Probably best known for her 1977 hit You Light Up My Life, which led to her winning the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, Debby Boone will light up the stage at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside next Sunday, May 13.
“Of course, that song will be included in my show,” says the 55-year-old singer. “I think people would be really upset with me if they came to my show and I left that one out. Today, because it’s become such a standard, I realize I owe it to my audience to sing it.”
Boone is comfortable singing that song now, but it wasn’t always that way.
“When I sang that song I sang it to God, even though most people saw it as a romantic song,” she explained. “When I recorded it I wasn’t in a relationship, so I felt like this was a kind of prayer and so I sang it that way.”
But, Boone admitted, because of the popularity of that song, a song that was on almost everyone’s lips once it came out, she got really nervous.
“It seemed that for the next three years, nobody wanted me except to do that song,” she said. “That’s all they wanted and so I felt I would never be allowed to grow or sing anything else.”
But she needn’t have worried.
The third of four daughters born to singer-actor Pat Boone and Shirley Foley Boone — daughter of country music star Red Foley — Boone was just 14 years old when she began touring with her parents and sisters. Later, when the other sisters dropped out of the spotlight, Debby Boone decided she wanted more. That’s when record producer Mike Curb urged Boone to release her first hit solo, You Light Up My Life.
“Singing and touring with my dad came about because he didn’t want to travel so much and leave us behind. So we went with him,” she said. “But I think he thought his daughters should get married and settle down. But from the first time I hit the stage, I loved the attention I got. I knew I had found what I could do well and enjoy for the rest of my life.”
And she was right. Since those early beginnings, Boone has gone on to make a name for herself in many aspects of music, leading to tours with her father and frequent television appearances. After the success of her first big hit, Boone later focused her music career on country music resulting in the 1980 №1 country hit, Are You on the Road to Lovin’ Me Again. In the ’80s, she recorded Christian music that garnered her four top 10 Contemporary Christian albums as well as two more Grammys.
And then, she said, much to her surprise, she was approached to appear in stage productions nationwide including lead roles in Camelot, Meet Me In St. Louis, South Pacific, The Human Comedy and more.
“My first show was Seven Brides For Seven Brothers,” Boone recalled. “I think I was one of the lucky ones who got asked to do that role for a Broadway tour rather than having to audition with many others. They came to me because of You Light Up My Life, and I was absolutely thrilled for the opportunity.”
Boone’s latest CD, titled Reflections of Rosemary, is a musical portrait of her late mother-in-law, the legendary singer Rosemary Clooney. It is a collection of 14 standards chosen for their significance to Boone’s life with Clooney and will be featured when Boone comes to the Keswick.
Married for many years to Gabriel Ferrer, one of Clooney’s sons from her marriage to actor Jose Ferrer, Boone said her spirituality is one of the major reasons she’s been able to enjoy and get through the ups and downs in her life.
“My parents were great role models. Watching how my father handled the ups and downs in his own career and in his life gave me the strength I needed in my own life,” she concluded.
For show times and ticket information, call 215–572–7650.
