The Fat Man

There is no understating the influence of Fats Domino, who died last week, on rock and roll.  He more or less invented it.  As early as 1948, he was making records with a danceable beat that liberated the blues from its slow tempos and its low-keyed sound.  And even though the guitar became the taproot for rock music, Fats conjured up rock and roll on a piano.

The grit he injected into blues-styled numbers like "Ain't That a Shame" and pop standards such as "Blueberry Hill" (his signature song) gave popular music new life in the staid fifties, and more upbeat hits like "I'm Walkin'" got black and white kids dancing in the aisles of his shows (a riot ensued at his November 1956 concert in Fayetteville, North Carolina).  His style influenced none other than Elvis Presley, who came to regard Fats as the real king of rock and roll.  Domino earned that praise with an honest vocal style and a rolling piano following a boogie-woogie rhythm that could only have come from the streets of New Orleans.  The party atmosphere in rock comes from the good-time vibe of that city, and Fats made it work.  The dividends for him were 65 million records sold with 35 hits on the Billboard Top 40 singles charts.   

Just as Chuck Berry's children are out there playing his licks, you here Fats' children playing his rolling rhythms and paying tribute to his arrangements, which were heavy on brass as well as keyboards.  You hear it in the Beatles' 1968 single "Lady Madonna," with its shuffling piano and its beefy saxophone section (along with one of only two sax solos to ever appear on a Beatles record); Domino repaid the favor by covering it that same year.  You hear it in Little Feat's humorous (and humorously titled) blues-rocker "Fat Man In the Bathtub."   You hear it in Elton John's New Orleans tribute "Honky Cat."  And who do you think Van Morrison was talking about in his 1970 Caledonia soul masterpiece "Domino"?  ("Hey Mister D.J., I just want to hear some rhythm and blues music on the radio . . .")  

It was Elvis, though, who summed up Fats' importance early in his own career, when he said, "A lot of people seem to think I started this business. But rock ’n’ roll was here a long time before I came along. Nobody can sing that music like [black] people. Let’s face it: I can’t sing it like Fats Domino can. I know that."