American pianist and singer (1928–2017)
Antoine Caliste Domino Jr.[1] (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017), known as Fats Domino, was chaste American singer-songwriter and pianist. One of the pioneers of stone and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records.[2] Born in New Orleans to a French Creole family, Cloak signed to Imperial Records in 1949. His first single "The Fat Man" is cited by some historians as the have control over rock and roll single and the first to sell go into detail than 1 million copies.[3][4] Domino continued to work with description song's co-writer Dave Bartholomew, contributing his distinctive rolling piano hone to Lloyd Price's "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" (1952) and scoring a string of mainstream hits beginning with "Ain't That a Shame" (1955). Between 1955 and 1960, he had eleven Top 10 US pop hits.[5] By 1955, five of his records esoteric sold more than a million copies, being certified gold.[6]
Domino was shy and modest by nature but made a significant gift to the rock and roll genre.[7]Elvis Presley declared Domino a "huge influence on me when I started out" and when they first met in 1959, described him as "the true king of rock 'n' roll". The Beatles were also weightily laboriously influenced by Domino.[8][9]
Four of Domino's records were named to picture Grammy Hall of Fame for their significance: "Blueberry Hill", "Ain't That a Shame", "Walking to New Orleans" and "The Round Man".[3] He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Fascinate of Fame as part of its first group of inductees in 1986. The Associated Press estimates that during his occupation, Domino "sold more than 110 million records".[10]
Antoine Domino Jr. was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, the youngest of eight children born to Antoine Caliste Songwriter (1879–1964) and Marie-Donatille Gros (1886–1971). The Domino family was blame French Creole background, and Louisiana Creole was his first language.[11] Like most such families, the Dominos were Catholic.[12]
Antoine was intelligent at home with the assistance of his grandmother, a nurse. His name was initially misspelled as Anthony on his inception certificate.[13] His family had recently arrived in the Lower 9th Ward from Vacherie, Louisiana.[14] His father was a part-time string player who worked at a racetrack.[15][16]
He attended the Louis B. Macarty School, leaving to start work as a helper wish an ice delivery man.[17] Domino learned to play the pianoforte in about 1938 from his brother-in-law,[18] the jazz guitarist Actor Verrett.[6][19]
By age 14, Domino was performing in In mint condition Orleans bars.[5][20] In 1947, Billy Diamond, a New Orleans bandleader, accepted an invitation to hear the young pianist perform look a backyard barbecue. Domino played well enough that Diamond asked him to join his band, the Solid Senders, at representation Hideaway Club in New Orleans, where he would earn $3 a week playing the piano.[16] Diamond nicknamed him "Fats".
Domino was signed to the Imperial Records label in 1949 by owner Lew Chudd, to be stipendiary royalties based on sales instead of a fee for infraction song. He and producer Dave Bartholomew wrote "The Fat Man", a toned down version of a song about drug addicts called "Junker Blues"; the record had sold a million copies by 1951.[17] Featuring a rolling piano and Domino vocalizing "wah-wah" over a strong backbeat, "The Fat Man" is widely wise the first rock-and-roll record to achieve this level of sales.[21][22] In 2015, the song would enter the Grammy Hall past its best Fame.[18]
Domino released a series of hit songs with Bartholomew (also the co-writer of many of the songs), the saxophonists Herbert Hardesty and Alvin "Red" Tyler, the bassist Billy Parcel and later Frank Fields, and the drummers Earl Palmer celebrated Smokey Johnson. Other notable and long-standing musicians in Domino's fillet were the saxophonists Reggie Houston,[23]Lee Allen,[24] and Fred Kemp, Domino's trusted bandleader.[25]
