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posted by martyb on Thursday October 26 2017, @07:34AM   Printer-friendly
from the may-he-twist-in-peace-on-blueberry-hill dept.

Fats Domino, Architect Of Rock And Roll, Dead At 89

Fats Domino, one of the architects of rock 'n' roll, died yesterday at 89 years old at his daughter's suburban New Orleans home. Haydee Ellis, a family friend, confirmed the news to NPR. Mark Bone, chief investigator for the Jefferson Parish Coroner's office, tells NPR Domino died of natural causes.

In the 1940s, Antoine Domino, Jr. was working at a mattress factory in New Orleans and playing piano at night. Both his waistline and his fanbase were expanding. That's when a bandleader began calling him "Fats." From there, it was a cakewalk to his first million-selling record — "The Fat Man." It was Domino's first release for Imperial Records, which signed him right off the bandstand.

[...] Between 1950 and 1963, Fats 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, but Presley cited Domino as the early master.

Also at Billboard and BBC.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @08:06AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @08:06AM (#587739)

    Somebody took a bite out of my bed.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @08:22AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @08:22AM (#587741)

    if you stay up all night, do physical work in the presence of cigarette smoke, and eat fast food that fattens you, you will die before you hit 30.
    or something.

    PS: please don't take this seriously. I just really felt the need to say it for some reason...

  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday October 26 2017, @11:11AM (2 children)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Thursday October 26 2017, @11:11AM (#587759) Journal

    I hadn't realized he was still alive.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 2) by deadstick on Thursday October 26 2017, @12:43PM

      by deadstick (5110) on Thursday October 26 2017, @12:43PM (#587776)

      For a man called Fats, living to 89 is quite a feat...

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @09:02PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @09:02PM (#587992)

      You know, 89 isn't THAT unusually old.

  • (Score: 2) by shortscreen on Thursday October 26 2017, @10:44PM (1 child)

    by shortscreen (2252) on Thursday October 26 2017, @10:44PM (#588033) Journal

    The only thing I know about Fats Domino is that he was the answer to one of the questions in an old Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego game.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27 2017, @02:54AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27 2017, @02:54AM (#588104)

      If you had heard Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard) on "Happy Days" after he had made out with a girl, you would have heard him singing "I found my thrill on Blueberry Hill".

      "Chubby Checker" was a ripoff of Fats' name.

      Going back to the 1930s, there was stride piano master Thomas "Fats" Waller who indulged himself at every opportunity.
      He would describe himself as "my mother's 285 pounds of jam, jive, and everything". [google.com]

      There's a line in "Soul Shadows"[1]: Riding with Fats Waller on the Super Chief [google.com]
      He died on a cross-country trip aboard that train at age 39.

      [1] I love the cover of that by Denise Donatelli. [google.com]

      -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27 2017, @02:00AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27 2017, @02:00AM (#588093)

    The date: November 2, 1956
    The Place: Fayetteville, NC

    Breece's Landing, [google.com] a privately-owned banquet hall|dance hall|concert venue between Water Street and the Cape Fear River, [googleapis.com] was the location of a Fats Domino performance.

    The Robesonian - Lumberton, North Carolina - November 2, 1956 - Page 11 [archive.li]

    [Police] used tear gas to break up a [...] near-riot at a Negro[1] rock n' roll dance here last night; Cause of the disturbance had not been pinpointed early today. A white spectator said, however, that prior to the melee[,] one or two minor disturbances were occasioned by an unidentified white man trying to dance with Negro women [who] were among the several hundred persons present.

    Police Chief L. F. Worrell said tear gas was used as a last resort when officers could not push through the crowd to get to the center of the ruckus. Tear gas grenades were set off near ventilation ducts of the Breece's Landing [Dance] Hall. No serious injuries were reported. Negro bandleader Fats Domino received hospital treatment for cuts on his hand

    [1] In an uncommon condition in the still-segregated South, the event was actually integrated.
    (More below.)

    Many tellings of the story have Fats climbing out a window. Fats denied that.

    The link to Google Images, above, has a lot of items about the warship that is stuck in the muck along the riverbank at that point.
    This is from a page on that: [blogspot.com]

    Breece's Landing--established [just before WWII,] along the banks of the Cape River near the former [township of] Campbellton[2]--was the social center of the city of Fayetteville.

    [2] After the American Revolution, the settlements of Campbellton and Cross Creek merged and named the new town Fayetteville in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette.

    After about 1960, Breece's Landing lost any luster it formerly had and ended up as factory space and warehouse space and as a flophouse for the homeless. By the time the Cumberland County Memorial Auditorium opened in 1968, most kids weren't even aware of Breece's Landing.

    The hall at Breece's Landing burned to the ground December 28, 2014.[3] [wral.com]

    Breece's Ballroom pioneered the concept of an integrated concert hall in the South after black and white audiences began mingling there as early as the late 1940s.

    A rope [was] used to separate blacks and whites on the dance floor, but George Breece said the rope would often come down.

    [3] The flood was in 1954 (Hurricane Hazel), not 1945.

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27 2017, @02:39AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27 2017, @02:39AM (#588102)

      It's an interesting story, but why do you think Fats wanted to forget that night? Attracting the cops and getting gassed could have created some good publicity... Remember that even bad news gets the word around.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27 2017, @03:02AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27 2017, @03:02AM (#588105)

        Well, he did make a point of never returning to that burg.

        ...and it appears that he didn't garner any publicity from it.
        You have have some kind of link to R&B history or that town to be aware of the story.
        It's not widely known, even today.
        ...and the details aren't even consistent among the various tellings.

        -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

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