HOLLYWOOD, California--- A few weeks ago in the Torah we began reading the book of Exodus. So it seemed appropriate to focus this column on the man I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing many times over the years in his memorabilia-filled office in Beverly Hills – the legendary Pat Boone.
In December 1960, the 26-year old pop idol wrote and recorded The Exodus Song (This Land Is Mine) to the stirring theme music of the newly-released film, Exodus. His record debuted a few weeks later in mid-January and remained on the music charts for six weeks. It was a deeply-poignant song which resonated for millions of Jews and Christians around the world and it’s become regarded as Israel’s second national anthem.
Pat wrote it after watching the Paul Newman-starrer based on the novel by Leon Uris about the founding of Israel. He had been riveted by the novel and mesmerised by the film. And was greatly moved by Ernest Gold’s emotive and haunting score (a later Academy Award winner), which was already an international hit, but there was no theme song; director Otto Preminger and Ernest Gold felt there could never be lyrics that would capture the feeling, the vision and the soul of the film, and had turned down every request to approve a song. Until Christmas Eve 1960.
A few days ago, I caught up with Pat as he reflected on the life-changing events that led to his writing the song that has held such an important place in Jewish history for 63 years.
‘When I saw Exodus, about the return of the land that God promised Israel forever and the new modern state, I was thrilled! I’m a Zionist and in my perspective a Zionist is a person who believes God created Israel for the Jewish people. And I wanted passionately to sing that melody from the film. So I tried to get an idea for a lyric to propose to a Jewish writer. I wasn’t thinking of writing it myself then.
‘Well, it was Christmas Eve and my wife, Shirley, was begging me to quit playing that piano record of the Exodus music. She said “please help me get the presents under the tree so we can go to bed!” And I said, “okay, honey, just one more time”. I'd already listened, like, 40 times in a row. So I put the needle back on the LP. “Bum bum, bum bum………” and then I heard the words “This land is mine” come out of me. They flashed into my mind and I thought, “that’s it, that’s the whole story of Exodus!”’
He grabbed the nearest blank paper and scribbled the line. And each time he put the needle back on the record to hear the next bars of music, the lyrics poured out of him. ‘It was like taking dictation. Literally! Because in about 20 minutes, I had written the words to that song. Then I turned over the piece of white paper that I was writing it on... and it was a Christmas card!’
Pat has always believed the words came through him directly from God. When he sang the song to Shirley, she told him instantly, “Pat, those are the words! I think God gave them to you.” ‘And, of course, that’s my belief too. He did.’
The lyrics that flowed out of his heart that night were a testament to his faith and his profound love of Israel. He’d had a religious upbringing in Tennessee, attending Christian high school and university. Studying the Bible since childhood, from a very early age he’d felt a kinship with Judaism. ‘Since I was a little boy, I was reading Bible stories and fell in love with Israel. The stories were real to me. My love for and identification with Israel and the Jews grew out of my boyhood, growing up in a Christian family but one that recognised that everything we believed as Christians and everything we hold sacred came directly out of the history of the Jews.’
For the last 47 years he has read the Bible every day from beginning to end. ‘I read through it every year from start to finish in daily portions and every day without exception. There's always something that jumps out at me that I didn't see before, something I learn in ways I'm inspired.’
His belief in the Bible has led to his feeling intrinsically Jewish and for much of his life he has described himself as “an adopted Jew”. ‘Christians are still startled when they hear me say this, but I’ve known it since I was a kid - that every word of the Bible, from Genesis to end of the Book of Revelation, every word was written by Jews, about Jews and for Jews, all concerning the little nation of Israel focused on God’s chosen people. And as the New Testament says, we are adopted into the family of God’s chosen people. So of course I feel Jewish. As you see, I wear my Chai and my Magen David and we have all kinds of Jewish symbols all over our house.’
Since his first visit to Israel at Pesach in the mid ‘60s, during which he attended his first seder, Pat Boone has made 21 trips there. ‘The first time I went to Israel was with my family,’ he recalled, ‘and we went over to do a TV special called The Boone Family in the Holy Land. We arrived in Ben Gurion airport not long after a terrible commando raid on the airport and the bullet holes were still very evident in the walls. So there was some nervousness. But everywhere we went there were Israeli soldiers with the Uzis or rifles or guns slung over their shoulders, standing guard, so that we always felt secure and safe, no matter where we went.’
