(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958, and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please refer to the "Poor Little Fool" post.)
Pat Boone - "Moody River"
Hit Number 1: June 19, 1961
Stay at Number 1: 1 Week
"Moody River" is kind of a strange song. A guy goes to the river where he was supposed to meet his girlfriend, but it turns out that she committed suicide instead. She left a note to him saying that "No longer can I live with this hurt and this sin. I just couldn't tell you that guy was just a friend." That means she cheated on him, and thought that the best thing for her to do, was to kill herself instead of talking to either guys about it, or just breaking up with one of them. So the guy is in obvious disbelief, and stares into the water, as the song describes "I looked into the muddy waters, and what did I see? I saw a lonely, lonely face just looking back at me." It's certainly sad, but it's certainly strange too.
The song was written and originally recorded by Chase Webster, a country singer, but that version went absolutely nowhere. Instead, a guy named Pat Boone, who had had a few hits in the late 50s, with hits like his biggest song "Love Letters In the Sand"("Love Letters In the Sand" was a #1 hit, but on the Pre-Hot 100 chart. It would've been a 7) would record it and take it to #1 for a week. I think most of us probably know the name Pat Boone, but maybe not necessarily for the best reasons. After his initial peak of success in the late 50s and early 60s, he sort of would go on to lose his mind. He was found guilty of falsely reporting that "Acne-Statin" would keep all four of his daughters' skin clear in a commercial in 1978, but it turned out that the product would not keep its users "blemish free". This was all in part of a series of crackdowns by the FTC around that time, in which they would bust celebrities for falsely stating their respective products they were promoting worked. But that was just the tip of the iceberg.
Later in 1997, he tried to be this big heavy metal type guy. He released an album called "In A Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy" in which he would record and release covers of heavy metal hit songs. (It's pretty funny to listen to "Moody River" and then imagine over 30 years later that same guy would make heavy metal songs) In an attempt to promote the album, he appeared at the American Music Awards wearing black leather. He claimed it was just a "parody of himself". Boone is also a heavy conservative, and obviously there is nothing wrong with that, but some of his beliefs are so crazy and exaggerated, that it's really hard to wrap your head around. I absolutely hate politics so I won't go too in depth about this, but I'll just share that he thought former President Barack Obama was born in Kenya, was fluent in Arabic, and didn't celebrate any Christian holidays while in the White House. Yeah.
There is more interesting things that Boone has done in his life, but there are too many to share here. This post would take you over 20 minutes to read otherwise. But before all of these "things" happened in his life, there was "Moody River", Boone's lone #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Boone tries to make himself sound like he's in pain, and he does a good job with that. I am convinced that this is someone who actually went through having to deal with their girlfriend committing suicide, even though that has never been a problem of Boone's. Despite Boone selling the song without it sounding ridiculous and over the top, "Moody River" is a song that severely lacks a lot. The piano riff you hear when the song starts is catchy and definitely memorable, but it goes on throughout the entire song, and it starts to make you go crazy after a while. There's barely any instrumentation, and the song just seems to lack any real "personality", or anything that sets it apart from the dreaded teen tragedy songs that were still so popular around the time.
Let me just make one final note here. In this blog, I'm doing my best to not let the artists' lifestyle or events effect my stance on the songs, so please don't come at me saying that I just don't like the song because I think Boone lost his mind later in life. I legitimately just don't think "Moody River" is that great of a song. But there will be worse. Much worse! There is a song that is coming up in 1964 that I will go to my grave saying is the worst #1 song of the 1960s, and quite honestly, one of the worst of all time that were #1. At least "Moody River" hasn't hit that status.
GRADE: 3/10
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