Friday, October 27, 2017

Fats Domino, 1928-2017, R.I.P.


Legendary rock'n'roller Fats Domino has died at the age of eighty-nine.

A lifelong resident of New Orleans, Antoine Dominique Domino Jr. was a constant chart-topper during the 1950s and early 1960s, and has been cited as an influence by more musical artists than can be mentioned here.

Domino had hits with "Blueberry Hill," "I'm In Love Again," "Ain't That A Shame," "I'm Walkin'," "Blue Monday," "I Want To Walk You Home," "My Blue Heaven," "Jambalaya," "I'm Ready," "Walking to New Orleans," and "Lady Madonna," among others.

When Elvis appeared at the Las Vegas Hilton in 1969, Domino was in the audience. During a press conference, a reporter referred to Elvis as "The King," but was corrected by Presley himself. Elvis pointed at Fats Domino, who was standing nearby, and said "No, that's the real king of rock and roll."

If you're looking for more biographical details about Domino's life and career, there are numerous obituaries on the internet. As for me, I'm just going to throw a lot of photos at you.

"Fats" when he was not so fat, age ten.

With Clint Eastwood in a publicity shot for Any Which Way You Can.


With Ray Charles and Jerry Lee Lewis.

With Robert Plant.

With Elvis Presley.

Left to Right: Jerry Lee Lewis, Ray Charles, Paul Shaffer (from Late Night
with David Letterman), Fats Domino, and the Rolling Stones' Ron Wood.

With the Beatles circa 1962.

With Paul Simon.

With Jerry Lee Lewis (yet again!) and James Brown.

With Little Richard and Bonnie Raitt in 1995.


By the way, there are a few other tributes I'll be posting about soon. Stay tuned, sports fans!

Thanks for your time.

14 comments:

  1. He sure had quite the life and career indeed. Spurred on many more with his tunes too.

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  2. He kept a fairly low profile and never made the scandal sheets. I hear he was quite shy. But yeah, what a career!

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  3. I have to confess I didn't know he was still alive! Almost everyone can sing several of his songs....lots of good oldies there!

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    1. A solid string of hits and other great songs in a relatively low-profile career.

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  4. He had an amazing career, I was reading about all his records. He had so many top hits. Truly an amazing artist of rhythm and blues.

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  5. I listen to him often when I'm painting. Sets the right mood. :-)

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  6. I always thought he was pretty cool when I listened to my mom's records as a kid. I think it's remarkable that he kept such a low profile for being so well known.

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    Replies
    1. Yes. Never a really flashy persona, never the kind to make headlines by scandalous actions.

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  7. Lady Madonna was his? See, that I didn't know.

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    1. Well, the Beatles wrote and recorded it first, but Paul McCartney based the piano part on a song called "Bad Penny Blues," and said the song sounded like something Fats Domino would have done, so he sung the song doing an imitation of Fats. And just to prove that what goes around comes around, Fats did his own version of the song the very same year that the Beatles had released it!

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