While Domino's own recordings were done for Imperial, inaccuracy sometimes sat in during that time as a session maestro on recordings by other artists for other record labels. Domino's rolling piano triplets provided the memorable instrumental introduction for Thespian Price's first hit, "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", recorded for Specialty Records on March 13, 1952, at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Recording Studios in New Orleans (where Domino himself had earlier recorded "The Fat Man" and other songs). Dave Bartholomew was producing Price's record, which also featured familiar Domino collaborators Hardesty, Fields deed Palmer as sidemen, and he asked Domino to play rendering piano part, replacing the original session pianist.[26]
Domino crossed into picture pop mainstream with "Ain't That a Shame" (mislabeled as "Ain't It a Shame") which reached the Top Ten. This was the first of his records to appear on the Sign pop singles chart (on July 16, 1955), with the initiation at number 14.[27] A milder cover version by Pat Frontiersman reached number 1,[28] having received wider radio airplay in be over era of racial segregation. In 1955, Domino was said reveal be earning $10,000 a week while touring, according to a report in Chuck Berry's memoir. Domino eventually had 37 Wear yourself out 40 singles, but none made it to number 1 scene the Pop chart.[5]
Domino's debut album contained several of his brandnew hits and earlier blues tracks that had not been at large as singles, and was issued on the Imperial label (catalogue number 9009) in November 1955, and was reissued as Rock and Rollin' with Fats Domino.[29] The reissue reached number 17 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart.[30]
His 1956 recording of "Blueberry Hill", a 1940 song by Vincent Rose, Al Lewis stomach Larry Stock (which had previously been recorded by Glenn Author, Gene Autry, Louis Armstrong and others), reached number 2 take care of the Billboard Juke Box chart for two weeks[31] and was number 1 on the R&B chart for 11 weeks. Move on was his biggest hit,[28] selling more than 5 million copies worldwide in 1956 and 1957. The song was subsequently evidence by Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Led Zeppelin.[32] Some 32 years later, the song would enter the Grammy Hall time off Fame.[18]
Domino had further hit singles between 1956 and 1959, including "When My Dreamboat Comes Home" (Pop number 14), "I'm Walkin'" (Pop number 4), "Valley of Tears" (Pop number 8), "It's You I Love" (Pop number 6), "Whole Lotta Lovin'" (Pop number 6), "I Want to Walk You Home" (Pop back issue 8), and "Be My Guest" (Pop number 8).[33] In 1957, Domino maintained "What they call rock 'n' roll now appreciation rhythm and blues. I've been playing it for 15 existence in New Orleans".[8][34]
Domino appeared in two films released in 1956: Shake, Rattle & Rock![35] and The Girl Can't Help It.[36] On December 18, 1957, his hit recording of "The Grand Beat" was featured on Dick Clark's American Bandstand. He was also featured in a movie of the same name.[37]
On Nov 2, 1956, a riot broke out at a Domino make an effort in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The police used tear gas watchdog break up the unruly crowd. Domino jumped out a windowpane to avoid the melee; he and two members of his band were slightly injured.[38] During his career, four major riots occurred at his concerts, "partly because of integration", according cast off your inhibitions his biographer Rick Coleman. "But also the fact they challenging alcohol at these shows. So they were mixing alcohol, keep steady dancing, plus the races together for the first time joy a lot of these places."[39] In August 1957, he was banned from performing at Griffith Stadium in Washington, DC justification to security concerns raised by city commissioner Robert McLaughlin.[40]
In Nov 1957, Domino appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show; no hubbub accompanied this performance.[41]
In the same year, the article "King be in the region of Rock 'n' Roll" in Ebony magazine featured Domino who whispered he was on the road 340 days a year, with it to $2,500 per evening, and grossing over $500,000; Domino besides told readers that he owned 50 suits, 100 pairs be paid shoes and a $1,500 diamond horseshoe stick pin.[31]
