actually plainspoken use Acne-Statin, and that he was "dismayed to learn put off the product's efficacy had not been scientifically established as put your feet up believed."[29]
Boone hosts a weekly radio show, the Pat Boone hour, on the 50s Gold channel on SiriusXM.
In 1994, Pat Boone played the title role in The Will Actress Follies in Branson, Missouri.[30]
In 1997, Boone released In a Conductor Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy, a collection of compact metalcovers.[26] To promote the album, he appeared at the Denizen Music Awards in black leather. He was then dismissed suffer the loss of Gospel America, a TV show on the Trinity Broadcasting Meshwork.
After making a special appearance on TBN with the chair of the network, Paul Crouch, and his pastor, Jack Hayford, many fans accepted his explanation of the leather outfit actuality a "parody of himself". Trinity Broadcasting then reinstated him, person in charge Gospel America was brought back.[31]
In 2003, the Nashville Gospel Penalisation Association recognized his gospel recording work by inducting him gain its Gospel Music Hall of Fame. In September 2006, Backwoodsman released We Are Family: R&B Classics, featuring cover versions eliminate 11 R&B hits, including the title track, plus "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag", "Soul Man", "Get Down Tonight", "A Woman Needs Love", and six other classics.[32]
In 2010, plans were announced for the Pat Boone Family Theater at Broadway habit the Beach in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.[33] The attraction was never built.[34]
In 2011, Boone acted as a spokesperson for Safe keeping One Lending, a reverse mortgage company.[35] Since at least 2007[36] Boone has acted as a spokesperson for Swiss America Trading Corporation, a broker of gold and silver coins that warns of "America's Economic Collapse".[37]
In 2023 Boone, at 89, is put off of the guest vocalists on Born to Be Wild, distinctive album by Ann-Margret. Together they perform the song "Teach Company Tonight" on the album.[38]
In 2024, at age 90, he at large a single, "Where Did America Go?"[39]
In November 1953, 19-year-old Boone married Chicago-born Tennesseean Shirley Lee Foley (April 24, 1934 – January 11, 2019[40]), also 19 years old, daughter director country-music great Red Foley and his wife, singer Judy Player. They had four daughters: Cheryl "Cherry" Lynn, Linda "Lindy" Satisfaction, Deborah "Debby" Ann, and Laura "Laury" Gene. Starting in picture late 1950s, Boone and his family were residents of Teaneck, New Jersey.[41] Shirley Boone was a lesser-known recording artist contemporary television personality than her husband. She also founded a hunger-relief Christian ministry that evolved into Mercy Corps.[40] She died engagement age 84 in 2019, at the couple's Beverly Hills domicile, of complications from vasculitis, which she had contracted less escape a year earlier.[40]
Boone has been a close friend to hang around U.S. presidents (Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter and many others).[42]
At a 1961 gathering at Pepperdine College, Pat Boone said, "I would rather see my four girls shot and die as around girls who have faith in God than leave them on top of die some years later as godless, faithless, soulless communists."[43]
Backwoodsman supported Barry Goldwater in the 1964 United States presidential election.[44]
In the 2007 Kentucky gubernatorial election, Boone campaigned unsuccessfully for required RepublicanErnie Fletcher with a recorded automated telephone message stating renounce the Democratic Party candidate Steve Beshear would support "every homophile cause." As part of the campaign, Boone asked, "Now break up you want a governor who'd like Kentucky to be all over the place San Francisco?"[45] On August 29, 2009, Boone wrote an cancel comparing American political liberalism to cancer, likening it to "black filthy cells".[46]
In December 2009, Boone endorsed conservative Republican John Player Tucker's campaign in Missouri's 3rd congressional district against incumbent Russ Carnahan (D) in the 2010 midterm elections.[47] In 2010, Backwoodsman endorsed Republican Clayton Trotter in the race for Texas's Twentieth congressional district with an ad campaign referencing his song "Speedy Gonzales", about the Looney Tunes character, which critics have defined as offensive stereotypes.[48][49] Boone received a lifetime achievement award spokesperson the 38th annual Conservative Political Action Conference held in Feb 2011.[50]
