Pat had many hits that were considered "rock"
at the start of his career 50 years ago. Tutti Frutti,
Ain't that A Shame, Speedy Gonzales were just three of his 20 chart toppers. "Rock" in the early days was a label given any artist that had what was called a "rock beat".
"Rock" at the start wasn't as we know rock to be today.
Prior to Pat Boone, rock didn't exist. He was there even before Elvis.
Read www.JohnRook.com for more
I remember seeing him perform Tutti Frutti in an old black and white special about he or Little Richard.
I never seen the soul of music so totally removed from a song in my life.
I'm guessing most people associate his style with elevator music, but I agree that he would be due initiation way ahead of some of the dolts in there now.
ROFLMAO
Did you get this from scrapple face or the Onion?
Before Elvis... there was nothing!
None of those are rock & roll titles.
Problem is Pat built his career on covers, mostly uncredited. That's how the industry worked when Pat was coming up, black guys wrote these great songs and managers stole them and handed them to white guys, Pat was one of the white guys. Hard to say somebody should be in the hall for somebody else's work. Good guy, not a HOFer.
A LOT of Pat Boone's HITS were blues songs. I think that qualifies, unless it needs to have a faster or stronger beat.
It is definitely BLUES, though. Not everybody's idea of "authentic," but authentic American music, and Blues nonetheless.