Customer Reviews

The Fifties - Complete

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This 12 CD boxed set containing 347 songs - Pat Boone's entire 1950's recorded output - deserves an honest, openminded, and thorough examination. It's so easy these days to quickly dismiss Pat Boone, as so many have done, with hardly a listen beyond a few R&R cover songs which he recorded during his first year with dot records. These criticisms have been unduly harsh especially when viewed in the context of of 1955-1956 style Rock & Roll. During that time Pat Boone was called a Rock & Roll singer and was taken seriously as such. You may like or dislike Pat Boone's early R&R hits - 'TWO HEARTS', 'AINT THAT A SHAME', 'TUTTI FRUTTI',etc., but it is important to remember that those songs comprise but a very small part of his 1950's recorded output and demonstrate one side only of his amazing versatility. Certainly, on any voluminous, comprehensive collection not all the tracks are going to be "gems" and this anthology contains a few that don't shine so brightly. But, the vast majority of material here has so very much to recommend it. 'Exquisite' and 'Impeccable' are adjectives that do not exaggerate Pat's unaffected, natural, and totally wholehearted way with a song. Whether it's 'STARDUST', 'BEGIN THE BEGUINE', 'CHEEK TO CHEEK', 'YES INDEED', ST. LOUIS BLUES', 'MORE THAN YOU KNOW', - these, and countless others are all "done to perfection". The accolades that came Pat's way during the fifties included critical acclaim and raves from Sinatra, Crosby, Como and many other contemporaries and critics, alike. In an August 1957 interview with Red Robinson in Vancouver B.C. Elvis Presley said of Pat Boone, "The finest voice in music today". That, all by itself, says a lot. This Boxed Set has the potentiality of opening a lot of new eyes and maybe some closed eyes, as well.

I am a life-long Pat Boone fan. The contents of this CD set, which span his early career, is a stroke of genius. It also allowed me to discard many vinyl albums of these songs.

My gripes are 1) why repeat certain songs several times throughout the set, and 2) why mix hymns and Christmas music within Pat's ballads?.

Over all, I do not regret purchasing this set and encourage other Pat Boone fans to do the same.

I echo the sentiments of the other reviewers. A real nice bonus is an enclosed book filled with info on Pat including covering(recording someone elses songs i.e. Little Richard), recording data, a bio, and some great photos even one with his rival of the time, "Elvis". I too am brought back to the time of my high school years with fondness. JK

This complete collection of Pat Boone's recordings from the fifties is a must for all fans of this kind of music. Pat Boone is to my taste one of the two best male pop singers of this century (the other being Bing Crosby). Is amazing to see and listen a collection of about 350 songs of such a consistent quality of writing and singing. I am waiting for the sixties!.

Well friends, let me first start off by saying that I am probably the youngest person reviewing this magnificent, comprehensive box set devoted to one of the all time greats in popular music. I am 25 years of age and have owned this box set since September of this year. All I can say, is wow! Brilliant, heartwarming, soothing, joyus, powerful, and exciting. These are the many adjectives that describe this box set. To the people who have harshly criticized this set due to excessive repetition, you either are not a fan of alternate takes and rerecordings or you only want to hear the same song only once. To me, rerecordings and alternate takes are what makes a box set complete. It is always important to hear an artist develop their own unique arrangement of a song when recording multiple versions until they finally get the right master. I, for one, was knocked out to hear Pat develop his own arrangement of Love Letters In The Sand, Walking The Floor Over You the great Ernest Tubb classic, I'm Waiting Just For You, Shake A Hand, Wait For Me Mary, I Almost Lost My Mind and so many others by hearing multiple takes. I love it so much and this, out of all the Bear Family box sets I have, is my favorite set of all time. Bear Family should be inducted into the country music hall of fame, the rock and roll hall of fame, and the gospel music hall of fame. I highly, highly recommend this box set to all Pat Boone fans, also the 60's set of Pat Boone, and finally the language recordings which Bear put out by Pat called, Baby Oh Baby. I am anxiously awaiting for them to do a 1962-1970 set on Pat! God bless you, Mr. Boone and Shirley, you truly are my heros and I love you dearly like my family. You constantly are in my house everyday with this wonderful box set of beautiful music. Keep it up! Would love to correspond with any Pat Boone fan, my Email address is: thecountryman@bell.net

All I want is to get acopy of "Technique". And I have no way of asking anyone how to get it. Fred Ericsen - Miller. Springbokfoods@dingoblue.net.au