Should Pat Boone be part of rock hall of fame?
Tennesean.com
Oct 21,2008

When Pat Boone launched his singing career, rock 'n' roll was a new term.

"I've called myself one of the midwives at the birth of rock 'n' roll," says Pat, who will sign copies of his Christmas album and autobiography today from 2 to 4 p.m. at Ernest Tubb Record Shop, 417 Broadway.

He has sold 45 million records, has 38 Top 40 hits and holds the Billboard record for spending 220 consecutive weeks on the charts with more than one song. Elvis Presley opened for him. Yet he's not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, something his friend Mike Curb, the record executive, is trying to correct.

"The incredible thing about Pat's career is, next to Elvis Presley, he had the best statistics of any rock 'n' roll artist," Mike says. "Pat doesn't get the credit he deserves. He deserves to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and I'm talking to members of the board of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, asking them why he's not in."

Pat, 74, who notes that he's had more hits than some of the inductees, says he doesn't care that he hasn't been inducted. "It has become diluted and unclear as to who is and who was rock 'n' roll.

"Brenda Lee was never rock 'n' roll," he says. "I love her — she was introduced on my father-in-law Red Foley's show — but she was country and maybe pop country, but never rock 'n' roll. Gene Pitney and Billy Joel were never rock 'n' roll."

Some inductees are personal favorites of Jann Wenner, the Rolling Stone magazine founder who co-founded the Rock and Roll Hall, he says. "He put me on the cover of Rolling Stone once, but he doesn't consider me authentically rock 'n' roll.

"To me, it's lost all meaning. If Johnny Cash was ever rock 'n' roll, somebody will have to prove that to me and play me a rock 'n' roll record he ever made. He was absolutely pure, down-home country and crossed over into pop. He lived a rough lifestyle, so maybe that qualified him for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."

Pat says an induction wouldn't mean very much to him. "I'm in the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, and that makes a great deal of difference to me."

Joel Peresman, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame foundation's president, says Jann isn't on the nominating committee, and "has no input into who gets nominated or inducted."

The committee considers influence more than statistics, Joel says.

"It's never been a question of hits or who sells the most records. They are really looking at people who have been influential in rock 'n' roll, and rock 'n' roll has a very broad definition," Joel says.

"Rock 'n' roll has a really wide net and a lot of the artists maybe aren't in the center of it, but might be in the fringes of it." Also, these "fringe" artists may have inspired other artists, who in turn took the sound deeper into rock music, he says.

He says Pat's name has surfaced in nomination discussions, but in the last few years, only a small number have been nominated annually. "People have great respect for Pat and what he has done in his career," he says. "It's
just, for whatever reason, it hasn't made it to this level of things."

MTSU recording industry professor Paul Fischer says Pat is probably not high on an induction list because he didn't originate music, but interpreted it. "He didn't write the songs," he says. "He performed the songs he was asked to perform and performed them in a way he was asked to perform them.

"You could say the same things about Elvis, but Elvis' interpretations were more innovative and cutting-edge. His material was more challenging, whereas Pat Boone's songs were more likely novelty songs more often and they were more clearly tailored for mainstream tastes.

"I would say that he deserves respect in many of the same ways that Bing Crosby deserves respect," Paul says. "He was an incredibly successful song stylist; he sold a lot of records and had a lot of hits. But you are never going to see Bing Crosby in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

"I do have respect for Pat Boone in that he managed to sustain a very successful recording career through multiple decades. But I don't see him as a major innovator or a contributor to rock music. He was mainly a popularizer."

Might as well....

Pat Boone is a ultra right wing conservative bible bashing God loving dog sexing fuck wit who destroyed the classics and should be disposed of in the cruellest way possible.

Not if Link Wray isn't.

Nasty Habits wrote on Oct 23^rd, 2008 at 11:11am:

Nasty Habits wrote on Oct 23^rd, 2008 at 11:11am:

Big time agree. No Link Wray no Pat, also No Iggy  no Pat
But who cares, it's a museum, it does not matter, he did  make Little Richard and Fats a liittle Money, He's the Frank Burns of RNR!
Everything and everyone needs something like Pat to stand for or against. Pat's OK, I don't listen never have but what the Hell, put him in It's a joke, and he would be perfect to define the Joke.