PAT BOONE on TV 1957 singing TUTTI FRUITI aka Tutti Frutti by Little Richard

Racist? In 2006, Pat Boone issued “R&B DUET HITS” singing with James Brown, Sam & Dave, Smokey Robinson, The Four Tops, and others. They didn’t think Pat was a bad guy, so why should you? Pat Boone singing “Tutti Fruiti” in 1957 was giving Little Richard songwriting royalties he would not have gotten on his own. Most American ears were not tuned to R&B back then, and there were few R&B radio stations. When The Beatles covered Little Richard and Chuck Berry in 1963-64 were they racists too? Pat didn't "rip off" Richard any more than The Beatles did. Royalties were paid. Everyone acknowledges that black gospel and R&B influenced white rock. Whites like Mick Jagger and John Lennon shouldn’t be allowed to sing black? That’s what Etta James thought when she sneered at Genya Ravan: “How DARE you sing black?” But on the flip side, Leontyne Price, Kathleen Battle and Grace Bumbry sang opera, and Andre Watts played Tchaikovsky. Anybody should feel comfortable singing R&B or C&W or whatever they want. In 1957 C&W artists were as absent from the Billboard charts as R&B artists were. You could therefore argue that people were racist about Southern and Nashville whites as Southern and urban blacks. Little Richard has had 60 years to rant about Pat Boone if he wanted to. He hasn’t. That should tell you something. Here's a digitized version of the TV show, with a little more...black and white contrast.