There was a time when an artist would make a hit record and be followed by a series of “covers” of that song by other artists; almost-but-not-quite copies of the original but done is whatever style the covering artist was known for.
Some of the covers were good – some were awful and some had a reason for being.
Pat Boone was the epitome of what every American teenager was supposed to look and act like – that clean, straight-laced young man who never smoked, never drank, didn’t race cars and didn’t listen to Rock n’Roll.
If it was going to be Rock n’ Roll at all it was going to be Pat Boone. He was famous (and perhaps notorious) for doing covers of R&B songs that would never get airplay on a radio station for a predominately white market. This was still very much during the days of segregation, particularly the South.
It was Pat Boone who covered Little Richard and Fats Domino, as is evidenced here on this episode of the Howard Miller Show from July 27, 1955. On this date Fats Domino’s Ain?t That A Shame had been released only weeks earlier, but Pat Boone’s version was just hitting the market. It would also sell well and grab a place on the charts.
Collectors, and in fact most fans will know there is no resemblance whatsoever between the two and in retrospect, Pat Boone’s version seems downright quaint by comparison. But it was White America’s attempt at cashing in on Black America’s music that just seemed the silliest of all. The fear that “race music” was going to infiltrate mainstream White society prevailed until the late 1950s when the writing was on the wall for Top-40 radio. By then, all restrictions were gone (except the South) and the originals stayed the originals and the color-line rapidly faded.
But we’re still in 1955 and Rock n’ Roll is just starting to take off and the old guard are trying desperately to hang on.
So to get an idea what was going on in Pop Culture at the time, check out The Howard Miller Show from July 27, 1955 for CBS Radio.
