Boone and Francis Team Up for an Evening of Memories

No, Pat Boone didn’t preview his planned album of heavy metal songs at the Universal Amphitheatre on Sunday. He didn’t bring out Slash or spit stage blood. Co-headlining a KLAC-sponsored golden oldies night with Connie Francis, making her first L.A. appearance since 1985, he was simply good ol’ Pat--from his trademark white bucks to the stars ‘n’ stripes trim on his white coat.

But Boone had a lot of fun with his Mr. Milquetoast image as he strung some of his many ‘50s and ‘60s hits together with career anecdotes. “Unbridled passion almost bust loose--I was holding it in,” he joked with the audience after performing Fats Domino’s “Ain’t That a Shame,” Boone’s first No. 1 hit in 1955. However, he noted that his reign as the top teen idol was cut short by the arrival of one Elvis Presley, who “didn’t hold it in.”

Sunday’s show, though, was a little ragged at times--it appeared that some of the material hadn’t been fully rehearsed with the small orchestra and the New Chordettes vocal quartet backing him and his usual combo. And he really should think at least twice before performing his 1962 hit “Speedy Gonzales”--complete with stereotypical accent and gratuitous tortillas and tequila references. But, that aside, the half-capacity Father’s Day crowd thoroughly enjoyed the songs, stories and film clips from a bygone era.

Perhaps Francis should be the one making a heavy metal album--she’s certainly had more of a hard-rock life, surviving a tyrannical father, various health problems and a 1974 rape that halted her performing career. Though her singing was at times tentative, her program of old hits (the sublime pop fare of “Who’s Sorry Now” to silly teen hits a la “Stupid Cupid”) and stories (the rigors and pleasures of a youth in the spotlight) was personal and insightful, devoid of the woe-is-me or smug tone that often accompanies survivors’ tales.

Waving to the crowd before leaving the stage, she tripped on a monitor and took a hard header. As the audience gasped, she got up, shrugged off assistance and got on her way--showing both buoyancy and class.