ø PAT BOONE, Ain't That A Shame|I Almost Lost My Mind|Bernadine|Speedy Gonzales|

Charles Eugene Boone (born June 1, 1934 in Jacksonville, Florida) better known as Pat Boone, is an American singer, actor and writer who was a successful veteran pop singer in the United States of the 50s and 60s. Having sold over 45 million albums, he had 38 Top 40 hits and starred in more than 12 Hollywood movies and remarkably famous for his trade mark wearing white buck shoes.

Boone began recording in 1954 for Republic Records. His 1955 version of Fats Domino's "Ain't That a Shame" was a huge hit. This set the stage for the early part of Boone's career, which focused on covering R&B songs by black artists for a white American market.

Many of Boone's hit singles were R&B covers. These included: "Ain't That a Shame" by Fats Domino; "Tutti Frutti" and "Long Tall Sally" by Little Richard; "At My Front Door (Crazy Little Mama)" by the El Dorados; and the blues ballads "I Almost Lost My Mind" by Ivory Joe Hunter,"I'll be Home" by The Flamingos and "Don't Forbid Me" by Charles Singleton.

Pat Boone is the only one performer rivaled the chart dominance of Elvis Presley. In many ways it's Presley the blue suede shoes versus Boone the white bucks. According to Billboard, Boone was the second biggest charting artist of the late 1950s, behind only Elvis Presley but ahead of Ricky Nelson and The Platters, and was ranked at No. 9 - behind The Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney but ahead of artists such as Aretha Franklin, Chicago and The Beach Boys - in its listing of the Top 100 Top 40 Artists 1955-1995. [wikipedia]

Speedy Gonzales is a 1962 hit song and it's about  "the fastest mouse in all Mexico." It kept the #6 Billboard position in 1962 for 13 weeks. The female voice ("La-la-la...") on this song was of Robin Ward, the one-hit-wonder lady for her 1963 million-selling smash "Wonderful Summer".

SPOKEN: "It was a moonlit night in old Mexico. I walked alone between some old

adobe haciendas. Suddenly, I heard the plaintive cry of a young Mexican girl".

(female voice singing a series of "La-la-la's)

You better come home, Speedy Gonzales

Away from tannery row

Stop alla your a-drinkin'

With that floozie named Flo

Come on home to your adobe

And slap some mud on the wall

The roof is leakin' like a strainer

There's loadsa roaches in the hall

Speedy Gonzales, why dontcha come home?

Speedy Gonzales, how come ya leave me all alone?

SPOKEN in a male Mexican accent: "Hey, Rosita-I hafta go shopping downtown

for my mudder-she needs some tortillas and chili peppers."

(female voice singing a series of "La-la-la's)

Your doggy's gonna have a puppy

And we're runnin' outta coke

No enchiladas in the icebox

And the television's broke

I saw some lipstick on your sweatshirt

I smelled some perfume in your ear

Well if you're gonna keep on messin'

Don't bring your business back a-here

Mmm, Speedy Gonzales, why dontcha come home?

Speedy Gonzales, how come ya leave me all alone?

SPOKEN in a male Mexican accent: "Hey, Rosita-come queek-down at the cantina

they giving green stamps with tequila!!"

(female voice singing a series of "La-la-la's)