Based on chart entries and sales, Boone is one of the top recording artists in history, with 60 entries on the US Hot 100, including six that went to #1. Some of his success came from anodyne covers of songs by black artists - Boone's version would often chart higher than the original. Examples: "Ain't That A Shame" Boone: #1 Fats Domino original: #10 "Tutti' Frutti" Boone: #12 Little Richard original: #17 Most of his hits, however, were of songs that were always innocuous, including "Gee Whittakers!," "Love Letters in the Sand" and "If Dreams Came True."
Despite his astounding success at the dawn of the rock era, Boone was never seriously considered for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The knock is that he appropriated songs by R&B artists, releasing watered-down knock-offs that stifled the genre. Boone claimed that if he didn't cover these songs, many white listeners never would have heard them. "The folks who really like the down and dirty, real and raunchy, original R&B/R&R, are not likely to appreciate my records or the part they played in the whole evolution of music," he wrote in a letter addressing the Rock Hall.
Boone is a committed Christian who avoided scandal his entire career. He remained married to his wife Shirley, his high-school sweetheart whom he wed in 1953.
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