Metallic Pat Boone
See if you can avoid scratching your head and going WTF??!! while at the same time holding your gut as you’re doubled over in belly laughter. Be careful: The obvious responses to this clip could cause a serious strain if performed together.
You’re laughing because you believe (as most of us do) that Pat Boone is just about the squarest and most unhip singer in popular music. And the very idea of him singing the classic rock song by 2016 Rock Hall of Famers Deep Purple is an absurdity that’s hard to reconcile. Ha!
Back on January 28, 1997, Pat released a whole album of hard rock covers titled In A Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy. In addition to “Smoke… ” he covered Zep (“Stairway to Heaven,” ‘Natch, as Pat’s a devoted Christian with his own route to paradise in the afterlife), Ozzy (“Crazy Train”), AC/DC (“It’s a Long Way to the Top [If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll]”), Guns N’ Roses (“Paradise City”), Alice Cooper (the title song) and other rockers.
Even better: Guests on the album included Ronnie James Dio, Merry Clayton (the unforgettable female voice on “Gimme Shelter” by the Rolling Stones), Dweezil Zappa and… yep, Ritchie Blackmore!
Life is full of amazing and unbelievable surprises. This is one of them, and it only gets better as you watch this Classic Video. Enjoy!
Related: First-generation rockers; who’s still with us?
Boone was born June 1, 1934, and had no less than 16 Top 10 singles in the 1950s. Five were #1’s including “Ain’t That a Shame” and “Love Letters in the Sand.” His chart success led to sales of a reported 45 million records.
Related: Deep Purple’s smoking set at their Rock Hall induction
8 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationAs I recall he was savaged by the religious right over this project, most likely by a bunch of people who never actually played the album before they spoke out.
Thinking about the impact religion can have scares the h*ll out of me. I actually like Pat’s version. Good for him!!!
Boone certainly had a point with this album. Hard rock and heavy metal DOES have some actual musical content(unlike what a certain amount of narrow-minded people think).
Also proves that you can be very devout, religiously, and still enjoy the music without guilt.
Who came 1st: Pat Boone, Leonard Nimoy or
William Shatner? Guess we’ll never know since Alex Trebec is gone. Oh well, who cares.
It’s not as good as Lawrence Welk’s version of “One toke over the line” Haha
Nothing is as good as that!
I would love to hear Pat do “You Shook Me All Night Long”. Or just, “You Shook Me”.
You can still hear Pat. Like many other figures from the early days of rock, he has a weekly show on Sirius/XM. Last year, he did a very informative history of Dot Records in the 1950s.
For great oldies, terrific stories, with a laugh out loud presentation, you can’t beat Peter Noone on 60s Gold.
The scary part is, the part about the bustling in the bustling in the hedgerow in Stairway to Heaven still sounds sinister when played backwards.