They were the ultimate odd couple: the squeaky-clean, God-fearing, married young white pop singer and the whooping, hollering, piano-pounding hell raiser with a blue streak a mile long.
But to hear Pat Boone tell it, without him Little Richard would not have risen to the heights of rock stardom and infamy and without Richard he wouldn't have scored a string of hit covers that rivaled Elvis' chart domination in the 1950s.Just days after rock godfather Richards' death on Saturday at age 87 of bone cancer, Boone, 85, spoke to Billboard about the unlikely pair's special connection, how he ended up recording hit covers of three of Richards' most iconic songs in the same year and why his often sanitized takes helped pave the way for R&B to cross.
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