At the request of the Israeli government, at the end of the Yom Kippur war in 1973 Pat visited the IDF troops below Mount Hermon in territory newly captured from Syria. With the soldiers urging him to sing the lyrics to Exodus, he stood among them in the bunker wearing a helmet and flak jacket with shells still flying overhead from Damascus and sang the evocative words: This land is mine, God gave this land to me - ‘I had no accompaniment except the occasional shell. It was very moving to all of us.’
It was on one of Pat’s early trips to Israel that he was approached by Shaya ben Yehuda, director of International Relations at Yad Vashem. ‘He walked up to me, this big, burly man with tears in his eyes, and said, “you don't know what those words you wrote mean to us here at Yad Vashem”. He really was emotional about it and it made me emotional because here I am, a kid from Tennessee, white bread, gentile guy, but so strongly identifying with everything truly Jewish.’
He asked Pat if he would donate the lyrics to the museum. ‘I said, “yes, of course. But I need to let you know that I wrote those words on the back of a Christmas card, it was the first thing that was handy!” And he said, “Great! We know that evangelical Christians are our strongest support. If it weren't for them, we wouldn't be able to survive. So it's perfect that your lyric was written on the back of a Christmas card.” Then, still with the tears in his eyes, he said, “Right now we have a campaign underway to see that every Jewish child in Israel knows those words to that song you wrote.”
Pat paused, still greatly affected by the memory even all these years later. ‘He wanted every school kid to be able to recite those words. It's hard for me to describe how moving that is to me.’
In 2013, in a glittering dedication ceremony headed by his longtime friend, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Pat Boone gave Israel the lyrics to The Exodus Song. The Xmas card on which he wrote it now hangs in Yad Vashem on the wall of the Righteous Gentiles, alongside tributes to other Christians, including Oskar Schindler and Corrie ten Boom, who made incredible personal sacrifices to the Jewish people during the Holocaust.
For decades he has been associated with the Fellowship of Christians and Jews after becoming a close friend of its late founder and president in Jerusalem, Rabbi Eckstein, who said of Pat, “There’s no greater friend of Israel”. In 1992, he invited him to host a tv special and appeal to evangelical Christians to fund the freeing and transportation of Jews to Israel following the fall of the Iron Curtain. Pat’s response was immediate - ‘the idea of asking Christians to support the program of bringing aged Jews from behind the Iron Curtain to dwell in the Promised Land while they were still alive just really resonated with me’ - and the massive donations and overwhelming pledges of support from the Christian community launched the organization onto the national stage.
Since then, Pat has remained proudly involved as the Fellowship has flourished, helping hundreds of thousands of Jews to escape poverty and antisemitism by returning to their biblical homeland, and funding humanitarian assistance that has touched the lives of millions of Jews in need in Israel and around the world, while providing life-saving aid to Israel’s victims of war and terror.
Over the years, Pat Boone has hosted many tours to Israel on which he’s escorted thousands of Christian tourists. Named the Christian Ambassador of Tourism by the Israel Ministry of Tourism, in 2016 he was awarded the Zionist Cultural Impact Award in Jerusalem for his contribution to Zionist cultural influence around the world. During his visit he met with IDF soldiers and told them: “I'm wearing a Star of David as a token of my esteem for the people of Israel. I count myself as a Zionist and I want you all to know that I am a true friend of yours and that America will always stand by you. You are the true fruit of this land, the future generation of Israel.”
On Israel’s 70th birthday in 2018, he hosted a glittering 70th anniversary gala in Jerusalem and performed with the Jerusalem Symphony. “I’m very excited to be here in the Holy Land,” he enthused later to The Times of Israel. “With every visit I feel that Israel is becoming my second home.”
A year ago, he received The Algemeiner newspaper’s Warrior for Truth award at their annual gala, honoring the top 100 people who had positively influenced Jewish life that year. Accepting his award, Pat told the audience that he felt “like family” with the Jewish people. “I call myself, as a Christian, an adopted Jew and I’ve always considered myself part of God’s chosen people.”
So many trips to Israel over the years, always leaving him wanting more. ‘Going to Israel is walking into the pages of the Bible,’ he has described of his countless visitations. ‘You just walk in. When David fought Goliath, I’ve been on the very piece of ground where he slew Goliath. I’ve been in the cave in Ein Gedi where he hid from Saul. When you come back home, everything you read then is in Technicolor. You say, “Oh wow, I’ve been there!”’
