Okla-homey
2/26/2010, 07:09 AM
February 26, 1928: Fats Domino is born
http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/7582/fatsdominofatsdomino.jpg (http://img715.imageshack.us/i/fatsdominofatsdomino.jpg/)
82 years ago, on this day in 1928, Antoine Domino was the youngest of eight children born into a Creole family that spoke that funky French dialect as its first language.
Domino's father was a fiddle player, but it was his much older brother-in-law, Harrison Verrett, who taught young Antoine the piano. By age 10, Antoine was playing professionally in New Orleans honky-tonks, where he earned the nickname "Fats" from bandleader Bill Diamond.
In 1949, he caught the eye and ears of trumpeter, band leader and Imperial Records talent scout Dave Bartholomew, and a legendary partnership was born.
The first record Fats Domino put out with Bartholomew as his producer/collaborator was 1949's "The Fat Man," a big, foot-stomping boogie-woogie record that established Domino's signature sound.
http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/3077/fats10103858afatsdomino.jpg (http://img691.imageshack.us/i/fats10103858afatsdomino.jpg/)
Over the next half-decade, Domino's backbeat-heavy, rolling piano played a vital role in defining the shape of rock and roll. "Ain't That A Shame" found its way to the pop charts in 1955, but that breakthrough paved the way for two more top-five pop hits in "Blueberry Hill," "I'm Walkin'" and "Blue Monday," in 1956 and 1957.
After three decades as a major international star—a star who sold an estimated 65 million records worldwide—Domino went into semi-retirement in the 1980s, announcing that he would no longer travel outside his native New Orleans.
A man of his word, Domino was not enticed to travel even to be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Grammy, a National Medal of the Arts from President Bill Clinton or induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/1435/fatsdomino.jpg (http://img22.imageshack.us/i/fatsdomino.jpg/)
Domino remained a neighborhood fixture in the Ninth Ward, however, living in his colorful double-shotgun mansion and making occasional forays out to local clubs in his enormous, bright-pink Cadillac. Not surprisingly, Fats Domino returned to New Orleans as soon as he could following Hurricane Katrina.
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/1305/fats800pxfatsdominopian.jpg (http://img230.imageshack.us/i/fats800pxfatsdominopian.jpg/)
Fats Domino's grand piano. Recovered and partially reassembled from the post-Hurricane Katrina muck of Domino's home in the Lower 9th Ward, and now on exibit in the French Quarter at the Louisiana State Museum collection, Cabildo building.
http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/7582/fatsdominofatsdomino.jpg (http://img715.imageshack.us/i/fatsdominofatsdomino.jpg/)
82 years ago, on this day in 1928, Antoine Domino was the youngest of eight children born into a Creole family that spoke that funky French dialect as its first language.
Domino's father was a fiddle player, but it was his much older brother-in-law, Harrison Verrett, who taught young Antoine the piano. By age 10, Antoine was playing professionally in New Orleans honky-tonks, where he earned the nickname "Fats" from bandleader Bill Diamond.
In 1949, he caught the eye and ears of trumpeter, band leader and Imperial Records talent scout Dave Bartholomew, and a legendary partnership was born.
The first record Fats Domino put out with Bartholomew as his producer/collaborator was 1949's "The Fat Man," a big, foot-stomping boogie-woogie record that established Domino's signature sound.
http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/3077/fats10103858afatsdomino.jpg (http://img691.imageshack.us/i/fats10103858afatsdomino.jpg/)
Over the next half-decade, Domino's backbeat-heavy, rolling piano played a vital role in defining the shape of rock and roll. "Ain't That A Shame" found its way to the pop charts in 1955, but that breakthrough paved the way for two more top-five pop hits in "Blueberry Hill," "I'm Walkin'" and "Blue Monday," in 1956 and 1957.
After three decades as a major international star—a star who sold an estimated 65 million records worldwide—Domino went into semi-retirement in the 1980s, announcing that he would no longer travel outside his native New Orleans.
A man of his word, Domino was not enticed to travel even to be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Grammy, a National Medal of the Arts from President Bill Clinton or induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/1435/fatsdomino.jpg (http://img22.imageshack.us/i/fatsdomino.jpg/)
Domino remained a neighborhood fixture in the Ninth Ward, however, living in his colorful double-shotgun mansion and making occasional forays out to local clubs in his enormous, bright-pink Cadillac. Not surprisingly, Fats Domino returned to New Orleans as soon as he could following Hurricane Katrina.
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/1305/fats800pxfatsdominopian.jpg (http://img230.imageshack.us/i/fats800pxfatsdominopian.jpg/)
Fats Domino's grand piano. Recovered and partially reassembled from the post-Hurricane Katrina muck of Domino's home in the Lower 9th Ward, and now on exibit in the French Quarter at the Louisiana State Museum collection, Cabildo building.