An Afternoon with Pat Boone! (Mon. 5/13/2013)

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Dave

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Yes, more than a week ago, I was privileged to see the one 'n' only Pat Boone...

Of late his little touring had mainly been a spoken-word documentary of his career, but this time even approaching the age of 79, and w/ his voice fine & in perfect tune gave us a full singing concert!

Worth the drive to the Drury Inn Terrace in Oak Lawn Illinois (even w/ the toll booths charging you for mistakenly getting on/off wrong/right entrances/exits (had to pay one "missed" Online) & the drive being nearly-600 miles w/o getting lost!)...

And worth staying at the Hilton Garden Inn (the cheaper version of the Drury Inn Hilton that Pat was staying at--a drop in the bucket for HIM!--w/ the theater in the same plaza being the two lodging venues) even for one night forking over a lot for my little money... But a nice stay & I made good use of the full-breakfast buffet the next morning, too!

(And yes, I did check out The Doubletree down the road, just to find the same rates & a very impractical drive to/from the show, so, ...NO!!!!)

Well, without further adieu, I present Pat's song set:

Love Is In The Air/Thank You For Being A Friend (more for the Golden Girls set, which made up the audience--Golden GUYS, too, than really equated w/ the late-Andrew Gold...!)

Pat's Hits, chronologically:

Ain't That A Shame

Tutti Frutti

I Almost Lost My Mind

Bernadine

Moody River

Love Letters In The Sand

April Love

> > > Intermission < < <

Speedy Gonzales

Friendly Persuasion

Don't Forbid Me (Pat actually claimed that this song was originally intended for Elvis, his main competitor in the industry, but a friend & at least a contemporary, who really had hits AFTER Pat's career took off...!)

A very funny bit Pat worked into his show was his band breaking into an "Elvis Beat", maybe it was "Teddy Bear" it was playing, while muffling out "Elvis explaining to Pat what was wrong w/ his hips & why he'd been shown from the waist up while on television", ending w/ Pat imitating The King w/ an "Ah cain't hep et! Cain't hep et!"...

Exodus (written by Pat for the biblical picture & a video was shown of him singing on Masada in Israel, and I couldn't help singing along w/ it! There was a '45' of this song, which Pat redid, from the early-'70's, which I have, among my Pat Boone recorded treasures!)

Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show (the Neil Diamond song, that lost out to Peggy Lee actually doing the "star remake" of) with "Wonderful Time Up There", the notable first Gospel song reaching the Pop Top-40, and even BJ Thomas's "Mighty Clouds Of Joy", somehow not reaching such heights...

Theme song from THE NOTEBOOK: You And I; from the movie (of which the reading of the book of drove Pat to tears, as did seeing the movie, as he & his wife Shirley (whom will be sharing their 60th Anniversary of marriage this year) went through several boxes of Kleenex watching a rental copy of)...

America The Beautiful

Under God (preceded by a brief "Political Soapbox rant" of how someone campaigned to remove "Under God" from our Pledge Of Allegiance, yet Pat sat on a board of supporters to keep it & actually won...)

The Pat Boone show that I saw last year, I recall him doing Lee Greenwood's 'God Bless The USA', the only singing he'd virtually done, along w/ 'Under God', leading us in the "And I'm proud to be an American chorus", but didn't this time...

(Yes, another figure who'd done vastly much in his career, so naturally while there was more I thought & wished Pat could do & could have given us, this was it...!)

The end, but on to the meet & greet in the lobby! A fellow-concertgoer I befriended at last year's show (he told me about Pat speaking at a graduation commencement in Adrian MI, that my daughter & I took off to) & I wisely made ourselves last in line (and true, how Pat must have out-lived his fans, as the people waiting at the end of the show to meet & greet was not nearly as long as I would imagine & yes, I was the youngest one there!)...

So I bought a copy of his picture book/autobiography AMERICAN THE FIRST 50-Years, that I finally finished reading (the few things I have read cover-to-cover, word-for-word), but noticing that it was already signed by Mr. Boone had him sign another book I bought on his acting career, THE HOLLYWOOD YEARS, authored by Richard Kibbey, also in attendance, whom I'd gotten to meet & sit through the second set of songs w/ and who was also at that commencement, introducing Pat last year; he'd also signed the book along w/ Pat...

