Music Legends Revealed #22
This is the twenty-second in a series of examinations of music legends and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the previous twenty-one.
Let’s begin!
MUSIC LEGEND: Pat Boone recorded Fats Domino’s “Ain’t That a Shame” but changed the song to the grammatically correct “Isn’t That a Shame.”
STATUS: False
One of the more embarrassing facets of popular music history was the period in time when songs written and/or first performed by black artists were then re-recorded by white singers for the “white audience.”
As the white audience was obviously much larger, artists would typically lose out on a good deal of sales (and therefore, royalties) from this practice.
One such example happened when Fats Domino’s hit “Ain’t That a Shame” was released in 1955.
The song was popular on the “black charts,” but soon, a young performer (still in college) by the name of Pat Boone was asked to record the song.
As the legend goes, Boone, who was majoring in English at Columbia University at the time, changed the song to “Isn’t That a Shame.”
The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge, Second Edition: A Desk Reference for the Curious Mind cites this fact in their book.
It is not true.
It IS true that Boone WANTED them to make the change, but the change was never made, and the song was released as “Ain’t That a Shame” (well, actually, I believe it was mistakenly released as “Ain’t It a Shame,” but that was just a typo - the actual song say’s “that”).
It was a big hit, hitting #1 on the charts for a number of weeks.
However, oddly enough, this was one of the rare occasions where the cover version actually HELPED the original, as Domino’s version soon made its way back due to the popularity of Boone’s version, and put against each other, Domino’s version was clearly superior, so it actually re-ascended the charts itself!
MUSIC LEGEND: “Hang On Sloopy” is the Official Rock Song of the State of Ohio.
STATUS: True
Forty-eight of the fifty states in the United States of America have official state songs (only New Jersey and Virginia are without state songs - Virginia just recently decided to change their state song so they’re without one at the moment). A lot of these songs are some of the most famous songs ever recorded, like “My Old Kentucky Home” and “Yankee Doodle.”
But only ONE state has an official ROCK song, and that state is the great state of Ohio, home of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame!
That makes some sense, but what’s interesting is WHAT song they chose…
“Hang on Sloopy” by The McCoys?!?
You see, the fellas in the McCoys were from Dayton, Ohio, and over the years, a marching band version of “Hang on Sloopy” had become very popular at Ohio State University football games. Soon, both the Cincinnati Bengals and the Cleveland Browns were using the song, as well!
So, in 1985, when a Cleveland columnist wrote about rumors that Washington State was planning on having THEIR own official state rock song, the Ohio Legislature was quick to move, and soon, the following resolution was passed…
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 16
WHEREAS, The members of the 116th General Assembly of Ohio wish to recognize the rock song “Hang On Sloopy” as the official rock song of the great State of Ohio; and
WHEREAS, In 1965, an Ohio-based rock group known as the McCoys reached the top of the national record charts with “Hang On Sloopy,” composed by Bert Russell and Wes Farrell, and that same year, John Tagenhorst, then an arranger for the Ohio State University Marching Band, created the band’s now-famous arrangement of “Sloopy,” first performed at the Ohio State-Illinois football game on October 9, 1965; and
WHEREAS, Rock music has become an integral part of American culture, having attained a degree of acceptance no one would have thought possible twenty years ago; and
WHEREAS, Adoption of “Hang On Sloopy” as the official rock song of Ohio is in no way intended to supplant “Beautiful Ohio” as the official state song, but would serve as a companion piece to that old chestnut; and
WHEREAS, If fans of jazz, country-and-western, classical, Hawaiian and polka music think those styles also should be recognized by the state, then by golly, they can push their own resolution just like we’re doing; and
WHEREAS, “Hang On Sloopy” is of particular relevance to members of the Baby Boom Generation, who were once dismissed as a bunch of long-haired, crazy kids, but who now are old enough and vote in sufficient numbers to be taken quite seriously; and
WHEREAS, Adoption of this resolution will not take too long, cost the state anything, or affect the quality of life in this state to any appreciable degree, and if we in the legislature just go ahead and pass the darn thing, we can get on with more important stuff; and
WHEREAS, Sloopy lives in a very bad part of town, and everybody, yeah, tries to put my Sloopy down; and
WHEREAS, Sloopy, I don’t care what your daddy do, ’cause you know, Sloopy girl, I’m in love with you; therefore be it Resolved, That we, the members of the 116th General Assembly of Ohio, in adopting this Resolution, name “Hang On Sloopy” as the official rock song of the State of Ohio; and be it further Resolved, That the Legislative Clerk of the House of Representatives transmit duly authenticated copies of this Resolution to the news media of Ohio.
And so “Hang on Sloopy” became the first (and only) Official State Rock Song in the United States!
MUSIC LEGEND: Cher’s first single was a novelty song about Ringo Starr.
STATUS: True
Young Cherilyn Sarkisian dropped out of high school when she was 16, and eventually found work a few years later working along side an older man who would be an important part of her life for years, Sonny Bono. Bono worked with music producer Phil Spector, and soon, Cherilyn was getting work as a back-up singer on a few Spector recordings (Spector was big on overlapping sounds in his music, so Cherilyn never actually sang with the original artists, she would just sing and it would be edited on to the rest of the track).
Eventually, in 1964, Cherilyn was given a shot at her own single. Spector, though, had a rule about his artists - their names all had to be very easy to remember and they had to sound very “American,” like Darlene Love or Ronnie Bennett/Spector.
Cherilyn Sarkisian was not going to work, so under the name Bonnie Jo Mason, Cherilyn got her first shot…
and it was with a song about the Beatles’ Ringo Starr!!!
“Ringo I Love You” came out in 1964 and quickly disappeared from the charts.
One reason given by disc jockeys of the time was that Cherilyn’s voice sounded too much like a man’s, so the song sounded like a gay love song, which wasn’t exactly going to fly in 1964.
Cherilyn tried another single under the name Cherilyn, but that failed, as well.
Sadly, her two shots at stardom was a failure and her career never recovered…
Okay, that’s it for this week!
Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com
Has anyone else noticed that these legends don’t appear when it says they are published? I check this site everyday (from two different computers) and yesterday the last tv legends was the newest one, today there’s a new comic book legends and this music legends.
It says the music legends was posted on Sept 9th and the comic book one on Sept 10th, but today’s Oct 1st. And I often see the comic book ones at ComicBookResources.com before they show up here. Judging by the fact that there’s no other comments, I’m guessing I’m not the only one who hasn’t seen this one until today.
A similar thing happened with the sport’s legends, I’d check it periodically from June on and it was always not updated then one day in August like 20 of them showed up with various dates between June and August and since that day it hasn’t updated again (the last ones I see are two Olympic ones from August). I love this site, so I think it’d be great if it updated more often.
Mike, I guess even though you check this site twice a day, you don’t check the comments. He’s mentioned before that he is intentionally backdating these to keep up with the idea of a different theme each day. I’m not sure why he’s so far behind now, but I’m sure real life happens to bloggers occasionally..
Actually, Ohio is no longer the only state with an official Rock Song. This year Oklahoma made the Flaming Lips song “Do You Realize?” the state’s official rock song.
http://www.oklahomarocksong.org/
Otherwise, good stuff
Thanks Angie! I must have missed that. Definetly makes sense he’s be so far behind, 3 legends a day is a tough pace to keep!
I never even knew that Pat Boone covered “Ain’t That A Shame.” Oldies radio, it seems, only remembers the Fats Domino version. (As is only proper; I can’t imagine the Boone version being worth even a fraction of a damn.)
That has got to be the single most entertaining piece of legislation I’ve ever read.
I live in Ohio and didn’t even know about the Sloopy thing. Go figure.
And psst… two shots were.
That Sloopy legislation is awesome. At first glance, I thought it was a tremendous waste of time to use such dry legalese on an official rock song, but, actually reading it, it’s greatly amusing.
So, New Jersey doesn’t have an official song? I didn’t know that, and I’ve lived in Jersey all my life. Ah, well. Any truth to the story that they wanted to make “Born to Run” the official state song? (Robert Wuhl has a particularly amusing bit on that; the idea of having a state song that claims “We’ve got to get out while we’re young” is just so… Jersey…)
One of the more embarrassing facets of popular music history was the period in time when songs written and/or first performed by black artists were then re-recorded by white singers for the “white audience.”
I’ve never understoon why this was considered “embarrassing” at all. Record companies were simply producing a product that was more in line with what their audience wanted. There is no reason to assume that Boone’s sales somehow took away from Domino’s. Re-recording hits was done no matter who the original artist was if the record company felt another artist could have better sales. (see “Blue Suede Shoes”).
It’s not like they simply removed one artist’s voice and added another. These were usually dramtically different recordings for a different audience. Perfectly legitimate and no more shameful than the rap artists of the 90s pillaging classic rock riffs to support their work.
If the original writer was cheated out of credit and money (as *did* happen), then that’s a shame. Recording a cover ain’t.
Too bad the state next to me, Massachusetts, doesn’t name “Dirty Water” as their state rock song. It’s even more appropriate for it than “Sloopy” is for Ohio.
And a better song than “Please Come to Boston” — which I don’t consider Rock & Roll.
“but that was just a typo - the actual song say’s “that””
typo alert–”say’s” should be “says.”
“Sadly, her two shots at stardom was a failure”
“was” should be “were”
Just because you pointed out a typo, then made two.
[...] #22- Pat Boone recorded Fats Domino’s “Ain’t That a Shame” but changed the song … [...]
[...] the last installment of Music Legends Revealed, we took a look at the misconception that Pat Boone changed Fats Domino’s “Ain’t [...]
David, the reason why it was a disgrace was because there simply WAS no legitimate competition between competing versions of the songs. it had nothing to do with “putting out a product people wanted”- I think if you played the original “black” versions of songs alongside the Pat Boone versions for the teenagers of yesterday, they would pretty much all prefer the originals. These recordings were being made because racist (Southern) radio-station owners would not play negro music. Period. Whether their audience “preferred” it or not. So these whitened versions very directly led to a loss of revenue for the black singers of the originals, who could not get their music played and thus did not get any return on the royalties.
I was going to mention the official Rock Song of Oklahoma, but Zac Horn beat me to it. I’ve read more than once that Fats Domino’s version was titled ‘Ain’t It A Shame’ even though he clearly sings ‘That’ in the lyrics. I’ve never been certain whether that’s true or not.
Christopher Stansfield should know that it wasn’t only Southern radio stations that refused to play Negro music. This was common throughout the country. And many Southern stations did play it. And many stations throughout the country, then and now, would play Black artists if they sounded White, but not if they sounded Black.
My intention was simply to correct the notion that these covers weren’t simply a matter of the “market” but were a response to genuinely racist practices by radio stations. If I offended you by saying that the majority of those stations that had issues with playing black artists were southern, I apologize. Yes, there were some southern stations that played black artists (and I NEVER said that black artists couldn’t be played ANYWHERE in the South) and some northern stations that didn’t. You are also correct about artists that “sounded black” (specifically Elvis) weren’t played…in the South. Which is, of course, still a demonstration of racism even though the actual victim was a white man.