Yet, what was it, I asked, that motivated him to keep returning. ‘It's our homeland,’ he replied simply. ‘I say “our” because if we are part of the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as we feel we certainly are, we call it our land. When I wrote the lyrics to Ernest Gold's great melody for Exodus I was so strongly identifying with it - "So take my hand and walk this land with me." I was, of course, singing for every Israeli, but also for every man, woman or child who, like we do by the millions, identify totally with Israel, its past, its present, and its destiny, and are so supportive of Israel. Because we believe that America's future depends on our relationship with Israel.’
Along with his relationship with Israel is the one he shares with Benjamin Netanyahu. They’ve been friends since the mid-70s when Netanyahu was at college in America, studying at the Institute of Technology in Massachusetts. ‘He calls me Speedy Gonzalez because of the record I made,’ laughed Pat, ‘and that was his favourite song while he was at MIT! He was a big fan of mine when he was in college there! And every time we're together, as we have been many times, he says, "hello, Speedy, come on in!” to his office in Jerusalem. He knows how devoted I am to Israel, and always have been, and that we Christians, evangelical Christians, as he says, are Israel’s greatest allies in the world. Evangelical, Bible-believing Christians know Israel’s place in God’s scheme of things, His plans for Israel.’
In the creative side of his life, Pat has enjoyed a remarkable career that has spanned more than 70 years. He’s the #10 all-time top recording artist, and has sold 45 million records worldwide. Before there was Elvis (who opened for one of his shows in 1955) there was Pat Boone, already a top star. He was a teen idol, even while still attending college, rising to stardom in the ‘50s and ‘60s with major hits that included Speedy Gonzalez, Love Letters in the Sand, Tutti Frutti, Ain’t that a Shame and too many others to name. He was constantly mobbed by adoring female fans, even after his marriage at 19 to Shirley Foley, daughter of the great country music singer Red Foley. By 1956, he was one of the biggest and most popular recording stars in the US; and in 1957, now the father of four little girls, he was named America’s 3rd most popular star. He was only 23 when that same year, a few months before graduating from university, he became the youngest person in history to have his own weekly variety show, The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, which aired for 115 episodes (1957–1960). It frequently won the highest ratings and featured many artists like Sammy Davis, Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole making their first appearances on television.
Pat may have topped the charts before Elvis, but the two of them soon became rivals (and friends), vying with each other for the top spots in music charts around the world. By the end of the ‘50s Pat was the second biggest charting artist behind Elvis. He’s the most recorded artist of all time, with over 2600 songs and 86 albums to his name. He’s racked up 41 hits (1 more than Elvis) and still holds the astonishing record for having had one or more singles in the US charts for 220 consecutive weeks, including I’ll Be Home which reached No.1 in the UK where he was immensely popular.
He’s written and sung a multitude of songs in several genres, from rock ‘n roll to blues and Christian ballads and gospel to love songs and movies themes. The most successful ’50s pop star turned movie star after Elvis, he’s starred in 15 films, among them April Love, State Fair, Journey to the Centre of the Earth and The Greatest Story Ever Told.
In 1999, Pat launched his record label, The Gold Label, designed for legendary older artists with million-selling gold records to their credit, including Andy Williams, Glen Campbell, Jack Jones, Roger Williams, Patti Page, Cleo Laine, Sha Na Na, (and Pat himself).
He’s written dozens of books, many devoted to religious themes. The first, ‘Twixt Twelve and Twenty in 1958, offered advice to teenagers and was a number one best seller. A prolific writer and speaker, he holds a fierce opinion on a wide number of issues and for years has written articles and columns in newspapers across America. He commentates on a plethora of controversial political topics, even as new generations discover his unending appeal as a recording artist. In 2022, during the start of the Ukrainian war, he released a new version of Exodus, a moving duet which he sang with Judeo-Christian cantor Margo Joy (whom Andrea Bocelli describes as “a melodic genius”). And 61 years after co-starring with Ann-Margret in the musical State Fair, last year he reteamed with her in a duet on her album Born to be Wild.
