Fats Domino

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Fats Domino
Fats Domino in concert in France, 1992
Background information
Birth name	Antoine Dominique Domino
Also known as	Fats
Born	February 26, 1928 New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Genre(s)	R&B, Rock and Roll
Occupation(s)	Singer, Songwriter
Instrument(s)	Piano
Years active	1949-1999
Label(s)	Imperial, ABC, Mercury, Broadmoor, Reprise, Sonet, Warner Bros. Records, Toot Toot
Website	[1]

Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino (born February 26, 1928 in New Orleans, Louisiana), is a classic R&B and rock and roll singer, songwriter and pianist. He was the best-selling African-American singer of the 1950s and early 1960s. Domino is also a pianist with an individualistic bluesy style showing stride and boogie-woogie influences. His congenial personality and rich accent have added to his appeal.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Business 3 Trivia 4 Singles discography 5 Notes 6 Further reading 7 External links

[edit] Biography

Domino first attracted national attention with "The Fat Man" (1949, Imperial Records), credited by some as being the first rock and roll record, featuring a rolling piano and Domino doing wah-wah vocalizing over a fat back beat. The record, a reworking of "Junker's Blues" by Champion Jack Dupree, was a massive hit, selling over a million copies and peaking at #2 on the Billboard R&B Charts. It has been estimated that Domino has sold in excess of 110 million records.

Domino then released a series of hit songs with producer and co-writer Dave Bartholomew, saxophonist Alvin "Red" Tyler and drummer Earl Palmer. Other notable and long-standing musicians in Domino's band were saxophonists Reggie Houston, Lee Allen, and Fred Kemp who was also Domino's trusted bandleader. Domino finally crossed into the pop mainstream with "Ain't That a Shame" (1955) which hit the Top Ten, though Pat Boone characteristically hit #1 with a milder cover of the song that received wider radio airplay in a segregated era. Domino would eventually release 37 Top 40 singles, including "Whole Lotta Loving", "Blue Monday".

His 1956 uptempo version of the old song "Blueberry Hill", reached #2 in the Top 40, was #1 on the R&B charts for 11 weeks, and was his biggest hit. The song had earlier been recorded by Gene Autry, and Louis Armstrong among many others.

Fats appeared in two films released in 1956: Shake, Rattle & Rock!^[1] and The Girl Can't Help It.^[2] On 18 December 1957, Domino's hit "The Big Beat" was featured on Dick Clark's American Bandstand. Domino was a huge star in Jamaica and can be considered a father of reggae music along with Louis Jordan. The well known "upbeat" style of guitar in reggae can be directly traced to his piano playing. "The Big Beat" was also played at #4 in Rhythm & Blues' Top 10 Hits on the CD. This CD was copied on December 10, 2006.

Domino continued to have a steady series of hits for Imperial through early 1962, including the 1960 "Walkin' to New Orleans written by Bobby Charles. Twenty-two of his Imperial singles were double-sided hits -- that is, both the A-side and the B-side of the single charted (i.e., 44 songs). After he moved to ABC-Paramount in 1963, however, Domino's chart career was drastically curtailed. He managed one top 40 hit for ABC (1963's "Red Sails In The Sunset"), but by the end of 1964 the British Invasion had changed the tastes of the record-buying public, and Domino's chart run was over.

Despite the lack of chart success, Domino continued to record steadily until about 1970, and sporadically after that. He also continued as a popular live act for several decades. He was furthermore acknowledged as an important influence on the music of the sixties and seventies by some of the top artists of that era; Beatles song "Lady Madonna" was reportedly written by Paul McCartney in an emulation of Domino's style. Domino did manage to return to the "Hot 100" charts one last time in 1968. Ironically, it was with a cover of The Beatles' "Lady Madonna", which appeared at exactly #100 for two consecutive weeks.

In the 1980s, Domino decided he would no longer leave New Orleans, having a comfortable income from royalties and a dislike for touring, and claiming he could not get any food that he liked anyplace else. His induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and an invitation to perform at the White House failed to get Domino to make an exception to this policy. He lived in a mansion in a predominantly working-class Lower 9th Ward neighborhood, where he was a familiar sight in his bright pink Cadillac. He makes yearly appearances at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and other local events. Domino was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #25 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.^[3]

When Hurricane Katrina was approaching New Orleans in August 2005, Domino chose to stay at home with his family, due to his wife's poor health. His house, located in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward, was in an area that was heavily flooded. He was thought to be dead, with someone spray-painting a message on his home, "RIP Fats. You will be missed," which was shown in news photos. On September 1, Domino's agent Al Embry announced that he had not heard from the musician since before the hurricane had struck.

