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Pat's 40 Big Ones

Pat Boone - Pat's 40 Big Ones Audio CD

A fair review of the Pat Boone "Pat's 40 Big Ones" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Pat Boone reviews here, or go back to the Pat Boone tabs.

Band: Pat Boone
Title: Pat's 40 Big Ones
Rating:

Release Date: 2000-10-30
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Two Hearts, Two Kisses 2: Ain't That a Shame 3: At My Front Door (Crazy Little Mama) 4: Gee Whittakers 5: I'll Be Home 6: Tutti Frutti 7: Long Tall Sally 8: I Almost Lost My Mind 9: Friendly Persuasion (Thee I Love) 10: Chains of Love 11: Don't Forbid Me 12: Why Baby Why 13: Love Letters in the Sand 14: Bernadine 15: Remember You're Mine 16: There's a Goldmine in the Sky 17: April Love 18: Wonderful Time Up There 19: It's Too Soon to Know 20: Sugar Moon 21: If Dreams Came True 22: Gee, But It's Lonely 23: I'll Remember Tonight 24: With the Wind and the Rain in Your Hair 25: Good Rocking Tonight 26: For a Penny 27: Twixt Twelve and Twenty 28: Fool's Hall of Fame 29: (Welcome) New Lovers 30: Walking the Floor Over You 31: Moody River 32: Big Cold Wind 33: Johnny Will 34: I'll See You in My Dreams 35: Quando, Quando, Quando [Tell Me When] 36: Speedy Gonzalez 37: Main Attraction 38: Beach Girl 39: Little Honda 40: As Tears Go By

Good quality CD
The CD is excellent quality and a good value. Ordered a CD and it was delivered within 10 days from England, which was within the timeline that I expected.

No More Mr. Nice Guy

This is the stuff that the crown prince of cool is best known for-wacky covers of R&b songs in the 50s that some people actually beleived was real rock &roll until the real thing came along (black artists not being welcome on most stations during the early years of R&B). Okay folks, if you know anything about Pat Boone, you'll et a chuckle out of this title. If you've seen the (in)famous 50s clip of our man doing Tutti Fritti with his jerky, non-rhythmic dancing, then you get the idea.

His attemtps to do "Aint That a Shame," "Tutti Frutti" with cleaned up lyrics (pretty little Suzy s the gal for me), "At My Front Door," and a tune more befitting to his corny style "Gee Whillikers" which is a catalog of the most cornball fifties suburban slang. This stuff with fill you with disgust or have you roll over with laughter.

With that said, I personally like Pat Boone. "No More Mr. Nice Guy" (the faux-metal album) and "We Are Family" (an atrocious set of duets with REAL soul singers including James Brown!) shows that he has a sense of humor about his geeky image and doesn't mind poking fun at himself. Listen to this and you'll see why.
.

benny scott , belgian fan of the 50's music
This means that the song was recorded in stereo but originally released in mono, but was not re-recorded in 1959 ! )
Today most of Pat's big hits are released in the re-recorded stereo-versions of 1959. Great compilation !!!
Most important fact : these are the ORIGINAL MONO RECORDINGS
of most of Pat's great hits ( with the exception of April Love,
in stereo on the CD, but exactly the same version as on the original 45 PM in mono. Only the German " Big Bear Family " company issued a boxed set " The Fifties Complete " containing also all the original mono and stereo-re-recordings of 15 songs.
This double CD " Pat's 40 Big Ones " was probably issued with the permission of Big Bear Family Records.
A REAL MUST for all Pat Boone fans who want the original recordings in true mono !!

.

'Twixt Rock and Elevator Music

I'm not thrilled that Boone and fellow Dot artists the Fontane Sisters, among others, essentially stole the glory from hard-working black acts also trying to get hit records and make a little money. I hope this will be more objective than most reviews, because while I have no special interest in Pat Boone, I've never been in full agreement with the rock-critic types who only grudgingly give a nod towards pure pop music and pop vocalists. In fairness, however, the real opportunist was Dot founder Randy Wood, who had better ability to get his records played and distributed than the smaller labels for which such acts as the Charms, El Dorados, and others toiled. I think it's unfair to expect a young artist, in the excitement of being handed a potential hit song to sing, to sit and ponder who out there might be upset at their record's potential success.

