Moody River Pat Boone Written by Gary D. Bruce. This song was a number-one Billboard Hot 100 song from June of 1961 by Pat Boone. Written by Gary D. Bruce (not to be confused with Gary Bruce of The Knack), this was the title track from one of Boone's better selling albums. Boone sung this song as if he were in pain. It was covered seven years later by Frank Sinatra. The song tells the story of a man who goes to meet his love at the river, by the old oak tree, and finds that she has committed suicide. A note on the riverbank explains that she has cheated on him and that "No longer can I live with this hurt and this sin. I just couldn't tell you that guy was just a friend." He then looks in the river, and sees his own reflection, with "Tears in his eyes, and a prayer on his lips, and a white glove of his lost love, clutched in his fingertips" It was a bit depressing but managed to stay on the charts for several weeks, hitting #1 at one time.