Later that day, CNN reported that Domino was rescued by a United States Coast Guard helicopter. His daughter, gospel singer Karen Domino White, identified him from a photo shown on CNN. The Domino family was then taken to a Baton Rouge shelter, after which they were picked up by JaMarcus Russell, the starting quarterback of the Louisiana State University football team, and Fats' granddaughter's boyfriend. He let the Dominos stay in his apartment. The Washington Post reported that that on Friday, September 2, the Dominos had left Russell's apartment after sleeping three nights on the couch. "We've lost everything," Domino said, according to the Post story.^[4]

By January 2006, work to gut and repair Domino's Lower 9th Ward home and office had begun.

Domino was the first artist to be announced as scheduled to perform at the 2006 Jazz & Heritage Festival, although he was too ill to perform and was only able to offer the audience an on-stage greeting. Domino also released an album Alive and Kickin' in early 2006 to benefit the Tipitina Foundation, which supports indigent local musicians. The title song was recorded after Katrina, but most of the cuts were from unreleased sessions in the 1990s.

[edit] Business

His career has been produced and managed since the 1980s by multimedia entertainment purveyor and music producer Robert G. Vernon. During Vernon's tenure, Domino's earnings have increased 500%.

Since 1995, Vernon and Domino have been partners (with many other companies, such as Dick Clark Productions) in the Bobkat Music Trust. Bobkat Music is an entertainment group that manages the careers (some posthumous) of Fats Domino, Randy Pringle (writer), and others.

[edit] Trivia

• In 1999, National Public Radio included Ain't That A Shame in the "NPR 100," in which NPR's music editors sought to compile the one hundred most important American musical works of the 20th century.
• A play on his name is the name of the gospel music group Fetz Domino, which means in mixed German and Latin "Groove for the Lord". Domino was so well known in the 1950s-60s that the American humor magazine Mad, ran a cartoon spread that included fictitious artists with similar name variations, such as "Pudgy Parcheesi". 50s blues singer Skinny Dynamo had a brief career.
• In the popular 1970s sitcom "Happy Days", set in the 1950s, lead character Richie Cunningham, played by Ron Howard, would often sing "I found my thrill..." (the first line of Domino's "Blueberry Hill") in reference to pretty girls he dated or wanted to date.
• Domino had 66 U.S. Hot 100 chart hits. (James Brown had 99.)
• The fictional girl band in the television series Rock Follies threatened to revolt if they had to sing "Blueberry Hill" one more time.
• Domino has always had strong links to The Beatles, who recorded a version of "When the Saints Go Marching In" in Germany, two years after Fats' version on Imperial Records. When they auditioned for Decca, one of their songs was another standard in Domino's repertory: "The Sheik of Araby".
• In his song, "I Want to Walk You Home", Domino used the words "I want to hold your hand" which may have inspired Lennon and McCartney when writing their song of the same title. In 1968, the Beatles modelled their song, "Lady Madonna", on Fats Domino's style, combining it with a nod to Humphrey Lyttelton's 1956 hit "Bad Penny Blues", a record which Joe Meek had engineered. They also played some hits of the 1950s and early 1960s, including Domino's "Kansas City", during the Get Back album sessions.
• Domino returned the compliment in 1970 by covering not only "Lady Madonna", but two other Beatles songs, for his Reprise LP Fats is Back. Since then, both John Lennon and Paul McCartney have recorded Fats Domino songs.

[edit] Singles discography

Nationally charted hits shown in bold. (Virtually all of Domino's singles of the 1950s and 60s charted regionally in the US south, especially in New Orleans.)