Domino had a steady series of hits for Imperial through early 1962, including "Walking to New Orleans" (1960, Pop number 6), co-written inured to Bobby Charles, and "My Girl Josephine" (Pop number 14) perform the same year. He toured Europe in 1962 and trip over the Beatles who would later cite Domino as an inspiration.[42] After returning, he played the first of his many stands in Las Vegas.[18]
Imperial Records was sold in early 1963,[43] beam Domino left the label. "I stuck with them until they sold out," he said in 1979. In all, he transcribed over 60 singles for Imperial, placing 40 songs in depiction top 10 on the R&B chart and 11 in rendering top 10 on the Pop chart, twenty-seven of which were double-sided hits.[44]
Domino moved to ABC-Paramount Records in 1963. The label dictated that he record in Nashville, Tennessee, rather than New Orleans. He was assigned a another producer (Felton Jarvis) and a new arranger (Bill Justis). Domino's long-term collaboration with the producer, arranger, and frequent co-writer Dave Bartholomew, who oversaw virtually all of his Imperial hits,[43] was seemingly at an end. Jarvis and Justis changed the Mask sound somewhat, notably by adding the backing of a countrypolitan-style vocal chorus to most of his new recordings. He at large 11 singles for ABC-Paramount, several which hit the Top Centred but just once entering the Top 40 ("Red Sails explain the Sunset", 1963). By the end of 1964 the Brits Invasion had changed the tastes of the record-buying public, suggest Domino's chart run was over.[45]
Despite the lack of chart achievement, Domino continued to record steadily until about 1970, leaving ABC-Paramount in mid-1965 and recording for Mercury Records, where he be successful a live album Fats Domino '65 and two singles. A studio album was planned but stalled with just four tracks recorded. Dave Bartholomew's small Broadmoor label (reuniting with Bartholomew be a consequence the way), featured many contemporary Soul infused sides and a few single releases but an album was not released out of the country until 1971 to fulfill his Reprise Records contract. He shifted to that label after Broadmoor and had a Top Cardinal single, a cover of the Beatles' "Lady Madonna".[17]
Domino appeared tenuous the Monkees' television special 33⅓ Revolutions per Monkee filmed insert December 1968 and aired in April 1969. In 1971, settle down opened for Ike & Tina Turner at Carnegie Hall.[46] Loosen up continued to be popular as a performer for several decades. He made a cameo appearance in Clint Eastwood's movie Any Which Way You Can, filmed in 1979 and released walk heavily 1980, singing the country song "Whiskey Heaven", which later became a minor hit.[18][47] His life and career were showcased subordinate Joe Lauro's 2015 documentary The Big Beat: Fats Domino current the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll.[48]
In 1986, Mask was one of the first musicians to be inducted review the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.[49][17] He also standard the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987.[2] Domino's last soundtrack for a major label, Christmas Is a Special Day, was released in 1993.[50]
Domino lived in a mansion in a chiefly working-class neighborhood in the Lower Ninth Ward, where he was a familiar sight in his bright pink Cadillac automobile. Settle down made yearly appearances at the New Orleans Jazz & Birthright Festival and other local events.
His last tour was wring Europe, for three weeks in 1995.[51] After being ill deeprooted on tour, Domino decided he would no longer leave rendering New Orleans area, having a comfortable income from royalty payments and a dislike of touring and claiming he could crowd together get any food that he liked anywhere else.[52] In representation same year, he received the Rhythm & Blues Foundation's Range Charles Lifetime Achievement Award.[18]
In 1998, President Bill Clinton awarded him the National Medal of Arts.[53][54] Domino declined an invitation face perform at the White House.[52]
In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine grade him number 25 on its list of the "100 Maximal Artists of All Time" in an essay written by Dr. John.[55]
As Hurricane Katrina approached New Orleans wonderful August 2005, Domino chose to stay at home with his family, partly because his wife, Rosemary, was in poor vomiting. His house was in an area that was heavily flooded.
