[Dr. Sivana]

But he is the poster boy for white people doing black music. Cause he’s so white.

Not necessarily a bad thing. Richard Harris and Donna Summers both did MacArthur Park, and Harris is pretty white himself (with messier hair), and his version is over the top Lounge Singer White. Donna Summers' version is Disco Diva Black. Both were huge hits. Both were made mercilessly fun of.

Less than a year after Barbara Streisand (Jewish, but sings 'white' stylistically) scored the #1 song of the entire year with The Way We Were, Gladys Knight and the Pips were not shy about doing their own version less than a year later, and Miss Knight made it her own, scoring a Top 20 hit here, and doing even better overseas.

BTW, I do own Pat Boone's "In a Metal Mood", and found that he made some heavy metal music more accessible to me.

Also note, that Pat Boone was a music "bad boy" without even trying. You can find some pretty filthy lyrics on the FM dial these days, but try finding Pat's #2 hit record "Speedy Gonzales" even on the oldies' station.

[nickcarraway]

Richard Harris and Donna Summers both did MacArthur Park

The song was written by Jimmy Webb, who is white. I never liked the song, until I read about what inspired it. Webb was dating a girl (Linda Ronstadt's sister Susan) and would meet her every day for lunch at the park.

Webb wrote another song, By the Time I Get to Phoenix, which Isaac Hayes did a cover of, even mentioning Webb by name in the song. Hayes, though a successful songwriter himself, often did covers of songs, many written by white songwriters.

I'm not sure it matters so much, but Steve Cropper was a guitarist who cowrote many soul classics, especially on the Stax/Volt labels.

Stax/Volt was founded by a white brother and sister, but it released music mostly by black artists, but gave them more of a free reign. It was eventually bought by Al Bell, who was black.

The musicians didn't segregate themselves, even if radio stations and record stores did.

[nickcarraway]

I was driving around and flipping around on Sirius/XM. The 60's station was playing Speedy Gonzales, but I don't know if it was Pat Boone's version.

I think Pat Boone hosts a show on Sirius/XM, but I'm not sure when it is. Peter Noonan also has a show.