Waller, Fats

Waller, Fats (Thomas Wright), comical African American keyboard player, composer, and singer; b. N.Y, May 21,1904; d. Kansas City, Dec. 15,1943. Waller emerged from the stride-piano-playing tradition to achieve success in several musical forms. He was a widely respected jazz instrumentalist on piano and organ; he composed music for three Broadway shows and many hit songs, among them “Ain’t Misbehaving” “Honeysuckle Rose,” and “Black and Blue”; he was among the most successful recording artists of the 1930s, scoring 23 Top Ten hits between 1934 and 1940, including “A Little Bit Independent,” “All My Life,” “Two Sleepy People,” and “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter”; and his engaging, humorous personality was displayed onstage, on film, and in concerts.

Waller’s parents were Edward Martin and Adeline Lockett Waller. His father was a preacher; his mother was a keyboard player, and he learned piano, harmonium, and organ at a young age. He left high school in the spring of 1918 and was hired as the organist at the Lincoln Theatre. In 1919 he wrote his first tune, “Boston Blues,” which became “Squeeze Me” when Clarence Williams added lyrics to it several years later.

When Waller’s mother died in November 1920, he moved in with the family of the pianist Russell Brooks, who introduced him to famed stride pianist James P. Johnson. He studied with Johnson and also later claimed to have taken lessons from pianist Leopold Godowsky and to have studied composition with Carl Böhm of the Juilliard School of Music. Around this time he married Edith Hatchett, and the couple had a son, Thomas Waller Jr. However, Waller and Hatchett separated and divorced within a few years. Waller married Anita Rutherford in 1926, and they had two sons, Maurice and Ronald. Each of Waller’s sons became a musician.

Waller made his first solo recordings, “Muscle Shoals Blues” and “Birmingham Blues,” on Oct. 21, 1922. By the mid-1920s he was recording and performing onstage and on the radio while writing songs and contributing to revues in Harlem. Keep Shufflirí (N.Y., Feb. 27, 1928) was an all-black revue that ran on Broadway for 104 performances; Waller and James P. Johnson wrote the music and played piano in the pit orchestra.

Waller broke through to success as a composer in 1929, primarily with his tunes from the all-black Broadway revue Hot Chocolates (N.Y., June 20, 1929), which ran for 228 performances and introduced his most popular songs. “Ain’t Misbehavin’” (music also by Harry Brooks, lyrics by Andy Razaf) earned many recordings, the most successful of which was the one by Leo Reisman and His Orch., though Waller’s own instrumental treatment was popular and later was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The score also contained “Black and Blue” (music also by Harry Brooks, lyrics by Andy Razaf) and “Honeysuckle Rose” (lyrics by Andy Razaf), both of which became standards. In August 1929, Gene Austin scored a hit with Waller’s “I’ve Got a Feeling I’m Falling” (music also by Harry Link, lyrics by Billy Rose); Waller played piano on the recording. The song became his first to be featured in a motion picture when Helen Morgan sang it in Applause, released in October.

During the Depression years of the early 1930s, Waller continued to enjoy occasional success as a songwriter. “Rollin’ Down the River” (lyrics by Stanley Adams), written for a revue at the nightclub Connie’s Inn in Harlem, became a hit for Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians in July 1930; “Keepin’ Out of Mischief Now” (lyrics by Andy Razaf), a song patterned after “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” was a hit for Louis Armstrong in June 1932; and “Honeysuckle Rose” was revived by Fletcher Henderson for a hit in February 1933. Meanwhile, Waller’s primary outlet as a performer was radio, as he appeared regularly on such shows as Paramount on Parade (1930-31); Radio Roundup (1931-32); and, from station WLW in Cincinnati, Fats Waller’s Rhythm Club (1932-34).

In May 1934, Waller began a series of recordings for RCA Victor backed by a quintet under the name Fats Waller and His Rhythm. It was with these recordings, along with frequent appearances on the CBS radio network, that he established himself as a singer and personality, while his composing and instrumental skills were less emphasized. The approach led to a string of hits. In 1934 he scored in June with “I Wish I Were Twins” (music by Joseph Meyer, lyrics by Frank Loesser and Eddie DeLange); in September with “Then I’ll Be Tired of You” (music by Arthur Schwartz, lyrics by E. Y Harburg); and in October with “Don’t Let It Bother You” (music by Harry Revel, lyrics by Mack Gordon) and “Sweetie Pie” (music and lyrics by John Jacob Loeb). Also in October, he had a minor hit with his own composition “How Can You Face Me?” [lyrics by Andy Razaf].