A-Side	B-Side	Year	Label + Cat. No.	Chart Positions
				US Hot 100	US R&B	UK
Detroit City Blues	The Fat Man	1950	(Imperial 5058)		#2
Boogie-Woogie Baby	Little Bee	1950	(Imperial 5065)
Hide Away Blues	She's My Baby	1950	(Imperial 5077)
Hey La Bas Boogie	Brand New Baby	1950	(Imperial 5085)
Every Night About This Time	Korea Blues	1950	(Imperial 5099)		#5
Tired Of Crying	What's The Matter Baby	1951	(Imperial 5114)
Don't You Lie To Me	Sometimes I Wonder	1951	(Imperial 5123)
Right From Wrong	No, No Baby	1951	(Imperial 5138)
Rockin' Chair	Careless Love	1951	(Imperial 5145)		#9
I'll Be Gone	You Know I Miss You	1952	(Imperial 5167)
Goin' Home	Reeling And Rocking	1952	(Imperial 5180)		#1
Poor Poor Me	Trust In Me	1952	(Imperial 5197)		#10
How Long	Dreaming	1952	Imperial 5209)		#9
Nobody Loves Me	Cheatin'	1953	(Imperial 5220)
Going To The River	Mardi Gras In New Orleans	1953	(Imperial 5231)		#2
Please Don't Leave Me	The Girl I Love	1953	(Imperial 5240)		#3
Rose Mary	You Said You Loved Me	1953	(Imperial 5251)		#10
Something's Wrong	Don't Leave Me This Way	1953	(Imperial 5262)		#6
You Done Me Wrong	Little School Girl	1954	(Imperial 5272)		#10
Where Did You Stay	Baby Please	1954	(Imperial 5283)
You Can Pack Your Suitcase	I Lived My Life	1954	(Imperial 5301)
Love Me	Don't You Hear Me Calling You	1954	(Imperial 5313)
I Know	Thinking of You	1954	(Imperial 5323)		#14
Don't You Know	Helping Hand	1955	(Imperial 5340)		#7
Ain't That a Shame	La La	1955	(Imperial 5348)	#10	#1	#23
All By Myself	Troubles Of My Own	1955	(Imperial 5357)		#1
Poor Me		1955	(Imperial 5369)		#1
	I Can't Go On	1955	"		#6
Bo Weevil		1956	(Imperial 5375)	#35	#5
	Don't Blame It On Me	1956	"		#9
I'm In Love Again		1956	(Imperial 5386)	#3	#1	#12
	My Blue Heaven	1956	"	#19	#5
When My Dreamboat Comes Home		1956	(Imperial 5396)	#14	#2
	So Long	1956	"	#44	#5
Blueberry Hill		1956	(Imperial 5407)	#2	#1	#6
	Honey Chile	1956	"		#2	#29
Blue Monday		1956	(Imperial 5417)	#5	#1	#23
	What's The Reason I'm Not Pleasing You	1956	"	#50	#12
I'm Walkin'	I'm In The Mood For Love	1957	(Imperial 5428)	#4	#1	#19
The Rooster Song	My Happiness//As Time Goes By//Hey La Bas (4 song EP)	1957	(Imperial 147)		#13
Valley Of Tears		1957	(Imperial 5442)	#8	#2	#25
	It's You I Love	1957	"	#6	#2
What Will I Tell My Heart		1957	(Imperial 5454)	#64	#12
	When I See You	1957	"	#29	#14
Wait And See		1957	(Imperial 5467)	#23	#7
	I Still Love You	1957	"	#79
The Big Beat		1957	(Imperial 5477)	#26	#15	#20
	I Want You To Know	1957	"	#32
Yes My Darling	Don't You Know I Love You	1958	(Imperial 5492)	#55	#10
Sick And Tired		1958	(Imperial 5515)	#22	#14	#26
	No, No	1958	"	#55	#14
Little Mary	Prisoner's Song	1958	(Imperial 5526)	#48	#4
Young School Girl	It Must Be Love	1958	(Imperial 5537)	#92	#15
Whole Lotta Loving		1958	(Imperial 5553)	#6	#2
	Coquette	1958	"	#92	#26
Telling Lies		1959	(Imperial 5569)	#50	#13
	When The Saints Go Marching In	1959	"	#50
I'm Ready		1959	(Imperial 5585)	#16	#7
	Margie	1959	"	#51		#18
I Want To Walk You Home		1959	(Imperial 5606)	#8	#1	#14
	I'm Gonna Be A Wheel Someday	1959	"	#17	#22
Be My Guest		1959	(Imperial 5629)	#8	#2	#11
	I've Been Around	1959	"	#33	#19
If You Need Me		1960	(Imperial 5645)	#98
	Country Boy	1960	"	#25		#19
Before I Grow Too Old		1960	(Imperial 5660)	#84
	Tell Me That You Love Me	1960	"	#51
Walking to New Orleans		1960	(Imperial 5675)	#6	#2	#19
	Don't Come Knockin'	1960	"	#21	#28
Three Nights A Week		1960	(Imperial 5687)	#15	#8	#45
	Put Your Arms Around Me Honey	1960	"	#58
My Girl Josephine		1960	(Imperial 5704)	#14	#7	#32
	Natural Born Lover	1960	"	#38	#28
Ain't That Just Like A Woman		1961	(Imperial 5723)	#33	#19
	What A Price	1961	"	#22	#7
Shu Rah		1961	(Imperial 5734)	#32
