Antoine ”Fats” Domino, Jr. Passed away on Tuesday Oct 24th, 2017 at his home in Harvey, LA of natural causes.

Domino first attracted national attention with his first recording, “The Fat Man”, made in late 1949 for Imperial Records.

Between 1950 and 1963, Domino hit the R&B charts a reported 59 times, and the pop charts a rollicking 63 times. He outsold Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly — combined. Only Elvis Presley moved more records during that stretch — and Presley cited Domino as the early master. Elvis once pointed at Domino and said, “There’s the real king of rock ’n’ roll.”

 

Dr. John once said in an interview with Rolling Stone that “After John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Fats Domino and his partner, Dave Bartholomew, were probably the greatest team of songwriters ever. “They always had a simple melody, a hip set of chord changes, and a cool groove. And their songs all had simple lyrics; that’s the key.”

Domino himself once said, “Everybody started callin’ my music rock and roll, “but it wasn’t anything but the same rhythm and blues I’d been playin’ down in New Orleans.”

 

In 1986 he was one of the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

Domino was the first artist to be announced as scheduled to perform at the 2006 Jazz & Heritage Festival. 

On January 12, 2007, Domino was honored with OffBeat magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Best of the Beat Awards, held at the House of Blues in New Orleans. 

Some of his hits included Blueberry Hill, Ain’t that a Shame, Walking to New Orleans, and Be My Guest.

**Be sure to tune in to KUVO On Thursday, Oct. 26, at 8 p.m. as Matthew Goldwasser sits in on “The Night Beat” to revisit the influence of Fats Domino.  There are some great musical mash-ups in tribute to the great New Orleans R & B master.  And this Saturday night Oct 28th at 6pm Easy Bill pays homage to Fats Domino on the R & B Jukebox**

Link to video “Walking to New Orleans”
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