Rediscovered Talent:
New Orleans Piano Man:
Fats Domino
Each month, MusicBizAdvice.com profiles an artist from the past. Some
you may have heard of, some not, but we hope you'll take time to check out
their music...especially if it's something different than you usually listen
to. This month, we rediscover Fats Domino.
Antoine Dominique “Fats” Domino was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on February 26, 1928.
At age 14, he quit school to take a factory job to help support his family
while working as a musician in local clubs at night. It was here that he
developed the boogie-woogie piano style which, combined with his wailing
blues vocals, would later become his trademark style of early rock and
roll.
During this period of playing local clubs, one of the bands he worked with was
led by Dave Bartholomew, who at the time was the local rep for Imperial
Records. Bartholomew arranged for Domino to record at J&M Studio, whose
owner/engineer Cosimo Matassa was making a name for himself for creating the
New Orleans R&B sound. The result of that session was the single "The Fat Man" (released in 1950), which became Fats Domino’s first hit and is
notable for Domino’s 16-bar falsetto vocal solo of “wah-wahs.”
By late 1955, Fats Domino had racked up twelve Top 10 R&B hits, including
his first Number 1, "Goin' Home" (1952). Domino’s first crossover hit,
"Aint That a Shame" (1955) hit Number 1 on the R&B chart and Number 10 on
the pop chart—a feat which was particularly impressive at a time when
rock and roll was in its infancy, the South was segregated, and records by
artists of color were called “Race Records.”
More hits followed on both the R&B and pop charts, including "Blue Monday"
(1956), and "Blueberry Hill" (1956), which had previously been popular with
white big bands in the 1940’s before Domino recorded it in his trademark
early rock and roll style. "Blueberry Hill" would come to be thought of as
one of the quintessential Fats Domino songs and would later become known to
a new audience in the 1970’s when the hit TV show Happy Days had its
main character, Richie Cunningham singing the first line of the chorus (“I
found my thrill…”) whenever he was about to go out on a date. "My Blue Heaven" (1956), another Fats Domino hit, had been a 1927 Tin Pan Alley pop
standard before its transformation. |
But it was a 1957 Fats Domino hit that played
a large role in the cultural shift of rock and roll and its later acceptance
in American popular culture when Ricky Nelson, the son of TV’s "Ozzie and Harriet," recorded and sang "I'm Walkin'" on the family’s sitcom in
1957. Ozzie, Harriet, and sons were
considered the quintessential All-American family, and the perception was
that if rock and roll was OK for Ozzie and Harriet’s son, maybe it wasn’t
such a bad thing after all. Although some present-day critics take issue
with the fact that the Ricky Nelson version was turned “pop” to make it more
palatable for white audiences, considering the state of racial segregation
in America at the time, it was an important step that brought further
attention to the Fats Domino version and helped make it easier for
subsequent artists of color to cross over. Fats Domino’s performance style,
which was more laid back and considerably “calmer” than many of his rock and
roll contemporaries--such as Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard, who were
known for jumping up and down at the piano--also helped. Unfortunately,
Domino and Nelson are not often credited for their contribution.
Fats Domino’s last Top 10 hit was "Walking to New Orleans" (1960), but he
continued to be popular throughout the 1970’s as a featured performer in
1950’s retro-shows. During that time
"Aint That a Shame" experienced a bit
of a rebirth when the rock band Cheap Trick recorded it on their At Budokan album in
1979 and their version became a bit of a classic in itself. Fats
Domino was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.
Known more for not making headlines due to his non-controversial
lifestyle, in August 2005, Antoine “Fats” Domino made the headlines when he
was briefly unaccounted for during the flooding in New Orleans after
insisting on riding out Hurricane Katrina at his home. He was later
rescued.
Discography
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