rhinezome coyboy

871354

2008

BOONE_P1.BMF: A color portrait of the American pop and gospel singer Pat Boone, who was second in the charts in the 1950s only behind Elvis Presley. Boone made a career of taking raunchy and innuendo-filled rock ’n roll songs by black musicians and watering them down in insipid and uninspiring covers. Rose remembers going through her grandmother’s belongings after she died and coming across a 78 of Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti.” The shellac record was brittle and she didn’t dare play it. She knew the song already anyway. It was electrifying, groundbreaking. Rose also knew Pat Boone’s lifeless version hit higher on the charts than Little Richard’s. Rose is pretty sure she knows why.