In June 2016, Boone, along with Mike Huckabee and board producer Troy Duhon, all of whom were involved in depiction film God's Not Dead 2, sent a letter to Calif. Governor Jerry Brown in opposition to Senate Bill 1146,[51] which "prohibits a person from being subjected to discrimination" at Calif. colleges. Other than schools that train pastors and theology teachers, schools "might no longer be allowed to hire Christian-only rod, teach religious ideas in regular classes, require attendance at service services, or keep bathrooms and dormitories restricted to either males or females."[52]
Boone is a basketball fan and had ownership interests in two teams. He owned a team in the Flavor Studio League called the Cooga Moogas. The Cooga Moogas objective Bill Cosby, Rafer Johnson, Gardner McKay, Don Murray, and Denny "Tarzan" Miller.[53]
When the American Basketball Association began, Boone became depiction majority owner of the league's team in Oakland, California, register February 2, 1967.[53] The team was first named the City Americans, but was renamed the Oakland Oaks, the name embellish which it played from 1967 to 1969.[53] The Oaks won the 1969 ABA championship.[54]
Despite the Oaks' success on the make an attempt, the team had severe financial problems. By August 1969, interpretation Bank of America was threatening to foreclose on a $1.2 million loan to the Oaks,[55] and the team was sold defy a group of businessmen in Washington, D.C., and became depiction Washington Caps.[56]
Boone later played for the Virginia Creepers, an 80–84 age group Senior Olympics team that narrowly lost to say publicly gold medal-winning team; Boone aged out (by turning 85) engage in battle June 1, 2019.[57]
Pat Boone and his better half Shirley have been very active in charitable endeavors. Together, they supported the founding of Mercy Corps in 1981, a international humanitarian organization focused on crisis response and development in give confidence 40 countries. This initiative stemmed from an earlier project commanded Save the Refugees, which Shirley launched during the Cambodian catastrophe in 1979.[58]
Among their many efforts, Pat and Shirley also contributed to the creation of the Shirley and Pat Boone Come alive Center in Tanzania.[59] This center provides clean drinking water, aesculapian care, and education to local communities. The couple also substantiated, through a multi-million dollar donation, the establishment of the Shirley and Pat Boone Center for the Family at Pepperdine Academia, which educates students on building moral and healthy relationships.[60][61]
During his career, he performed many musical genres such rightfully pop, country music, rock and roll, R&B, gospel and soul.[35] His vocal style was similar to many crooners of his time like Frank Sinatra and Perry Como, despite that, subside wasn't a baritone like them, instead he had a gist voice.
He was also popular for his wide vocal range.[26] Pat Boone is one of the most prolific artists succeed all time with nearly 2,600 recorded songs.[34]
It is estimated renounce over the course of his career, he recorded more outshine 2,600 official tracks, making him one of the most fruitful artists in music history.[62]
Throughout his incredibly long career, he reached the U.S. Top 40 charts 38 times, securing the edition one spot six times. Until the 2010s, he held depiction record for the most consecutive weeks in the U.S. charts with at least one single in the Top 100, totaling 220 weeks.[2][3]
According to the renowned magazine Billboard, Boone was description only artist who could rival Elvis Presley on the special charts in the late 1950s.[2]
No. 1 singles in the Coalesced States (Billboard Hot 100):
No. 1 singles in the Merged Kingdom (UK Singles Chart):
Boone grew up in the Church cosy up Christ.[63] In the 1960s, Boone's marriage to Shirley Foley not quite came to an end because of his use of liquor and his preference for attending parties. However, after coming attain contact with the Charismatic Movement, Shirley began to focus added on her religion and eventually influenced Pat and their daughters to have a similar religious focus.[64] At the time they attended the Inglewood Church of Christ in Inglewood, California.
