Pat Boone explains why Elton John believed he was going to sue him over "Crocodile Rock."

Pat Boone has been in show business for 70 years, but some star encounters have stayed with him.

The singer, 88, told Fox News Digital on Thursday that one of his career pleasures was meeting the renowned Elton John for the first time.

As it turned out, Boone had a specific topic in mind to discuss: one of John's tunes that sounded suspiciously similar to one of his own.

"I said, 'Sir Elton, I have a little bone to pick with you,'" Boone explained to the source.

According to Boone, the other entertainer "knew exactly what was going to happen."


"He looked at me with a guilty grin, and I said, 'You know, I did a song called 'Speedy Gonzales.'"
Boone then sung the song's hook, "La la la la la la la la la la," adding, "And you used it!"

He remembered John not attempting to dispute it. "'Yes, I used it in [1974 hit] 'Crocodile Rock,'" revealed the other entertainer.

"'I thought you were going to sue me,'" John said Boone.

Boone, on the other hand, was charmed by the lifting of his infectious hook rather than resentful.

"I said. 'Are you suing me?' We performers are ecstatic when someone does something that we did. "I felt honoured."

Furthermore, Boone, who was a huge teen idol in the 1950s and 1960s — Elvis Presley once opened up for him — discovered that John was a huge fan of his work.

"'I had all your records,' he continued. "I had 'Love Letters in the Sand' and 'April Love' and all those songs," Boone explained. "But when I heard 'Speedy Gonzales,' I knew I had to use that 'La la la la la la la la.'"

The song "Speedy Gonzales" was not composed by Boone. Buddy Kaye, Ethel Lee, and David Hess, also known as David Dante, wrote the song, and Dante was the first artist to record it. However, it was Boone's version a year later that became an international hit.

John wrote "Crocodile Rock" with longtime songwriting partner Bernie Taupin. It finally became John's first number-one single in the United States.