Domino, Fats (1928—) | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

The music of Fats Domino embodies the spirit of early rock and roll. His work reveals the links between rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and the black Southern singers of the early twentieth century. His music was recorded by most of the rock artists of the 1950s, who recognized his significant contribution to establishing the rock and roll sound, and he is acknowledged as a pioneer in leading the way across the racial barriers of the music industry. With more than 65 million record sales, Domino was second only to Elvis Presley in popularity during the 1950s, and is credited with bringing mass attention to the New Orleans sound, inspiring many other Southern black singers to record for white audiences.

Domino's New Orleans style of piano playing is a combination of traditional jazz, Latin rhythms, blues, Cajun, and boogie woogie that reflects that city's rich heritage of cultural amalgamation. From the mid-1940s through the early 1950s he was an established rhythm and blues recording artist who had successfully toured the nation, but his pounding playing style made him well suited to crossover into the emerging rock format. Domino's greatest popularity arrived in 1955 with the release of "Ain't That a Shame," which became an early rock hit, and although his career began to fade somewhat in the 1960s, he continued to tour and record into the 1990s.

The man considered the most famous New Orleans-born musician since Louis Armstrong was born Antoine Domino, one of a large family, on February 26, 1928. He developed an early interest in music, began playing the piano at age nine, and was performing publicly at local honky-tonks a year later. He quit school at 14 and took a job at a bedspring factory so that his nights would be free to play the area bars and clubs. A large young man, at this time he acquired the nickname "Fats" from bandleader Bill Diamond. The entertainer was spotted in 1949 by trumpeter Dave Bartholomew and Lew Chudd of Imperial Records, who soon signed him to a recording contract. His first hit song, "The Fat Man," sold more than a millioncopies. Domino formed an especially close professional relationship with Bartholomew, and the pair co-wrote, arranged, and produced most of the singer's material for the next two decades. Among his hits of this period are "Goin' Home," "Goin' to the River," and "Every Night about This Time."

Domino's rollicking piano playing allowed him to cross onto the pop charts in the mid-1950s, the time when young white audiences were discovering rock and roll. However, white artists were also covering his initial pop records—Teresa Brewer recorded "Bo Weevil" and Pat Boone's mild version of "Ain't That a Shame" sold even more copies than Domino's own—but he broke into the pop Top Ten himself with the release of "I'm in Love Again." Fats Domino became a national sensation and was one of the first black recording stars to prove that he could appeal to white listeners. He proceeded to enjoy a string of major hits from 1955 to 1960, of which the most instantly recognizable are "Blueberry Hill," "Blue Monday," "I'm Walkin'," "My Blue Heaven," "Whole Lotta Loving," and "Walking to New Orleans."

The second half of Fats Domino's career lacked the continuous commercial success of the first half. Although he continued to tour and did occasionally produce some notable recordings, more magnetic (and frenetic) performers such as Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Jerry Lee Lewis eclipsed his gentle, laid-back stage persona. In the 1970s, he released a New Orleans-style version of the Beatles' "Lady Madonna" that gained some attention, and in 1993 he returned to the recording studio for the first time in nearly 25 years to produce his Christmas Is a Special Day set. The results received much critical acclaim. In his later years Domino was much honored for hisachievements: in 1986 he was in the inaugural group of artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 1998 President Clinton awarded him the National Medal of Arts. By the late 1990s, though entering his seventies, Fats Domino was still touring in between enjoying life in his palatial New Orleans home.

Aquila, Richard. That Old Time Rock & Roll: A Chronicle of an Era, 1954-1963. New York, Schirmer Books, 1989.

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