Moody River

June 1961

Well, it's been quite a hiatus. Being busy with school and work and things, I haven't updated the ol' blog in a while. But I've always said you've got to finish what you started (actually I've never said that), and so here goes nothin'. I'm sure you're excited to know that Pat Boone is next up. Now, as a member of what might be called Generation Y, my introduction to the singer was this:

Not exactly representative of his style, you might say. But maybe it's more typical than it seems on the surface. Let's consider it: it's a clearly bored Pat Boone in the studio croaking out some song for a handful of money. Is that so different from "classic" Boone? Hasn't he always been a shill?

Boone had a number of very successful songs starting in 1955 (before this project's timeframe). After sampling a few of them, I started to wonder: how did this guy get famous in the first place? He must have made friends with the right people. His voice is just not very good. You could say it was his boyish charms, but come on, lots of other guys had those in spades. I am simply confounded. Most of his songs are simply boring – not particularly offensive, but certainly not exceptional at all. But one song in particular, "I Almost Lost My Mind" from 1956, practically had me laughing out loud at the sheer badness of this man's singing voice. Observe, Pat Boone in all his glory:

What this guy needs is a great, well-written song to hide the shittiness of his talent. Oh! Speak of the devil! The subject of this post, "Moody River," fits that description exactly! It's his only number one hit during the Hot 100 era, so it's the only one I'll have to cover (dodged a few bullets there). But I'll be damned if it isn't a very listenable, country, soft-rock-y sort of thing. It even has the tragic death of a lover, such a popular theme in this era's hits – you'll remember the first few entries of 1960. I think I'll go so far as to call it a... good song!

Okay. I can stop listening to Pat Boone now, right?

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