Not many rock stars live to age 65!
Pat Boone may never get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but he was influential all the same.
(A) his cover of Fats Domino paid the songwriters anyhow and got the other markets to play Fats’ version. Even Mr. Domino acknowledged this. Dave Bartholomew (still alive in his 90s) never made it big on the national charts.
(B) Pat Boone represented something edgier artists could be contrasted against
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ain%27t_That_a_Shame
Boone liked to tell a story about a concert at which Domino invited Boone on stage, showed a big gold ring and said, “Pat Boone bought me this ring,” since Domino and Bartholomew, as the song’s writers, received royalties on it from record sales or radio airplay of other performers’ cover versions of their song.
Pat Boone was never a rock star, he was a pop music star along the likes of Tony Bennett, Perry Como, Sinatra, etc.
However, he did make a rock album for fun a few years ago.