PAT BOONE – "I'll Be Home"

Rather fanciful projections there and I guess from an American perspective Korea and/or nascent Vietnam was/were in mind, i.e. our love can be FREE from those DIRTY COMMIES (since Republican ideas of “freedom” have always inclined to “freedom from” rather than “freedom to”).

Best coming out of jail love letter as pop song: “Care Of Cell 44” by the Zombies.

Plenty of doo wop and soul songs about going off to serve the homeland (A Casual Look by the Six Teens being a fave of mine), and I never think of them as commie bashing. I’ve never heard the Flamingos’ original of I’ll Be Home, but I think projecting Republican ideas onto the song just because it’s Pat Boone is a little unfair.

Tutti Frutti, Ain’t That A Shame, Long Tall Sally: gawdelpus, these really are crimes against pop, Ain’t That A Shame in particular which sounds quite unpleasantly aggressive. Totally at odds with the genre, they remind me of Derek Nimmo’s tv appearance in bondage gear (DJP please tell me I didn’t dream this up).

Care Of Cell 44, yes siree. And, oddly enough another single from the same year about a gal coming out of prison, Kitty by Cat Stevens: “When my little Kitty gets out, there’s gonna be a party no doubt!”

Do these constitute genuine guilty pleasures?

Nimmo came over very well in that clip, I thought. Within the confines of such an insert, he gave the punks a fair hearing.

Of historical significance, agreed, but they are so stiff that even the early British r&r covers swing by comparison (the Beverley Sisters’ Bye Bye Love!). Little Richard has always ‘thanked’ Pat, though, for unintentionally helping him break through.

Yes, hats off to Nimmo. It was more the image of him than his attitude that I recalled.

This weather’s terrible. August? November more like!

Light entertainment watch: Pat Boone occasionally appeared on British television. None of these performances survive;

THE LONDON PALLADIUM SHOW: with Jimmy Tarbuck (Compere), Pat Boone, The Kaye Sisters, Morlidor Trio (1966)

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Pat Boone (1966)

SUNDAY NIGHT AT THE LONDON PALLADIUM (VAL PARNELL’S …..): with Bruce Forsyth, Pat Boone (1956)

THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS: with Brian Matthew, Pat Boone, Max Bygraves, The Kaye Sisters, Joe Brown, Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, Micky Ashman’s Ragtime Jazz Band, Ted King (1962)

THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS: with Brian Matthew, Pat Boone, Gerry And The Pacemakers, The Tornados, Jimmy Justice, The Polka Dots, Freddie and the Dreamers, Cherry Roland, Keith Fordyce (1963)

As is often the case, only his later apperances survive;

THE BIG TOP VARIETY SHOW: with Bernie Winters, Pat Boone, Showaddywaddy, Rod Hull and Emu (1981)

THE VAL DOONICAN MUSIC SHOW: with Paul Daniels, Pat Boone (1981)

WOGAN: with Pat Boone, Linda Lusardi, Buddy Rich, Earl & Countess Spencer (1986)

NB. This record kept Elvis’ debut UK chart entry, Heartbreak Hotel, from the #1 spot. The week it entered, No Other Love was still #1.