Pat Boone's Music and Memories

Between 1956 and 1963, Boone made some 54 chart appearances, many of them with two-sided hits; his biggest smashes included the number one records "Don't Forbid Me," "Love Letters in the Sand," and "April Love," all three issued in 1957. That year he also began hosting his own ABC television series, The Pat Boone-Chevy Showroom; he also conquered film, starring in 15 features including 1957's Bernadine and April Love. Although his TV program ceased production in 1960, Boone remained a major star as the new decade dawned, and in 1961 again topped the charts with "Moody River." He even became an author, writing a series of self-help books for adolescents including Twixt Twelve and Twenty, Between You, Me and the Gatepost, and The Care and Feeding of Parents. Although the rise of Beatlemania put the brakes on Boone's run as a teen idol -- after 1962, he failed to crack the Top 40 again -- he continued recording for Dot through the late '60s, and in his live performances he regularly appeared with his wife and their four daughters, further reinforcing his family-friendly image.

In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy By the '70s, Boone had shifted almost exclusively to recording gospel material, although he later scored a handful of country hits (on, of all places, Motown); in 1977, his daughter Debby topped the charts with a smash of her own, the wedding perennial "You Light Up My Life." In 1981, Boone published Pray to Win, and in 1983 he began hosting a long-lived contemporary Christian syndicated radio show, all in addition to his extensive charity work. While his recording career continued to taper off, he did issue "Let Me Live," which became an anthem for the anti-choice movement. By and large, Boone spent much of the '80s and '90s out of the secular media spotlight, but in 1997 he made a splash with the LP No More Mr. Nice Guy, a tongue-in-cheek collection of covers of heavy metal tunes like "Smoke on the Water" and "Stairway to Heaven." Much of the singer's Christian contingent failed to get the joke, however, and after Boone appeared at the American Music Awards clad in black leather and sporting temporary tattoos, he was dismissed from his Trinity Broadcasting Network program Gospel America.