In 1935, Waller continued to score frequent hits, including “Believe It, Beloved” (music by J. C. Johnson, lyrics by George Whiting and Nat Schwartz) in January; “I Believe in Miracles” (music by George W. Meyer and Pete Wendling, lyrics by Sam M. Lewis) in February; “Lulu’s Back in Town” (music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Al Dubin) in July; “Truckin”’ (music by Rube Bloom, lyrics by Ted Koehler) in August; and “Rhythm and Romance” (music by J. C. Johnson, lyrics by George Whiting and Nat Burton) in September. His most successful recording of the year was “A Little Bit Independent” (music by Joe Burke, lyrics by Edgar Leslie), which reached the top of the hit parade in December. Waller appeared in two 1935 films, Hooray for Love, released in July, and King of Burlesque, which opened in December.

Waller’s hot streak extended through the middle of 1936, including such Top Ten hit parade entries as “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter” (music by Fred E. Ahlert, lyrics by Joe Young) in -February; “West Wind” (music and lyrics by Milton Ager, Charles Newman, and Murray Mencher) in March; “All My Life” (music by Sam H. Stept, lyrics by Sidney Mitchell) in April; “It’s a Sin to Tell a Lie” (music and lyrics by Billy Mayhew) in May; “Let’s Sing Again” (music by Jimmy McHugh, lyrics by Gus Kahn) and “Cross Patch” (music by Vee Lawnhurst, lyrics by Tot Seymour) in July; and “You’re Not the Kind” (music and lyrics by Will Hudson and Irving Mills) and “Bye, Bye, Baby” (music by Lou Handman, lyrics by Walter Hirsch) in August.

With the onset of the Swing Era in the second half of the 1930s, Waller’s music became less fashionable, but he still was able to reach the hit parade at least once a year through the end of the decade, with “You’re Laughing at Me” (music and lyrics by Irving Berlin) in March 1937; “I Love to Whistle” (music by Jimmy McHugh, lyrics by Harold Adamson) in April 1938; “Two Sleepy People” (music by Hoagy Carmichael, lyrics by Frank Loesser) in November 1938; “Good for Nothing” (music by Jimmy Van Heusen, lyrics by Eddie DeLange) in March 1939; and “Little Curly in a High Chair” (music by Nat Simon, lyrics by Charles Tobias) in June 1940.

Waller continued to tour during this period, performing in Europe from July to October 1938 and from March to June 1939. For a time in the early 1940s he acceded to current trends and led a big band. He scored his final hit as a recording artist in November 1942 with his own organ instrumental “The Jitterbug Waltz,” which reached the Top Ten on the R&B charts.

Waller wrote the music for the Broadway musical Early to Bed (June 17, 1943), which, with a run of 380 performances, was his most successful show during his lifetime. He appeared in the all-black movie musical Stormy Weather, released in July 1943, performing his signature song, “Ain’t Misbehavin’.” He was on a train returning from Los Angeles to N.Y. after a club engagement in Hollywood when he succumbed to pneumonia in December at the age of 39.

“Ain’t Misbehaving” Waller’s most popular song, was heard frequently in the years immediately after his death. It turned up in the August 1944 film Atlantic City and again in the film You Were Meant for Me in January 1948. In March 1948, Dinah Washington scored a Top Ten R&B hit with a revival of the song, which was also used in the films Rainbow ’round My Shoulder (1952), Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955), and, of course, Ain’t Misbehavin’ (1955).

A major Waller revival in the 1970s kicked off with Waller’s co-scoring credit for the avant-garde film Eraserhead (1976). The Broadway revue Bubbling Brown Sugar (N.Y., March 2, 1976) used some Waller music, and a second revue, Ain’t Misbehavin’ (N.Y, May 8, 1978), was devoted to his songs; it ran 1,604 performances and that spawned a charted cast album. Waller was taken up by country musicians in the 1980s: Willie Nelson starred in a movie called Honeysuckle Rose in 1981 (though he did not perform the song on the soundtrack), and in 1986 Hank Williams Jr. revived “Ain’t Misbehavin’” for a #1 country hit. Waller returned to Broadway with selections from another long-running all-black revue, Black and Blue (N.Y, Jan. 26, 1989).

Bibliography

J. Davies, The Music ofT“F.” W. (London, 1950; rev. ed., 1953); C. Fox, F. W. (London, 1960); W. Kirkeby (his last manager), D. Schiedt, and S. Traili, Ain’t Misbehavin’: The Story ofF. W. (N.Y, 1966); J. Vance, F W.: His Life & Times (Chicago, 1977); M. Waller (his son) and A. Calabrese, F W. (NY_V 1977); H. Sill, Misbehavin’ with R: A Toby Bradley Adventure (1978); W. Balliett, Jelly Roll, Jabbo and F (NY., 1983); P. Machlin, Stride: The Music ofF. W. (Boston, 1985); A. Shipton, F W.: His Life & Times (NY., 1989); L. Wright, “F.” in Fact (1992).

—William Ruhlmann