	Fell In Love On Monday	1961	"	#32
It Keeps Rainin'	I Just Cry	1961	(Imperial 5753)	#23	#18	#49
Let The Four Winds Blow	Good Hearted Man	1961	(Imperial 5764)	#15	#2
What A Party		1961	(Imperial 5779)	#22		#43
	Rockin' Bicycle	1961	"	#83
I Hear You Knocking		1961	(Imperial 5796)	#67
	Jambalaya (On The Bayou)	1961	"	#30		#41
You Win Again		1962	(Imperial 5816)	#22
	Ida Jane	1962	"	#90
My Real Name	My Heart Is Bleeding	1962	(Imperial 5833)	#59	#22
Dance With Mr. Domino		1962	(Imperial 5863)	#98
	Nothing New (Same Old Thing)	1962	"	#77
Did You Ever See A Dream Walking		1962	(Imperial 5875)	#79
	Stop The Clock	1962	"	#103
Won't You Come On Back	Hands Across The Table	1962	(Imperial 5895)
Hum Diddy Doo	Those Eyes	1963	(Imperial 5909)	#124
You Always Hurt The One You Love	Trouble Blues	1963	(Imperial 5937)	#102
True Confession	Isle Of Capri	1963	(Imperial 5959)
One Night	I Can't Go On This Way	1963	(Imperial 5980)
There Goes (My Heart Again)		1963	(ABC 10444)	#59
	Can't Go On Without You	1963	"	#123
When I'm Walking (Let Me Walk)		1963	(ABC 10475)	#114
	I've Got A Right To Cry	1963	"	#128
Red Sails In The Sunset	Song For Rosemary	1963	(ABC 10484)	#35	#24	#34
I Can't Give You Anything But Love	Goin' Home	1963	(Imperial 66005)	#114
Who Cares		1963	(ABC 10512)	#63	#27
	Just A Lonely Man	1963	"	#108
Your Cheatin' Heart	When I Was Young	1964	(Imperial 66016)	#112
Lazy Lady		1964	(ABC 10531)	#86	#34
	I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire	1964	"	#122
If You Don't Know What Love Is	Something You Got Baby	1964	(ABC 10545)
Mary, Oh Mary	Packin' Up	1964	(ABC 10567)	#127
Sally Was A Good Old Girl	For You	1964	(ABC 10584)	#99
Kansas City	Heartbreak Hill	1964	(ABC 10596)	#99
Why Don't You Do Right	Wigs	1965	(ABC 10631)
Let Me Call You Sweetheart	Goodnight Sweetheart	1965	(ABC 10644)
I Done Got Over It	I Left My Heart In San Francisco	1965	(Mercury 72463)
What's That You Got?	It's Never Too Late	1965	(Mercury 72485)
The Lady In Black	Working My Way Up Steady	1967	(Broadmoor 104)
Big Mouth	Wait 'Til It Happens To You	1967	(Broadmoor 105)
One For The Highway	Honest Papas Love Their Mamas Better	1968	(Reprise 0696)
Lady Madonna	One For The Highway	1968	(Reprise 0763)	#100
Lovely Rita	Wait 'Till It Happens To You	1968	(Reprise 0775)
Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey	So Swell When You're Well	1969	(Reprise 0843)
Make Me Belong To You	Have You Seen My Baby	1970	(Reprise 0891)
New Orleans Ain't The Same	Sweet Patootie	1970	(Reprise 0944)
Sleeping On The Job	After Hours	1978	(Sonet 2168 -UK)
Whiskey Heaven	--	1980	(Warner Bros. Records 49610)
My Toot Toot (Country)	My Toot Toot (Rock)	1985	(Toot Toot 001)

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Shake, Rattle & Rock!. IMDB. Retrieved on November 1, 2006.
2. ^ The Girl Can't Help It. IMDB. Retrieved on November 1, 2006.
3. ^ The Immortals: The First Fifty. Rolling Stone Issue 946. Rolling Stone.
4. ^ Saslow, Eli (September 2 2005). Music Legend 'Fats' Domino Coping With Katrina. washingtonpost.com. Retrieved on November 1, 2006.

[edit] Further reading

• Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock 'N' Roll by Rick Coleman, Da Capo, 2006. 10-ISBN 0-306-81491-9

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Fats Domino

• Fats Domino on Rock & Roll Hall of Fame site
• Domino's manager Bob Vernon's official website
• Fats Domino discography (music city)
• Vernon and Domino's Bobkat Music Trust
• http://www.history-of-rock.com/domino.htm
• http://www.bsnpubs.com/imperial/imperiala.html
• http://www.geocities.com/shakin_stacks/fatsdomino.txt

• http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1142405984194440.xml