Fats Domino

[3][4] Domino continued to work with the song's co-writer Dave Bartholomew, contributing his distinctive rolling piano style to Lloyd Price's "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" (1952) and scoring a string of mainstream hits beginning with "Ain't That a Shame" (1955).

[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 real king of rock 'n' roll".

[8][9] Four of Domino's records were named to the Grammy Hall of Fame for their significance: "Blueberry Hill", "Ain't That a Shame", "Walking to New Orleans" and "The Fat Man".

[5][20] In 1947, Billy Diamond, a New Orleans bandleader, accepted an invitation to hear the young pianist perform at a backyard barbecue.

Domino was signed to the Imperial Records label in 1949 by owner Lew Chudd, to be paid royalties based on sales instead of a fee for each 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 considered the first rock-and-roll record to achieve this level of sales.

[27] A milder cover version by Pat Boone reached number 1,[28] having received wider radio airplay in an era of racial segregation.

"[39] In August 1957, he was banned from performing at Griffith Stadium in Washington, DC due to security concerns raised by city commissioner Robert McLaughlin.

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 Domino sound somewhat, notably by adding the backing of a countrypolitan-style vocal chorus to most of his new recordings.

He made a cameo appearance in Clint Eastwood's movie Any Which Way You Can, filmed in 1979 and released in 1980, singing the country song "Whiskey Heaven", which later became a minor hit.

[18][47] His life and career were showcased in Joe Lauro's 2015 documentary The Big Beat: Fats Domino and the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll.

[50] Domino lived in a mansion in a predominantly working-class neighborhood in the Lower Ninth Ward, where he was a familiar sight in his bright pink Cadillac automobile.

[52] In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 25 on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" in an essay written by Dr.

[55] As Hurricane Katrina approached New Orleans in August 2005, Domino chose to stay at home with his family, partly because his wife, Rosemary, was in poor health.

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.

The family was then taken to 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.

[62] In 2006 Domino's album Alive and Kickin' was released to benefit the Tipitina's Foundation, which supports indigent local musicians and helps preserve the New Orleans sound.

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 in a shared appreciation of his music, was a factor in the breakdown of racial segregation in the United States.

According to some reports, McCartney 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".

[80] McCartney later recorded "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.

[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.

[85] It remains a staple of their live performances, including at their 25th Anniversary concert (which was recorded as the album and DVD Silver) and at their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016.

[86] The music of Fats Domino became popular in 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.

Musicians performing on the album, Goin' Home: A Tribute to 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 early rock music, the best-selling African-American rock-and-roll star of the 1950s, and the most popular singer of the "classic" New Orleans rhythm and blues style.

[92] Robert Christgau wrote that Domino was "the most widely liked rock and roller of the '50s" and remarked on his influence: Warm and unthreatening 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 Ninth Ward, they defined a pop-friendly second-line beat that nobody knew was there before he and Dave Bartholomew created 'The Fat Man' in 1949.

[7][95] Even after his success he continued to live in his old neighborhood, the Lower Ninth Ward, until after Hurricane Katrina, when he moved to a suburb of New Orleans.

Domino singing " Blueberry Hill " on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956
Domino in 1972
Domino performing in New York in the 1980s
Graffiti on Domino's home from the time he was rumored dead in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (2005)
Domino's office, June 2007
Domino with the National Medal of Arts replaced by President George W. Bush on August 29, 2006, after the original medal, awarded to him by President Bill Clinton , was lost in the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina .