If one wishes to remain objective and factual, this was the case: The parents of white teens were not enthralled with the idea of their kids being captivated by this loud, bawdy and, in some cases, sensuous or sexy music that was early R&B.
There were a few radio deejays around the country, the most famous being Alan Freed on the east coast, who played the race music and also promoted dances where teens could gather to see the hottest acts -- virtually all of those acts being African American.
There was a pivotal moment in the evolution of rock. It was April 1955. An established New Orleans R&B performer, Fats Domino, put out a single called Ain't It A Shame. This song was huge from the start, but only on the R&B charts, where it entered at #1.
Meanwhile, a shrewd promoter at Dot Records was trying to devise a way to sell more race music to white kids, without too much parental resistance. He came up with a brilliant idea that can be described in two words -- Pat Boone. Pat Boone was a good-looking kid. He was preppy, clean-cut, white. He could take popular race music tunes and make them appealing to parents. Parents would let their kids listen to his music. Using that philosophy, Dot took Boone's recording of Ain't It a Shame all the way to #1 on the pop charts. They mixed the basic sound of Fats with a big band. Boone's homogenized hit created such excitement that it drew extra attention to Fat's R&B version so that also shot to #10 on the pop charts.
Boone did a few other homogenized versions of R&B songs, most significantly a cover of Little Richard's Tutti Frutti. Some might wonder if the R&B artists resented Boone and his success achieved the result of their hard work. Fats Domino did not. Domino was performing years later and he found out that Pat Boone was in the audience. He had Pat come on stage for a duet of Ain't It A Shame. Fats, also, pointed to a big diamond ring on his finger and said: "This man bought me that ring by recording his version of that song."
Pat Boone, you might say, was vanilla frosting on the rock n' roll music of that day. Like it or not, he is a performer who helped bring the sound of rock into the mainstream by making it more acceptable to the parents of American teenagers. And, for sure, all rock n' roll performers, including the Beatles, owe a debt to Fats, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and many of the early African American R&B performers.
For more "Stories Behind the Music" click on the guitar 
Steven L. Smith
Bellingham WA Home Inspections
Check out "This Day In History" -- music and vintage television from the 1950's through the 1980's. I enjoy writing these articles because they take me back to my days in radio broadcasting. Click on Elvis' gold record, below, to revisit those golden hits of yesteryear.
"And, for sure, all rock n' roll performers, including the Beatles, owe a debt to Fats, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and many of the early African American R&B performers." Your sure have got that right!
If we truely "listen" there is no music of the "next generation." There was "garbage" put out by all generations and great stuff by all generations. In the music of today there is even some "garbage" that is great:)
Another good history. I don't remember Pat being as handsome as he was in that youtube video. And I loved Fats's version better. I do like your guitar leading to all the history. Pretty soon you're going to be a full-time blogger with no time for inspections. : )
You will have to send me some new covers----he ate them last time.
Wow, I never knew that this was how Pat Boone got his start. HHHmmm, I wonder if he was related to Daniel?
Sean Allen
Well isn't that interesting I never knew that ...Pat Boone the Vanilla frosting on the chocolate cake, hmmm
Barbara -- So far able to keep up with both. I have fun writing these and they tie in with my background. I get amazing interaction from these too. If you have not checked it since yesterday, check the revision to the one on Barry Sadler from yesterday.
Charlie -- He says they were already like that.
Sean -- To be fair, Pat did end up doing some of his own material. The biggest was probably Love Letters in the Sand.
Liz -- That is just what I thought too, and I had thought of titling it that way but had not used the word chocolate. It sure fits.
Hey, Steven. My Joel Whitburn references have "Love Letters in the Sand" as being written by "Koots-Kenny-Kenny,' first published in 1931 and based on an 1881 song called "The Spanish Cavalier." Ted Black & His Orchestra had a #6 hit (again, according to Whitburn) with it in 1931, so Boone's cover was 26 years later.
Hey, Betina. I like Nine Inch Nails (NIN), a lot, and I'm 53. Timberlake I can take or leave, and rap I can definitely leave.
Russel, It gets to be really confusing figuring out what various songs are based on. There are many like that. I know that Fat's did Blueberry Hill and that was a remake and it was even done by Glen Miller. Then there is Ida Red and Maybellene. There are dozens, probably hundreds of others, I should be able to think of. Harrison, of course, was found to have lifted My Sweet Lord from He's So Fine. Likely to have been unintentional I think. When they have all have different titles, it becomes hard to track something that is hard to track in the first place. I know that Sebastian said that Younger Girl was new lyrics to an old song too, but now cannot remember what one it was derived from., What one of Whitburn's books do you have? I have one on the charts but not anything that gets into the roots. I have some others that do that.
I have the top 1000 from 1955 to 88, by Whitburn.
So I always hear the word "sampling" applied to these disco deejays who do weird things with old vinyl. Not sure just what they do but I know they call it sampling, I think it is like connecting different songs together. I know, pretty much logically, what a cover is -- same song different artist. But would the term sampling apply to a song like Ida Red vs Maybellene where Ida Red exists in the roots of Maybellene but is certainly not a cover.