Lifelong New Orleans resident Antoine “Fats” Domino turned the infectious piano rhythms of the Crescent City into Top 40 hits as one of the few African American performers to cross over to the top ranks of rock ‘n’ roll icons in the 1950s. Born Feb. 26, 1928, Domino began playing clubs as a teenager, influenced by boogie woogie, jump blues, and local pianists Professor Longhair and Archibald. He developed a winsome style aided by his smiling persona and the masterful record production of Dave Bartholomew at Imperial Records. In 1950 his first record, “The Fat Man,” an adaptation of Champion Jack Dupree’s “Junker Blues,” became the first of more than 60 Domino entries on the Billboard or Cash Boxrhythm & blues charts. His records hit the pop charts just as often, both in the form of reworked standards like “Blueberry Hill” and easy-rocking dance tunes like “I’m Walkin’.” Bumping the piano across the stage with his ample midsection, Domino, known for his shyness offstage, created such a sensation onstage that some of his rock ‘n’ roll shows erupted into riots, according to newspaper reports from the ‘50s. In the ‘60s he became a regular in Las Vegas, both as an entertainer as a gambler whose losses reportedly totaled in the millions. In later years he retired except for an occasional special home town appearance. Domino was in the news again in 2005 as a survivor of Hurricane Katrina, safely evacuated from his flooded house in the Ninth Ward. — Jim O’Neal www. bluesoterica.com
Domino passed away in October 2017.