Hi friends – welcome back to 50s Tunes with Steve - the best place to learn about, listen to, and snap along with some of the great artists of the 1950s.
Today I’d like to give my take on a rivalry that occurred in the popular music industry during the 1950s – the rivalry between the smooth, warm, family man, Pat Boone, and the Rock n Rolling, young greaser, Elvis Presley.
Recently I read a piece by Alan Hanson, who runs an Elvis Presley history blog, where he decided to give his take on this so-called rivalry between Boone and Presley.
Hanson’s argument is pretty much that, there was no rivalry between the two young singers, but instead that it was mostly a media concocted war between the two.
Take a look at his piece here then come back and read my take on it - Pat Boone vs. Elvis Presley: A Fifties Rock 'n' Roll Battle … ?
My Position
I have to give Hanson a lot of credit! He certainly knows his stuff about Presley, and he did a great job covering Boone’s career, as well as his relationship with Presley.
For those who maybe didn’t have the time to read his piece, I’ll take a moment to summarize it for you.
As I stated above, there was this implied idea that Boone and Presley were battling it out on the music charts, and I suppose you can say that all artists are regularly competing for their records to be sold over another artists records, but as Hanson points out, Presley regularly named Pat Boone as one of his favorite performers in the field, and Boone had the same admiration for Presley, as the two were in fact very good friends, but as Boone specifically highlights, their audiences were far from the same.
Presley had started a new brand of singer. A young artist who would come out on stage, shake is hips with a guitar around him, and sing till the young girl in the front row fainted.
Boone was a project of the Crosby, Como, and Sinatra era of singers – crooners. The traditional style of singing, pre-Elvis, was to stand, face the camera and your audience, and croon till the cows came home, with little to no movement by the singer.
Presley was a driving force in breaking that standard.
As Hanson points out, the media, in many regards favored Boone because of the image he presented. Cool, clean cut, and polite. The all-American boy.
You’ll recall from my review of some of Boone’s music from the 50s, he was married and had 4 children by the time he was 23.
Presley on the other hand was untamable. As Hanson puts it “Elvis publicly shunned the idea of marriage, got into street fights, and played the angry young man on screen.” Certainly, a stark difference.
A commonality though between the two performers was their Southern backgrounds as well as the way in which they started their careers. Both artists started by singing Black R&B music – Rhythm and Blues.
Boone’s first top charting #1 hit was a cover of Fats Domino’s “Ain’t That A Shame” in 1955.
Presley hit home with a few #1 hits in 1956 – most prominently “Heartbreak Hotel.” To boot, Presley’s R&B songs were all original, and not cover versions like Boone.
Take a listen here to these live performances of both Boone and Presley singing their first top charters. It’ll give you a great idea of their styles.
Now, there is a story that Hanson did not tell that I think needs to be told regarding a song that was written for Presley but ended up being a hit for Boone.
A song titled “Don’t Forbid Me” was written by songwriter Charles Singleton. A demo of the song was sent to Presley’s home, but Presley never got around to opening the demo.
Boone’s producers had also got their hands on the song and gave it to Boone to record. He took it all the way to #1 in 1957.
Take a listen here to Boone’s version, and then to Presley’s version where he sang the song during a jam session.
Also, in 1957, Boone and Presley arguably battled it out for the #1 slot of the year. Presley ultimately came out on top with his recording of “All Shook Up.” Boone came in second with his #1 recording, “Love Letters In The Sand.”
Take a listen here –
As Hanson points out, the idea of this rivalry began to wind down by about 1958. Neither artist fed into the controversy, and simply allowed the media to tire themselves out talking about it.
Presley had continued success coming out of the 50s, while Boone saw a decline in popularity following the British Invasion and the rise of those wretched Beatles!
That’s all for today!
Thanks for reading folks and as always, I hope you enjoyed hearing some of these great tunes.
Until next time friends, this is your 50s music fanatic, Steven B. – signing off!
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