But the real meet & greet was the night before at the restaurant at the Drury Inn Hilton that Pat was staying at (which had a burger & beer special, that now I wish I'd paid the $16.50 for, instead of driving off to the McDonald's for just a chicken sandwich!) where he & Richard Kibbey (both who'd signed my program for the Adrian College (a small Chrisitan college much like the one Pat briefly attended before enrolling in & graduating from Columbia University) commencement) and two other men--most likely his tour director, whom I don't know the name of and his pianist & music director, Dave Siebels...

So there was a lot of mugging with him (four pic's: one at the restaurant & three at the meet & greet in the lobby) & I had a great time seeing Pat Boone while he--and I--are still around!


-- Dave
 
Pat is a wonderful man....he's been a great supporter of my (and my wife's) music through the years. An A&M story to bring this around - about three years ago, I did a local show with my band at a venue called the Jazz Bakery - Pat and Shirley came, as did Herb and Lani. I noticed Herb and Pat talking across the room and thought, 'how wild is that'.....Pat later remarked casually that they'd never actually met before then. Never met?? Fifty years in the music business in the same town and they'd never met? How wild is that......
 
Wow, that is amazing! (Although my Departure album (1st PB record I bought & almost the only that I ever would buy til I got turned on to more o' his stuff!) has a few "thank you's at the bottom" consisting mostly of names of vocalists, musicians (A&M's Phil Ochs' name is on there!) and everyone involved, including a "Nasty Herbie", so perhaps it ISN'T Alpert, then...)

The concert had clips from Pat's movies & even his BEVERLY HILLBILLIES television appearance (which a recent viewing of surely turned me onto Mr. Boone--yeh, descendant of DANIEL Boone: Great, Great, Great, Great (although the number varied, between what I would see written & what Pat would actually quote & I believe the number IS four, according to him, although he'd named one of his early albums from the '50's Great, Great, Great, as if that's an homage to it) grandson of...

So it was really an incredible show especially from someone nearly-79-years-old who still has a younger walk than I do! :laugh: (He regularly plays basketball, golf & tennis to this day!)


-- Dave
 
Wow, people STILL go to see Pat Boone? And what's more, Pat Boone STILL does concerts?!! Aw man, I can't believe it!! I remember back when I was a kid, that he used to be the butt of jokes on TV,cuz of his wholesomeness and 'clean living' and his supposed 'squareness'. But in the end, that 'squareness' seems to have staying power(after all, look at how some of his contemporaries ended up, like Elvis...).I also remember him being on a lot of the Christian talk shows of the era like The 700 Club, and The PTL Club(yes,THAT PTL Club...), but paradoxically was attacked even BY the Christian establishment for not being 'Christian' enough!

So, I guess that he was in a no-win situation, and decided to just be himself. I also remember that the church that I used to go to always played The Cross And The Switchblade(his last movie) every summer,which co-starred some up and coming young actor by the name of Erik Estrada. And who could also forget his bizarre foray into heavy metal in the 90s with his album NO MORE MR.NICE GUY, which made him a cult figure across college campuses in America? Well, I'm glad that he's still active, and he's doing infomercials now as well. I really do wish him the best, and I'm glad that you enjoyed yourself at his concert.

By the way, a year or two back, Pat was at an ASCAP ceremony that had none other than Quincy Jones and ...Herb Alpert and Lani themselves, and all of them had their pictures taken together! It was reported here at A&M Corner!
Jazzdre
 
Anyone remember Pat Boone on an episode of "The Beverly Hillbillies?" "He smelled Granny's collard greens and come a runnin'!"

The Clampetts don't realize Pat Boone is famous
Jed: What'cha been doing out here in Californy?
Pat: Singing, mostly.
Jed: Can't find steady work, eh? Well...don't you worry; something's bound to turn up.
 
The Cross and the Switchblade was his last movie?? That's ancient. He was still young. I was just a kid. My dad was a Youth for Christ leader and they had meetings in a "converted" :razz: movie theatre so we saw lots of movies. I remember that one and "The Tony Fontaine Story" (along with the big biblical epics).
 
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