Domino, Fats 1928–

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Fats Domino 1928–

Vocalist, pianist, composer

A genial and prolific musician, Fats Domino was the most commercially successful of a long line of New Orleans rhythm-and-blues pianists and vocal performers. Coming to prominence at the dawn of rock and roll in the middle 1950s, Domino is often named as one of that music’s originators and classic figures. He was a gifted and entirely self-taught composer who parlayed his multiple talents into a long period of popularity with music fans of all races, and he stands perhaps as the most enthusiastic exponent of the Crescent City’s great musical tradition.

Fats Domino was born Antoine Domino on February 26, 1928 in New Orleans, one of nine children. His father played the violin, and a relative, Harrison Verrett, was a well-known New Orleans guitarist who would later become a fixture of Fats’s band. Verrett taught him to play the piano at the age of nine by means of instructional marks written on a piano’s keys, and within a few years Domino immersed himself in music, quitting school at age 14 to work by day and play piano in the city’s bars and small clubs by night. His career was almost cut short by a hand injury sustained in a bedspring-factory accident, but he recovered. At some time during his early career, his five-foot-five-inch, two-hundred-pound frame gave rise to the nickname “Fats.”

Recorded “The Fat Man”

Domino cut his teeth as a performer in the midst of rich pianistic and vocal traditions; he likely heard and performed with such legends as Professor Longhair and Amos Milburn as a young man. He mastered a variety of piano styles, developed an infectious vocal style that avoided the hard-edged intensity of some of his bluesier contemporaries, and began to write songs. By 1949 he had a regular slot at a club called the Hideaway, where the influential New Orleans trumpeter, bandleader, and composer Dave Bartholomew heard Domino play a blues of his own creation called “The Fat Man”: the lyric opened with the lines, “They call me the Fat Man, Cause I weigh two hundred pounds.” Bartholomew had connections with the fast-growing independent West Coast record label Imperial, and the two musicians recorded Bartholomew’s arrangement of “The Fat Man” in 1950. By 1953 it was claimed to have sold one million copies.

Imperial was one of the many upstart labels that after

At a Glance…

Born Antoine Domino February 26, 1928, in New Orleans; married Rosemary; children: Antoinette, Antoine III, Andrea, Andre, Anatole, Anola, Adonica, Antonio. Religion: Roman Catholic.

Career: Pianist, singer, and songwriter. Worked in a bedspring factory to support himself as a young man; nightclub entertainer, New Orleans, late 1940s; joined forces with trumpeter and bandleader Dave Bartholomew, 1949; signed with Imperial Records, 1950; released single “The Fat Man,” 1950; broke through to wide rock and roll audience with “Ain’t That a Shame,” 1955; series of top-selling single and album releases, 1955–63; extensive concert career through 1980s, including many apperances in Las Vegas; European tours, 1970s and 1980s; released holiday album Christmas is a Special Day, 1993.

Awards: More than 20 gold records; inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1986; Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, 1987; Rhythm & Blues Foundation Pioneer Award, 1995; National Medal for the Arts, 1998.

Addresses: Record label —Tug Boat International, 2514 Build America Blvd., Hampton, VA 23666; Booking agent—Tape Entertainment, Inc., 1161 NW 76th Ave., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33322.

World War II experienced rapid growth, seizing market share from the “majors” by searching out and recording local rhythm-and-blues and country talent, primarily in the South and Southwest. Domino followed up “The Fat Man” with a string of other rhythm-and-blues hits, including “Rockin’ Chair,” “Please Don’t Leave Me,” and “Goin’ Home,” which reached number one on rhythm-and-blues charts in 1952. When the rock and roll phenomenon exploded in 1955 with the introduction of Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry to a mass audience, Imperial was ready with its own star. Domino’s easygoing style blunted the antagonism that some black performers experienced, and his sparkling piano work competed successfully with, and still differentiated itself from, that of keyboard wizard Jerry Lee Lewis.

Lost Sales to Pat Boone

It was no surprise that Domino’s “Ain’t That a Shame” went to the number 16 position on the pop charts in 1955. The record’s pop chart position actually understated its popularity and influence, for Domino’s recording was eclipsed by white vocalist Pat Boone’s “cover” version of the song; quickly dispatching white performers to cover rising rhythm-and-blues hits was a favorite technique employed by white record executives intent on containing growing African American influence in the 1950s. Domino and Bartholomew at least shared composer’s royalties for sales and airplay of Boone’s record.

“I’m in Love Again” and “Blueberry Hill” (a 1930s Gene Autry movie-cowboy hit earlier covered by Domino’s New Orleans compatriot Louis Armstrong) did even better on the pop charts the following year, reaching the pop Top Ten. For the next seven years Domino enjoyed a long string of hits that reached high chart levels. Many of them—I’m Walkin’,” “Walkin’ to New Orleans,” and “I Want to Walk You Home” among them—are among rock and roll’s canon of classics, part of the repertoire of many a cover band.

“Ain’t That a Shame” offers a good example of the style that made Domino so popular. Based on rhythmic figures simple enough to be instantly memorable, yet subtle in the way that only the Caribbean-leaning musicians of New Orleans could make them, the song showcased Domino’s pleasant Louisiana drawl. Its refrain (“Ain’t that a shame—my tears fell like rain…”) offered a hint of rueful humor and a romantic theme that avoided the raw sexuality present in the lyrics of some of Domino’s contemporaries. Bartholomew’s arrangement displayed the tight horn section of Domino’s talented band to maximum advantage.

Used Tape Recorder in Songwriting

The creative partnership of Domino and Bartholomew deserves notice in the realm of composition as well, for the pair wrote virtually all of Domino’s major hits. They had a fixed working method, described by Domino and quoted by Irwin Stambler, author of the Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock & Soul: “When I get an idea for a song, I sit down at that piano [in his special music room in his home] and sing it into the tape. Then I’ve got it so I can talk with Dave about it. Dave works on all my recordings and on my band arrangements and we’re together a lot of the time.” Domino never learned to read music, and into the 1980s Bartholomew was still closely involved in his career.

Domino’s string of hits was brought to an end by the influx of British rock music that began with the Beatles in 1963 and 1964, and by the innovations of American black musicians who responded to the “British Invasion” with creative new styles in such centers as Detroit and Memphis. He returned briefly to the public eye with a cover of the Beatles’ “Lady Madonna” in 1968, but otherwise contented himself with indefatigable touring; his performances were notable for the way they kept to Domino’s original style and sound, offering listeners a glimpse of his New Orleans-based music in its purest form. He became a successful fixture of Nevada’s casinos, toured Europe (where he had always enjoyed immense popularity) several times in the late 1970s and 1980s, and in 1993 released a holiday album, Christmas Is a Special Day. He claimed that he was not making a comeback, since he had never stopped performing.

On tour in England with fellow legends James Brown and Chuck Berry in 1995, Domino was hospitalized for exhaustion and infection, and there were signs that his health was beginning to decline. But honors began to flow his way, most notably a Rhythm & Blues Foundation Pioneer Award in 1995 and a National Medal for the Arts bestowed by President Bill Clinton in 1998. That year, Domino told the Baton Rouge (Louisiana) Advocate that he was at work on an album of new material. He seemed to be living up to the epitaph that writer Peter Guralnick, quoting New Orleans studio owner and Domino associate Cosimo Matassa, had proposed in The New Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll: “Domino, he was creative.” His creativity has permanently enriched the popular music traditions of his city and his nation.