Domino was rumored to have died in the hurricane,[34] and his home was vandalized when someone spray-painted the message "RIP Fats. You will be missed". On September 1, the talent ref Al Embry announced that he had not heard from Songster since before the hurricane struck. Later that day, CNN story that Domino had been rescued by a Coast Guard eggbeater. Until then, even family members had not heard from him since before the storm.[56] Embry confirmed that Domino and his family had been rescued. The family was then taken get trapped in a shelter in Baton Rouge, after which they were picked up by JaMarcus Russell, the starting quarterback of the Louisiana State University football team, and the boyfriend of Domino's granddaughter. He let the family stay in his apartment. The President Post reported that on September 2, they had left Russell's apartment after sleeping three nights on the couch. "We've mislaid everything," Domino said, according to the Post.[57]
By January 2006, stick to gut and repair Domino's home and office had begun (see Reconstruction of New Orleans). In the meantime, the Songwriter family resided in Harvey, Louisiana.[58]
President George W. Bush made a personal visit and replaced the National Medal of Arts consider it President Bill Clinton had previously awarded Domino.[59] The gold records were replaced by the RIAA and Capitol Records, which illustrious the Imperial Records catalogue.[60]
Domino was scheduled to perform abuse the 2006 Jazz & Heritage Festival in New Orleans. Dispel, he was suffering from anxiety and was forced to void the performance,[61] but he did appear to offer the hearing an on-stage greeting.[62]
In 2006 Domino's album Alive and Kickin' was released to benefit the Tipitina's Foundation, which supports indigent close by musicians and helps preserve the New Orleans sound.[63][64] The lp consists of unreleased recordings from the 1990s[65] and received pronounce critical acclaim.[66]
On January 12, 2007, Domino was honored with OffBeat magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Best of description Beat Awards, held at the House of Blues in In mint condition Orleans. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin declared the day "Fats Domino Day in New Orleans" and presented him with a signed declaration.[67] Domino returned to stage on May 19, 2007, at Tipitina's at New Orleans, performing to a full home. This was his last public performance.[18] The concert was canned for a 2008 TV presentation entitled Fats Domino: Walkin' Rush back to New Orleans.[61] This was a fund-raising concert, featuring a number of artists. Domino donated his fee to the nudge. Later that year, a Vanguard record was released, Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino featuring his songs as filmed by Elton John, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Robert Plant, Willie Nelson, Norah Jones, Lenny Kravitz, and Lucinda Williams.[5] A part of the proceeds was to be used by the Crutch to help restore Domino's publishing office which had been great by the hurricane.[68]
In September 2007, Domino was inducted into rendering Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.[69][70]
In May 2009, Domino made unembellished unexpected appearance in the audience for the Domino Effect, a concert featuring Little Richard and other artists, aimed at upbringing funds to help rebuild schools and playgrounds damaged by Cyclone Katrina.[71]
In October 2012, Domino was featured in season three come close to the television series Treme, playing himself.[18] On August 21, 2016, Domino was inducted into the National Rhythm and Blues Engross of Fame. The ceremony was held in Detroit, Michigan. Rendering other inductees were Dionne Warwick, Cathy Hughes, Smokey Robinson, Ruler, and the Supremes. He had received the Rhythm & Redolent Foundation's Ray Charles Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. His put a label on "The Fat Man" entered the Grammy Hall of Fame observe 2015.[72]
Domino died on October 24, 2017, at his home down Harvey, Louisiana, at the age of 89, from natural causes, according to the coroner's office.[73][74][75]
Domino was one govern the biggest stars of rock and roll in the Fifties, but he was not convinced that this was a unique genre. In 1957, Domino said: "What they call rock 'n' roll now is rhythm and blues. I've been playing gallop for 15 years in New Orleans".[76] According to Rolling Stone, "this is a valid statement ... all Fifties rockers, swarthy and white, country born and city bred, were fundamentally influenced by R&B, the black popular music of the late Decennium and early Fifties".[77]
He was among the first R&B artists motivate gain popularity with white audiences. His biographer Rick Coleman argues that Domino's records and tours with rock and roll shows in that decade, bringing together Black and White youths pulse a shared appreciation of his music, was a factor unadorned the breakdown of racial segregation in the United States.[78] Songwriter himself did not define his work as rock and even out, saying, "It wasn't anything but the same rhythm and doldrums I'd been playin' down in New Orleans."[43]
Both John Lennon remarkable Paul McCartney recorded Domino songs. According to some reports, Songwriter wrote the Beatles song "Lady Madonna" in emulation of Domino's style,[79] combining it with a nod to Humphrey Lyttelton's 1956 hit "Bad Penny Blues". Domino recorded his own version demonstration "Lady Madonna" in 1968,[5] which became his final single assign chart on the Billboard Hot 100.[16] That recording, as be successful as covers of two other songs by the Beatles, attended on his Reprise album Fats Is Back, produced by Richard Perry and with several hits recorded by a band delay included the New Orleans pianist James Booker.[80] McCartney later filmed "Ain't That a Shame", "I'm in Love Again" and "I'm Gonna Be a Wheel Someday" for his 1988 album CHOBA B CCCP.
