When was fats domino born

There was one fine later album, the self-produced Sleeping on the Job, cut in New Orleans in Authentic and fresh, it surprised everyone. He never managed that again. Domino was reduced to night clubs and Las Vegas. But his vice was gambling, and trying to work off his debts by touring only kept him in the Vegas trap. Worry thinned him.

He was still at it in London at the Royal Festival Hall in , and the Royal Albert Hall in , his mike still placed so that he took up a supplicating pose, crouched down, head twisted round and upwards, radiant smile fixed on the punters in the circle. His performance ended when he tried the piano stomach-push in Sheffield, and was taken to hospital with breathing problems.

He would not tour again, restricting his live appearances to his home city of New Orleans. He was at home when his house was one of those ruined by Hurricane Katrina in Between and , he had eleven Top 10 hits. His humility and shyness may be one reason his contribution to the genre has been overlooked. Fats Domino. Today's Articles People, Locations, Episodes.

Sun, Previous Story. Domino left school in order to focus all of his energies on music. Shortly after leaving school, Domino found a job at a local bedspring factory. He worked at the factory during the day and played music by night in local nightclubs. A mishap on his day job came very close to costing him his future in music.

One of his hands was severely injured by a heavy spring, an injury that required multiple stitches. For a while, it was uncertain whether Domino would ever recover use of the hand for the piano. However, with sufficient exercise he was able to regain most of his previous use of that hand.

One of Domino's nighttime jobs was at a New Orleans club called the Hideaway, where he earned three dollars a week. By the age of 19 he had become a fixture there, along with prominent New Orleans pianists such as Professor Longhair and Amos Milburn. Like them, Domino was inspired by the rich musical styles of New Orleans. It was here that he got his first big break.

Lew Chudd, head of Los Angeles-based Imperial Records, was touring the city in search of promising new artists when he happened to catch Domino's act. Duly impressed, he quickly signed the young musician to a recording contract and paired him up with Dave Bartholomew of Imperial to write the song that became his signature number and established him forever as "Fats" in the mind of his fans. The song became Domino's first big rhythm and blues hit and is considered by many music industry observers to be the first genuine rock and roll song ever recorded.

Chudd's Imperial recording label, which focused on unknown rhythm and blues talent from the Deep South, had experienced rapid growth in the years following the end of World War II. Bartholomew, a prominent trumpet player and composer, became Domino's producer and bandleader for most of the s and 60s and co-wrote virtually all of the performer's best-known hits.

Bartholomew, who remained closely involved with Domino well into the s, was a trained musician who perfectly complemented Domino's unschooled but brilliant musical instincts. Domino never learned to read music. It also happened to be the first song John Lennon learned to play on guitar. Despite his enormous popularity among both White and Black fans, when touring the country in the s, Domino and his band were often denied lodging and had to utilize segregated facilities, at times driving miles away from the venue.

Domino described his songwriting process as taking inspiration from everyday events: "Something that happened to someone, that's how I write all my songs," he explained. I used to go around different places, hear people talk. Sometimes I wasn't expecting to hear nothin', and my mind was very much on my music. Next thing I'd hear, I would either write it down or remember it good.

The rhythm we play is from Dixieland — New Orleans. After recording an impressive 37 different Top 40 hits for the label, Domino left Imperial Records in — later claiming "I stuck with them until they sold out" — and joined ABC-Paramount Records, this time without his longtime sidekick, Dave Bartholomew.

Whether due to the change in sound or because of changing popular tastes, Domino found his music less commercially popular than before. By the time American pop music was revolutionized by the British Invasion, Domino's reign at the top of the charts had reached its end. The pair recorded steadily until , but only charted with one more single: "Lady Madonna," a cover of a Beatles song that, ironically, had been inspired by Domino's own musical style.

Still, Domino's songs and New Orleans sound would continue to influence a generation of rock 'n' rollers as well as the growing ska music genre in Jamaica. Domino continued to tour for the next two decades, but after a health scare experienced during tour dates in Europe in , he rarely left New Orleans, preferring to live comfortably at home with his wife, Rosemary, and eight children off the royalties from his earlier recordings.

A quiet and private man, he occasionally performed at local concerts and at the famed New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival from time to time, but generally shunned publicity of all kinds. Domino was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in , but refused to attend the ceremony; likewise, he turned down an invitation to perform at the White House, though he accepted the National Medal of Arts from President Bill Clinton in