Fats Domino

What this episode covers

Antoine "Fats" Domino first began recording in 1949. His first national hit didn't come until 1955 when he recorded "Ain't That A Shame". It was a bigger hit for Pat Boone, but Pat's cover introduced white audiences to the music of the Fat Man. Fats' string of hits was enormous. Believe it or not, he never achieved a number one hit song on the pop music charts! In late 1956 and early 1957 two "Show of Stars" presentations came to Vancouver. The first was an all-Black show in the sense that the stars were basically Rhythm and Blues stars and not mixed up with white Rock and Roll, except that now that Rock and Roll music was acceptable to everyone they were packaged together to perform for a mixed audience. On the first "Show of Stars" the line-up included Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, LaVern Baker, Clyde McPhatter, Bill Doggett and The Five Satins Most of these stars were listed in the "Rhythm and Blues" section of the trade publications. Rock and Roll was going to change that, but in 1955 these were the R&B hits and hit makers. Bill Doggett had "Honky Tonk", a classic instrumental that is one of the most danceable tunes of all time. Fats Domino had a string of hits: "Ain't That A Shame", "Blueberry Hill" and "I'm in Love Again". Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers were riding high with "Why Do Fools Fall In Love?", Clyde McPhatter had "Treasure of Love", and so on. These were all danceable. As a matter of fact, they were the best damn dancing songs around. In my October 1956 Vancouver Sun column I previewed a new movie: "Another Rock and Roll show is coming your way. 'Mr. Rock and Roll' stars Fats Domino, Little Richard, LaVern Baker, Clyde McPhatter and many more top Rock'n'Roll stars." These low-budget formula movies were meant to be instant box office smash hits and forgotten. The movie people were anxious to cash in on the Rock'n' Roll craze and many felt that this music form would be short lived, therefore they rushed these ’quickies' into production to grab the money while they could. They were wrong about the longevity of the music and in retrospect they should have taken more time to produce worthwhile shows on the music. I've always felt it was interesting that a "domino" is a black object with little dots of white, while the reverse would have been true in the music world in those days. The musical "domino" was all white with many dots of black. There is no doubt that racial equality began with this music.

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