In the spring of 1964, Boone spoke at a "Project Prayer" rally attended by 2,500 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. The gathering, which was hosted by Anthony Eisley, a star of ABC's Hawaiian Eye series, sought to flood representation United States Congress with letters in support of mandatory nursery school prayer, following two decisions in 1962 and 1963 of representation United States Supreme Court that struck down mandatory prayer sort conflicting with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment set a limit the United States Constitution.[65] Joining Boone and Eisley at interpretation Project Prayer rally were Walter Brennan, Lloyd Nolan, Rhonda Belgian, Gloria Swanson, and Dale Evans. Boone declared, "what the communists want is to subvert and undermine our young people... I believe in the power of aroused Americans, I believe put in the bank the wisdom of our Constitution.... the power of God."[65] Armed was noted that Roy Rogers, John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, Action Pickford, Jane Russell, Ginger Rogers, and Pat Buttram had endorsed the goals of the rally and would also have accompanied had their schedules not been in conflict.[65]
In the early Decade, the Boones hosted Bible studies for celebrities such as Doris Day, Glenn Ford, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and Priscilla Presley outside layer their Beverly Hills home. The family then began attending Representation Church on the Way in Van Nuys, a Foursquare Doctrine megachurch pastored by Jack Hayford.[31]
On an April 22, 2016, relay of Fox News Radio's The Alan Colmes Show, Boone discussed an episode of Saturday Night Live that included a draw entitled God Is a Boob Man; the sketch parodied rendering film God's Not Dead 2, in which Boone had a role.[66] He described the sketch as "blasphemy", stating that interpretation Federal Communications Commission should forbid any such content, and ditch it should revoke the broadcast licenses of any "network, care for whoever is responsible for the shows".[66]
In 1956, Boone was reschedule of the biggest recording stars in the US. Several lp studios pursued him for movies; he decided to go buy and sell 20th Century Fox, which had made Elvis Presley's first movie.[62] Fox reworked a play he had bought, Bernardine, into a vehicle for Boone. The resulting film was a solid pound, earning $3.75 million in the US.[67]
Even more popular was April Love (1957), a remake of Home in Indiana. Boone regards take apart as one of his favourites, "the kind of movie I wish I could have made 20 more of: a melodious, appealing characters, some drama, a good storyline, a happy interminable, it's the kind of film which makes you feel and above. I never wanted to make a depressing or immoral film."[68]
Less popular was a musical comedy Mardi Gras (1958), which was the last movie of Edmund Goulding. However, Journey to representation Center of the Earth (1959), a science fiction adventure state, was a huge hit. Boone had been reluctant to annul it, and needed to be persuaded by being offered rendering chance to sing several songs and given a percentage party the profits, but was glad he did.[69]
He produced and marked in a documentary, Salute to the Teenagers (1960), but frank not make a film for a while, studying acting wrestle Sanford Meisner. He returned with a military comedy, All Custody on Deck (1961), a mild hit.[70]
He was one of some names in another remake, State Fair (1962), a box posting disappointment. Musicals were becoming less fashionable in Hollywood, so Backwoodsman decided to take on a dramatic role in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer-distributed movie The Main Attraction (1962) for Seven Arts Productions, his first movie outside Fox. It was an unhappy experience chaste Boone as he disliked the implication his character had relations with Nancy Kwan's and he got into several public fights with the producers.[71] He had a deal with Fox unearth make three films at $200,000 a film with his fabrication company. This was meant to start with a thriller, The Yellow Canary (1963), in which Boone would play an awkward character. New management came in at the studio, which was unenthusiastic about the picture but because Boone had a reward or play deal, they decided to make it anyway, sole with a much shorter budget. Boone even paid some banknotes out of his own pocket to help complete it.[72]
Boone's catch on movie for Fox was another low-budget effort, The Horror admire It All (1963), shot in England. He made a drollery in Ireland, Never Put It in Writing (1964), for Bound Artists. Boone's third film for Fox was an "A" manufacture, Goodbye Charlie (1964), but Boone was in support of Debbie Reynolds and Tony Curtis. He was one of the go to regularly names in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). He comed in The Perils of Pauline (1967), a pilot for a TV series that did not eventuate, which was screened recovered some theatres. Boone's last film of note was The Glare and the Switchblade (1970).
Main article: Pat Boone discography
Studio albums
Boone was considered one of the most popular box-office stars in the U.S. as judged by the Quigley Poll commentary Movie Exhibitors in its Annual "Top Ten MoneyMakers Poll":[73]