Legendary New Orleans musician Fats Domino dead at 89

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Legendary New Orleans musician Fats Domino dead at 89

Postby radiofan » Wed Oct 25, 2017 8:03 am

The legendary New Orleans singer and pianist Fats Domino, known for hits like "Blueberry Hill" and "Ain't that a Shame," has died.

He was 89.

Domino, whose real name is Antoine Domino Jr., died on Tuesday afternoon of natural causes, Mark Bone of the Jefferson Parish Coroner's Office confirmed to the Daily News.

The iconic artist was born and raised in New Orleans and first broke out into the city's rock and roll scene in the late 1940's after joining the band The Solid Senders.

His first record "The Fat Man" garnered him national attention — selling one million copies by 1953 after it was released in 1949.

It was said to be the first rock and roll record to reach that achievement and some music historians have even credited it to be the first rock and roll record to exist, according to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Domino ultimately sold 65 million records, which is more than any rocker of the '50s except Elvis Presley. His songs landed him on the Billboard pop chart 63 times and the R&B chart 59 times throughout his years.

Domino first found himself sectioned to only the R&B charts until his song "Goin' Home" made it to No. 30 on the main chart and the following year his song "Goin' To The River" landed at No. 24. In 1955, "Ain't It A Shame" helped propel Domino's sound across genres and landing at No. 10 on the pop charts.

A cover of the track, retitled "Ain't That a Shame," was done by Pat Boone and landed even higher on the pop charts at No. 1 for a period of two weeks.

Read the full story at: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainmen ... -1.3587592
Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who couldn't hear the music.
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Re: Legendary New Orleans musician Fats Domino dead at 89

Postby Victoriaradio » Wed Oct 25, 2017 10:39 am

One of the treasures I have in my collection is a taped interview Dave McCormick and I did with Fats Domino (arranged by Red Robinson) in 1958 or so when we were both Radsoc addicts. He concluded the interview with, "Keep playin my records boys!"
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Re: Legendary New Orleans musician Fats Domino dead at 89

Postby jon » Wed Oct 25, 2017 11:59 am

As a 9 year old in his first few months of listening to CFUN in 1962, it was Fats Domino and Chuck Berry that were the biggest names from the beginning of Rock and Roll. Even though it was Bill Haley who sang "the first" (as I assumed back then) Rock and Roll record, Fats and Chuck were always front of mind because of:
  1. The Number of hits they had in the 1950s; and
  2. The Fact that they were still putting out hits in 1962
Sadly, we lost both Fats and Chuck this year; Bill left us in 1981 at age 55.
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