Fats Domino
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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.
Biography
His career began 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. 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. To date Domino has sold in excess of 110 million records, though not credited by the RIAA.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 cover of the song. Domino released an unprecedented series of 35 Top 40 singles, including "Whole Lotta Loving", "Blue Monday", and a funky version of the old ballad "Blueberry Hill".
On 18 December 1957, Domino's hit The Big Beat was featured on Dick Clark's American Bandstand.
After he moved to ABC-Paramount in 1963, the bottom fell out of Domino's recording career although he continued as a popular live act. Though he remained active for decades, he only had one more Top 40 hit in 1968, a cover of the Beatles song "Lady Madonna," originally written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney to emulate Domino's style.
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 lives in a mansion in a predominantly working-class Lower 9th Ward neighborhood, where he is a familiar sight in his bright pink Cadillac. He makes yearly appearances at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and other local events, with performances demonstrating his undiminished talents.
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. But 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 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.
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.
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.
Trivia
- The singer Chubby Checker's stage name was a play on the sartorial style and physique of Fats Domino. Another play 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".
- 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 has always had strong links to The Beatles, who recorded a version of "When the Saints Go Marching In" in Germany, 2 years after Fats' version on Imperial. When they auditioned for Decca, one of the songs was another standard Domino had made famous: "The Sheik of Araby". In his song, "I Want to Walk You Home", Fats was possibly the first to use the words "I want to hold your hand" and, subconsciously, it may have been remembered by Lennon and McCartney for 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 Lyttleton's 1956 hit "Bad Penny Blues", a record which George Martin had produced. They also played some hits of the 1950s and early 1960s, including Domino's "Kansas City", during the Get Back album sessions. Fats returned the compliment in 1970 by covering not only "Lady Madonna", but 2 other Beatles songs, for his Reprise LP "Fats is Back". Since then, both John Lennon and Paul McCartney have recorded Fats Domino songs.
- Fats himself was not especially known for covering songs other than standards or folk songs.
Further reading
- Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock 'N' Roll by Rick Coleman, Da Capo, 2006. 10 ISBN 0-306-81491-4
External links
- [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
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