Born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, Pat Boone has claimed to be a direct descendant of the American pioneer Daniel Boone. He graduated from Columbia University magna cum laude in 1958 after a period at David Lipscomb College and North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas). During his college career, he was a member of Kappa Alpha Order.

Boone began recording in 1954 for Republic Records. His 1955 version of Fats Domino's "Ain't That a Shame" was a huge hit. This set the stage for the early part of Boone's career, which focused on covering R&B songs by black artists for a white market.

Randy Wood, the owner of Dot, had issued an R & B single by the Griffin Brothers in 1960 called "Tra La La-a" - a different song than the later LaVern Baker one - and he was keen to put out another version after the original had failed. This became the B side of the first Boone single "Two Hearts Two Kisses", originally by the Charms - whose "Hearts of Stone" had been covered by the label's Fontane Sisters.

Once the Boone version was in the shops, it spawned more covers by the Crewcuts, Doris Day and even Frank Sinatra. In the UK the song was covered by Lita Roza, a band singer with Ted Heath and her version was in the shops first.

A #1 single in 1956 by Boone was not so much a cover as a revival of a then seven year old song "I Almost Lost My Mind"-a song which had been covered at the time by another black star, Nat King Cole, from the original by Ivory Joe Hunter, who was to benefit from Boone's hit version not only in royalties but in status as he was back in the news. In 1957 Boone cut an album simply called "Pat" which was full of R & B covers.

In the late 1950s, Boone lived in a modest home in Teaneck, New Jersey, despite his annual income of $750,000 at the time.

Six of Boone's hit singles were R&B covers. These were "Ain't That a Shame" by Fats Domino and "Tutti Frutti" and "Long Tall Sally" by Little Richard, and "At My Front Door (Crazy Little Mama)" by the El Dorados.

The other two R&B covers were blues ballads, "I Almost Lost My Mind" by Ivory Joe Hunter and "Chains of Love", a hit for Big Joe Turner and later B.B. King that had been written by Ahmet Ertegün and "Why Baby Why" recorded first by the Blockbusters for a film called Rock All Night.

By 1957, Boone was concentrating on middle-of-the-road music, although he would continue to record R&B songs (such as "Two Little Kisses," a non-alcoholic version of "One Mint Julep"), and his version of The Capris' song, "There's a Moon Out Tonight" as cover versions.