Track Listing

1. Two Hearts
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
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 Our Hair
25. Good Rockin' Tonight
26. For A Penny
27. Twixt Twelve And Twenty
28. Fool's Hall Of Fame
29. Welcome New Lovers
30. Walking The Loor Over You
31. Moody River
32. Big Cold Wind
33. Johnny Will
34. I'll See You In My Dreams
35. Quando Quando Quando
36. Speedy Gonzalez
37. Main Attraction
38. Beach Girl
39. Little Honda
40. As Tears Go By

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18478 in Music
• Released on: 2000-11-20
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Double CD, Original recording remastered

Customer Reviews

More than just a balladeer
More than just a balladeer

People remember Pat for his love songs and the novelty up-tempo Speedy Gonzalez. But rock’n’roll – surely not?

Actually, Pat’s earliest hits were covers of songs by Little Richard and Fats Domino. In those days, people tended to buy records according to race, so it was common practice for singers to cover songs first recorded by somebody of a different race. So it was that Pat achieved major American hits with his versions of Ain’t that a shame (Fats Domino), I’ll be home (The Flamingos), Tutti Frutti, Long tall Sally (both Little Richard) and I almost lost my mind (Ivory Joe Hunter). Of course, Pat’s versions lacked the rawness and energy of the originals, but they established him as a major pop singer in the fifties, but they are worth hearing and all of them are included here.

After all those covers of black songs, he did a cover of Why baby why (a George Jones country song) then switched his attention to the ballads he is now remembered for. Love letters in the sand, Remember you’re mine, April love, A wonderful time up there, Sugar moon, If dreams come true and I’ll remember tonight were all huge American hits. Later hits were smaller, but they are also included in this set. In 1961, Pat’s career took off again with Moody river, but there was to be only one more major hit – Speedy Gonazles.

Apart from all the hits, there are a few interesting non-hits, like Little Honda. Pat recorded this when he discovered that the Beach boys were not going to release their original as a single, but was foiled when somebody else had the same idea and they had the hit instead.

So, this is an interesting compilation that includes all the obvious hits, most of the minor hits and a few interesting non-hits. You can get all the obvious stuff on a single CD, but it is interesting to explore further than that. As such, this set, which includes comprehensive liner notes, is ideal.

all 28 US or UK top 20 hits in chron order
Covers all 28 US or UK top 20 hits in chron order with one missing track (No Arms Can Ever Hold You - which is listed as a double A-side with At My Front Door in my chart book). So pretty much yer ideal Pat Boone hits compilation.

The first rock'n'roll star
Pat Boone,like Ella Mae Morse and other Dot artists like Gale Storm and the Fontana Sisters,was the man who built the bridge which enabled black artists from the R & B field to make the mainstream.Fats Domino thanked him while Little Richard was less complimentary but changed his mind later.
Boone had already cut 4 singles for a Nashville country label but was not about to become the next Eddy Arnold.However his country pedigree was strengthened when he married the daughter of Red Foley.
At first it was just a hobby for the college student aiming to become an English teacher but Randy Wood of Dot saw possibilities and he reached back 5 years to find a failed black single he'd once issued by the Griffin Brothers called Tra La La-a different song to the later Laverne Baker one.This became the B side of his first single which was a cover version of the Charms' Two hearts two kisses-which itself garnered other covers by the Crew Cuts and even Frank Sinatra-who was out of his depth seriously on this.In the U K the Ted Heath band singer Lita Roza covered it and actually got her version in the shops before Boone.
The Charms had already suffered by the cover of Hearts of Stone by the Fontane Sisters-but then Otis Williams who led the group had covered it himself from the Jeweels and a year later he'd cover white singer Cathy Carr who fortuantely won the Ivory Tower race.
So what's new? The brief for Pat Boone was for him to cover black music full stop.Same as the King label were covering country music.
I almost lost my mind-one of his chart toppers-was not as much a cover but a revival of a 6 year old song made by Ivory Joe Hunter who got enough publicity from it as to chart a few times himself around 1957.
Why baby why was a cover not of the George Jones song as somebody here thinks but of a little known black group on Mercury called the Blockbusters who were iin a movie called Rock All Night.
Because of his success Boone was able to indulge in albums of standards and hymns-he always wanted to be Bing Crosby-but his rock'n'roll sensibilities were always there
The man needs to be in the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame if only to make all those damned rock critics shut up.
And be honest-isn't that the definitive version of Tutti Frutti-listen to that zonked out sax solo which weaves into another key and honks like a honker? Then try the one on Long Tall Sally-twice as long with a great octave leap