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Fats Domino, Rock 'n’ Roll Pioneer Who Rivaled Elvis, Dies at 89

Fats Domino, Rock 'n’ Roll Pioneer Who Rivaled Elvis, Dies at 89

(Bloomberg) -- Fats Domino, the piano player and singer who popularized the rhythm-and-blues sound of his native New Orleans and sold more records than any of his peers except Elvis Presley, has died. He was 89.

He died Tuesday, according to the Associated Press, citing Mark Bone, chief investigator with the Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, coroner’s office.

“The Fat Man,” his 1949 first hit single, was one of the earliest examples of rock ‘n’ roll. He followed that success with “Ain’t It a Shame” (also known as “Ain’t That a Shame”), “Blueberry Hill,” “I’m Walkin” and dozens of other hits whose boogie-woogie piano style and rhythmic singing appealed to black and white listeners alike.

“Domino shouted out ghetto-accented staccato accusations about sad separations ringing like cannonades across a country divided by segregation,” author Rick Coleman wrote in “Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock ‘n’ Roll” published in 2006.

Domino’s singles reached the top 40 on Billboard magazine’s pop charts three dozen times between 1952 and 1963. He ended up with about two dozen gold records, awarded for sales of at least a million copies, and more than 65 million recordings sold.

Starting in the 1980s, Domino receded from public view, partly because he was reluctant to leave his hometown. In 2005, he gained notoriety as a victim of Hurricane Katrina, which forced him out of his home in the city’s Lower Ninth Ward.

Early Start

Antoine Domino Jr. was born Feb. 26, 1928, in New Orleans, where his family had relocated the year before from a nearby plantation. He was the youngest of eight children of Antoine and Donatile Domino, who were of Creole descent. He quit school at 14 to work during the day and play piano in clubs at night.

“As a boy in New Orleans, I had all sorts of jobs -- an ice man, made bed springs, lumber yard,” he told Robert Hilburn, a critic for the Los Angeles Times, in a rare interview in 1985.

By the time he turned 21, he was featured at the Hideaway club, where trumpeter and bandleader Dave Bartholomew heard the 5-foot, 5-inch Domino perform an autobiographical song: “They call me the Fat Man/’Cause I weigh two hundred pounds.”

Landmark Status

Domino recorded the song and seven others at Bartholomew’s urging on Dec. 10, 1949, for Imperial Records. The recordings were made at J&M Music Shop on Rampart Street in the French Quarter. Half a century later, New Orleans designated the building that housed the store as a historic landmark.

“The Fat Man” became Domino’s first national hit, reaching No. 2 on Billboard’s R&B chart. In 1952, he played piano for Lloyd Price’s recording of “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” and also made his own record of “Goin’ Home.” The latter single was his first top-40 pop hit and also topped the R&B chart.

Domino’s career took off in 1955 with “Ain’t It a Shame,” a song he wrote with Bartholomew and recorded on the Imperial label. White vocalist Pat Boone recorded a version called “Ain’t That a Shame” that topped the charts. Domino’s rendition, with less airplay and distribution, reached No. 10. Both singers became stars.

“I’m Walkin’,” a Domino hit from 1957, helped white crooner Ricky Nelson start his singing career. Nelson’s cover version of that song was released the same year, and both singles rose to No. 4 on Billboard’s pop chart.

‘Blueberry Hill’

For all of Domino’s success as a performer, he never had a No. 1 pop single. “Blueberry Hill,” his biggest hit, peaked at No. 2 in 1957. He fared better on Billboard’s R&B singles chart, which he reached the top seven times, beginning with “Goin’ Home” and ending with 1959’s “I Want to Walk You Home.”

Domino recorded popular standards along with his own songs, and a version of “Red Sails in the Sunset” was his last top-40 pop hit. The single was released in 1963 after he moved to ABC-Paramount Records from Imperial, later owned by EMI Group Plc.

In 1968, Domino attempted to rebound with “Fats Is Back.” The album had two songs written by the Beatles, including “Lady Madonna,” which barely made Billboard’s pop chart as a single. After that failure, he focused on performing and made annual appearances at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

In 1986, he was welcomed into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the first induction dinner. A year later, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 29th annual Grammy Awards. He stayed home both times.

Arts Medal

Domino also declined to visit the White House in 1998 to receive the National Medal of Arts from President Bill Clinton, even though he was the first rock ‘n’ roll artist to be honored. A daughter, Antoinette Domino Smith, accepted for him.

“My spirit told me not to leave New Orleans until I make up my mind to travel again,” he said to the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper in 1998. “We’ve got to pay more attention to the spirit, and pay more attention to God.”

Domino lived in a three-story house in the Lower Ninth Ward, which suffered some of the worst flood damage in August 2005 when Hurricane Katrina struck the Louisiana coastline. He stayed at home with his family during the storm and was rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter.

Most of his possessions were lost to Katrina. President George W. Bush presented him with a copy of his National Medal of Arts award during a visit to New Orleans. His label replaced 20 gold records that were ruined or swept away. He resettled in Barkley Estates, a gated community in Harvey, Louisiana.

By all accounts, Domino was a good-natured but reticent man who was ill at ease in front of a camera or interviewer. Michael Murphy, a multimedia producer, needed five months to get him to agree to an interview for “Legends of New Orleans: The Music of Fats Domino,” a DVD that documented his 2001 show at Jazzfest.

“One of the things that makes Fats relevant today is that his music make you feel good,” Murphy told the Times-Picayune in a 2003 interview. “The words are simple, but they speak to everybody.”

Domino and his wife, Rosemary Hall, had eight children.

To contact the reporters on this story: David Wilson in New York at dwilson@bloomberg.net, Kathryn Harris in New York at sgittelson@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Caroline Salas Gage at csalas1@bloomberg.net, Steven Gittelson

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