Saturday afternoon: Pat Boone is reuniting with Dot Records at Gallatin autograph session

Famed 1950s pop singer and Nashville native Pat Boone launched his career in earnest by way of Dot Records in Gallatin.

For Boone, selling millions of records at the height of the label can be described in two words: Pure excitement.

This weekend, Boone returns to Gallatin to celebrate the Dot legacy. He'll sign autographs Saturday afternoon at the local LP shop, Towne Square Records, part of a homecoming celebration for the label. Towne Square co-owner Chris Dyer acquired rights to operate the Dot brand, which briefly relaunched in 2014 under Big Machine Label Group, but folded in 2017.

Festivities kick off at 1 p.m. with Boone greeting fans and signing memorabilia.

"It's a tremendous milestone in my life," Boone, 87, told The Tennessean. "When I was asked to come back to be part of this opening and re-institution of what was an institution, I couldn't refuse."

Flashback: Where to score the hottest 1950s records?

How's this for a vinyl boom?

In its heyday, many believed Randy's Record Shop moved half-a-million records a year out of its Gallatin store.

In the 1950s, the shop stood in the center of Nashville's thriving R&B industry, an ecosystem anchored by 50,000-watt radio station WLAC. Its disc jockeys spun early rock 'n' roll and blues hitmakers after dark to listeners as far asCanada and the Caribbean.

Gatekeeping DJs such as Gene Nobles and John R. told listeners where to score the next biggest thing in R&B: Ernie's Record Mart in Nashville or Randy's in Gallatin. Mail-order sales flooded each store, laying the groundwork for expansion into the record-making business.

Randy's owner, Randy Wood, teamed with Nobles to launch Dot Records, a label that released R&B, pop, rockabilly, jazz and country albums during its formidable years.

More: WLAC: The powerhouse Nashville station that helped introduce R&B to the world

"[Randy] was not doing things in the traditional way," Boone said. "He was not ruling by some corporate, collective sensibility. It was Randy Wood's own instinct. He ran the company."

'We're getting our feet under us'

Dot hopes to reenter the album-making business in the to-be-determined future, Dyer said.

For now, he looks to Saturday as a chance to reintroduce the label to a town it once called home — or, as Dyer described it: "The perfect place for Dot Records."

"We're getting our feet under us," he said. "The town is very excited to have Dot Records back in Gallatin (and) to have Pat comin' to support us."

Nearly seven decades after he released his first Dot single, Boone looks toward Saturday to celebrate his formative years.

"I'm going to be revisiting the time when Randy Wood called me to have a hamburger and make a record," Boone said of his Dot years.

"All of a sudden, we were selling millions."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Pat Boone to reunite with Dot Records for Gallatin autograph session