This is the latest from The Bluesmobile’s C.C. Rider, who spends her life venerating the founding fathers of the blues. She’s walked the crooked highways of this singing country to resurrect the voices of the past. With the dirt of the Delta on her hands, she sleeps in the shadow of the giants on whose shoulders popular music now stands.
Fats Domino
( February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017)
Today I’m talkin’ bout the man who had more chart-topping hits than any other early rock and roll artist except Elvis. Survived Hurricane Katrina to be rescued by helicopter, and once jumped out a window to escape a riot at his own show. Yep, there’s no one like piano-man Fats Domino. Born Antoine Domino in New Orleans, he left school at 14 to work in a factory by day and a club by night. By the age of 22, when he made his first solo recording, he’d gotten pretty good. Killer compositions on a smokin’ set of keys.
Five years later he’d landed multiple gold records, a massive crossover hit, and developed his own sound. Which came to typify the spirit of New Orleans. Fat’s songs have been covered by everyone from Cheap Trick to Neil Young to Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
There’s just no escaping the influence of a titan like Fats Domino. And guess what? I wouldn’t want to. Here’s the man himself with his first big hit. From 1955, “Ain’t That a Shame.”