However, not even the rock "cognoscenti" (love that word) deny that Boone and the more-respected Ricky Nelson helped rock 'n' roll get past the overreaction of ultraconservative politicians and other oddballs convinced (or pretending) that this stuff was actually "devil's music. "

Musically, the first few remakes here rock more authentically than those cognoscenti led me to expect. I wish the liner notes identified the sax player and drummer who help propel "Two Hearts, Two Kisses". If you can separate "Ain't That a Shame", "Tutti Frutti", and "Good Golly Miss Molly" from the legendary Fats Domino and Little Richard originals, you'll find some genuine excitement in these versions and that Boone has an actual feel for this music. He is also the only act to get Roy Brown's "Good Rockin' Tonight" (a #1 R&B hit for Wynonnie Harris in 1948) on the Hot 100 during the rock era.

Unfortunately, as these two discs go on, Pat and the backing musicians tone it down, even on the "fast" ones (check "Why Baby Why"), putting Pat squarely (pun not intended but not regretted) in teen-idol territory with Frankie Avalon and Fabian. The gooey romantic ballads that come to predominate ("Love Letters In the Sand", "April Love",) are well-made Adult Contemporary before there was such a thing as Adult Contemporary. Critics REALLY hate "Speedy Gonzales," Pat's last Top Ten. Decide for yourself if the song is really racist or if he (and Mel Blanc as the title character) are merely describing one person who happens to be of Mexican descent.

There are also a couple of surprises toward the end of Disc Two: "Beach Girl" (#72, 1964) and "Little Honda" are not-bad takes on the surf movement of the time, with participation from surfmusicmeisters Terry Melcher and (future actual Beach Boy) Bruce Johnston. But then there's the last track, a version of "As Tears Go By" that anticipates the 1997 "In a Metal Mood" CD by 33 years and ends this collection with an unfortunate thud.

An earlier review compared Boone to Bobby Vinton, Barry Manilow, and Air Supply. Actually, Pat Boone appears to be more in line with Perry Como and Andy Williams, technically-gifted crooners with slight nods towards rock. While it's true Manilow initially won fame for a bunch of romantic hits, lumping him in here seems as severe an overgeneralization as that which the otherwise-fine review sought to avoid on Boone's behalf. Manilow writes, produces, and arranges much of his own material, and has demonstrated a much broader range than what appears here. And in no way has he had the generically handsome, all-American image of Pat Boone. Pop lovers unite: don't let the rock snobs divide and conquer by tricking you into blurring the distinctions between our pop heroes.

As it seems that U. S. discs exclude the Little Richard remakes as well as the Johnston-Melcher songs, this looks like the best Pat Boone set available. Also, the booklet has very good liner notes (with the exception noted above) and plenty of pictures that will please Boone fans. .

Don't-a Forbid Me
And he even used the unusual style of country singer/songwriter Floyd Tillman when he did Tillman's "I Almost Lost My Mind" (Ivory Joe Hunter had the definitive version). That's one example of how recording artists, and many of them, used the early Elvis style; Pat Boone did. And elitist or not, it has not been a mystery that record producers took recordings by black artists into their own studios to try to duplicate the sound (never worked) but the white versions got the airplay. (I could cite 20 examples here). It's hard not to like Pat Boone and he had some good stuff that belonged to him, "With the Wind and the Rain in Your Hair", "Moody River" and "Love Letters in the Sand", but Mr. Nice Guy's renditions of the earthy "Tutti Fruitti" and "Long Tall Sally". . . . come on now. Loved "Speedy Gonzalez" (you never see him in old cartoons anymore, politically incorrect). You really don't hear Pat Boone on the oldies stations either, not even the stations covering the late 50s, early 60s. He was just too clean, too uncool, but he had a successful career and not just in music. So don't cry for Pat. Ooga mooga.

You can see a complete list of all Pat Boone discography, or go back to the Pat Boone tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.