Pat Boone (c) Photo by Barbra Paskin
At the tender age of 89, he’s an avid golfer, swimmer and tennis player still active after two knee replacements. He’s presently recovering from a broken hip which happened during a workout 2 months ago. But he’s still riding on a creative high. Once he’s fully healed he’s looking forward to reinstating some concerts and personal appearances that had to be cancelled after the mishap - ‘I know I can still sing so if I can walk I’ll be fine!’
Currently celebrating his 70th anniversary as an entertainer, there seems no slowing him down. For the last four years, he’s been hosting The Pat Boone Hour on SiriusXM, The Pat Boone Kaleidoscope Radio Hour on the BNR Radio Network, and has an audience of more than 600,000 people who tune in to Pat Boone’s Kaleidoscope on Spotify to listen to his early recordings. He recently published his 29th book, If, sharing his religious inspirations (he’s already starting on his 30th book), and starred as an old golf pro in the movie The Mulligan. And just a few months ago he fulfilled his dream of making a country record. He released Country Jubilee, a double album that includes a duet with Crystal Gayle and where he sings classics that were megahits by earlier country legends.
Also on the album is Grits, a country-western song he wrote which was released as a single and to his amazement flew straight into the Top 20. ‘It’s a huge hit,’ Pat bubbled proudly, ‘and it came to me in a dream! I was dreaming I had a big country hit record. And I even heard the first verse in my dream! It’s now become a country hit all over the nation!’
So, less than six months shy of turning 90, what keeps Pat Boone constantly on the move?
‘I just have a creative mind, a creative soul. But also I’m receptive to impulses which I believe are from God. And there are times when I feel like God's giving me something and I obey and I write. I think many of my songs were given to me, like Exodus.
‘I've written and sung more gospel songs than almost anybody in the gospel music field. And I've also recorded more songs than any artist in history. Frank Sinatra recorded 1500 songs and I think they're all classics because Sinatra was so wonderful. Bing Crosby was my role model and he recorded 2000 songs. But I've now recorded over 2600 songs…and counting! I’m still doing it! And I'm the only artist to record all of America's great patriotic songs on an album called American Glory.’
American Glory was a 2002 album that Pat recorded post-9/11. It was just what the traumatised nation needed after witnessing the deadliest domestic terrorist attacks in its history, and it fast became the biggest-ever seller in the life of Pat’s Gold Label, reaching number 135 on the Billboard charts. It was his first album to chart in 35 years. He wrote a new song for it, Under God, and, released as a single, it stirred people’s hearts and shot into the Top 20.
Pat and Shirley Boone (c) Photo by Barbra Paskin
In 2019, a few weeks after celebrating their 64th wedding anniversary, Pat’s beloved wife Shirley died. They’d been together since they were 16, high school sweethearts. "We lived a wonderful, blessed life together,” Pat said at the time. “I've parted with my better half for a little while…but we don't die, we just move on to another Heavenly place, and today was moving day. She's changed her address, that’s all, and moved to a different mansion that I expect to join her in one day."
For 67 years, the couple had been devoted to each other and often took “second or third honeymoon” voyages together. An achiever in her own right, Shirley had been a best-selling author, recording artist and, like her husband, a devoted humanitarian. In 1979, struck by the plight of the Cambodians, they set up a humanitarian hunger relief organization Save the Refugees which evolved into Mercy Corps. Today it’s one of the largest hunger-relief charities in the world, operating in 40 countries alongside the Red Cross and other global agencies.
Pat still lives in the Beverly Hills mansion that they bought in 1960 and where they raised their four daughters. He told me he feels Shirley’s presence everywhere and talks to her every day, as he also does with God. Their fervent religious faith was a binding commitment that the whole family shared.
As he looks back on an extraordinary lifetime of achievements, Pat Boone believes The Exodus Song changed his life.
‘It’s part of Jewish history now and it makes me feel so proud,’ Pat told me softly. ‘It seems odd that someone who’s not Jewish could write that song, and it still stuns people, especially Jewish people, when I sing it. But I can't think of another song that means more to me than that one.
‘If I were to pick one song out of the 2,600 songs I've recorded,’ he considered, ’it would be Exodus. And I’m so grateful that God let me write the words. For a Christian gentile guy from Nashville to have written those words, which have become virtually the second Jewish national anthem after Hatikvah, is the milestone in my life!’
Till next time, Shavua tov.