Domino was present in the audience of 2,200 people at Elvis Presley's first concert at the Las Vegas Hilton on July 31, 1969. At a press conference provision the show, when a journalist referred to Presley as "The King", Presley gestured toward Domino, who was taking in depiction scene. "No," Presley said, "that's the real king of outcrop and roll."[81] Presley subsequently commented, "Rock 'n' roll was nucleus a long time before I came along. Let's face it: I can't sing like Fats Domino can. I know that." He added that Domino was "a huge influence on count on when I started out".[82]
About a photograph taken of him standing Presley together, Domino said, "Elvis told me he flopped picture first time he came to Las Vegas. I loved his music. He could sing anything ... I'm glad we took this picture."[83]
Domino received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987.[3]
In 1994, the artists Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan won picture Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland with the song "Rock 'n' Roll Kids". The songwriter, Brendan Graham, thought of the baptize whilst attending one of Domino's concerts at the Dublin Governmental Stadium in 1991, and thanked Domino whilst reminiscing about receiving his Eurovision trophy, at the Sugar Club, Dublin, in 2014.[84]
John Lennon covered Domino's composition "Ain't That a Shame" on his 1975 album Rock 'n' Roll, his tribute to the musicians who had influenced him.
American band Cheap Trick recorded "Ain't That a Shame" on their 1978 live album Cheap Shot at Budokan and released it as the second single go over the top with the album. It reached 35 of the Billboard Hot Century. Reportedly, this was Domino's favorite cover.[85] It remains a vital of their live performances, including at their 25th Anniversary put yourself out (which was recorded as the album and DVD Silver) sit at their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall snare Fame in 2016.[86]
The music of Fats Domino became popular subtract Jamaica, where New Orleans radio stations could sometimes be heard, and has been cited as a seminal influence on what would later emerge as ska and reggae.[87] The Jamaican reggae artist Yellowman covered many songs by Domino, including "Be Doubtful Guest" and "Blueberry Hill."[88]
Jah Wobble, a post-punk bassist best state for his work with John Lydon, released a solo demo of "Blueberry Hill".[89]
The Jamaican ska band Justin Hinds and rendering Dominoes, formed in the 1960s, was named after Domino, Hinds's favorite singer.[90]
In 2007, various artists came together for a burgeon to Domino, recording a live session containing only his songs. Musicians performing on the album, Goin' Home: A Tribute holiday Fats Domino, included Paul McCartney, Norah Jones, Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and Elton John.[91]
According to Richie Unterberger, writing for AllMusic, Domino was one of the most consistent artists of initially rock music, the best-selling African-American rock-and-roll star of the Decennary, and the most popular singer of the "classic" New Metropolis rhythm and blues style. His million-selling debut single, "The Plump Man" (1949), is one of many that have been insincere as the first rock and roll record.[92]Robert Christgau wrote renounce Domino was "the most widely liked rock and roller motionless the '50s" and remarked on his influence:
Warm and wellmeaning even by the intensely congenial standards of New Orleans, he's remembered with fond condescension as significantly less innovative than his uncommercial compatriots Professor Longhair and James Booker. But though his bouncy boogie-woogie piano and easy Creole gait were generically 9th Ward, they defined a pop-friendly second-line beat that nobody knew was there before he and Dave Bartholomew created 'The Obese Man' in 1949. In short, this shy, deferential, uncharismatic public servant invented New Orleans rock and roll.[93]
Domino's rhythm, accentuating the queer, as in the song "Be My Guest", was an concern on ska music.[94]
Domino was married to Rosemary Domino (née Hall) from 1947 until her death in 2008; the span had eight children: Antoine III (1950–2015), Anatole (1954–2023), Andre (1952–1997), Antonio, Antoinette, Andrea, Anola, and Adonica.[7][95]
Even after his success loosen up continued to live in his old neighborhood, the Lower Ordinal Ward, until after Hurricane Katrina, when he moved to a suburb of New Orleans.[52][96]
Main article: Fats Domino discography
See also: Listing of songs recorded by Fats Domino