Being overweight as a positive trademark? No other artist is as closely associated with this as the US rock 'n' roll and rhythm and blues musician and rock 'n' roll founding father Fats Domino. However, he is also significant in the artistic sense.
Domino was born Antoine Domino on February 26, 1928 in New Orleans, USA. His family speaks Creole French. New Orleans has always been a prime example of an extraordinary multicultural melting pot. So Fats comes into contact with music from an early age, and learns to play the piano from the age of seven thanks to the support of his brother-in-law Harrison Verrett. He began to compose and quickly made a name for himself in the Orleans scene with countless club performances and his original style of playing, which incorporated boogie woogie elements into his piano playing.
Fats Domino, New Orleans Rock Pioneer and Piano Prodigy, Dies at 89 (Source: www.nbcnews.com)
The young musician's talent did not go unnoticed, and producer Dave Bartholomew paved the way for him to make his first record. In 1949, the autobiographical number “The Fat Man” was released on the Imperial label. Successful right from the start, Fats shaped the 1950s with a variety of hits such as “Goin' To The River” (1953), “My Blue Heaven”, (1956), or “I'm Walkin” (1957). He also made an impressive appearance on the big screen, guest-starring in the song “Blue Monday” in the movie “The Girl Can't Help It” (1956).
His real breakthrough – including with white audiences – came with the mega-hit “Blueberry Hill”, released that same year. It is impossible to imagine the contemporary charts without it, and countless live performances and tours cemented its popularity. But in the 1960s, he suffered the same fate as many other innovators, who suddenly looked old-fashioned in the face of the emerging Beat movement. Although he remained in demand and did well in business, his record sales and presence in public media declined. Meanwhile, Elvis Presley, Paul McCartney and Huey Lewis covered his songs.
Fats Domino - Wikipedia (Source: en.wikipedia.org)
In 1979, the musician had a minor hit with the single “Sleeping on the Job”, taken from the album of the same name. In 1986, Fats Domino was one of the first artists to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. However, he did not accept the award in person because he no longer liked to leave his hometown. In 1987, he received a Grammy for his life's work. Thanks to a commercial by the Aral oil company, his song “I'm Walkin'” returned to the charts in 1991, introducing Fats to a whole new generation of music fans.
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina reduced New Orleans to ashes and rubble. Fats Domino's house and many of his possessions fall victim to the natural disaster. The founding father of rock 'n' roll is initially reported missing, but is later rescued. Part of the album “Goin' Home: A Tribute To Fats Domino”, recorded with musician friends, is used to build the artist a new home in his hometown. The funds from the 2006 benefit album “Alive And Kickin'” went entirely to the cultural development of New Orleans. In 2009, he supported the construction of new children's playgrounds as part of the “The Domino Effect” festival. On October 24, 2017, Fats Domino died at the age of 89 in his home.
Little Richard: How the Son of a preacher became one of the most famous artists of his time
“I had always thought that 'A wop bop a loo lop a lop bam boo' said it all,” Bob Dylan wrote in his 2004 autobiography, Chronicles Volume One. The incomprehensible verse comes from a song called ‘Tutti Frutti,’ which helped launch the career of an extravagant African-American singer named Little Richard some 50 years earlier.
Richard Wayne Penniman was born in Macon, Georgia in 1932. One of twelve children of a preacher, he grew up in poverty and had to make a living with odd jobs at an early age. He was a hyperactive boy who absorbed the music of his surroundings and gained his first experiences as a singer of various gospel groups.
Little Richard Dead at 87 | Pitchfork (Source: pitchfork.com)
In 1951, he won a contest that earned him his first record deal. However, the four recorded tracks turned out to be flops. He performed in clubs in his hometown at night, washing dishes during the day. In 1952, he met the early rock'n'roller Esquerita, who taught him rudimentary piano skills, and the bluesman Bill Wright, who performed his concerts with make-up, highly teased hair and extravagant costumes. With a new look and expanded skills, Richard made a fresh start.
In 1955, he was sitting at the bar piano improvising a song with seemingly meaningless lyrics. Producer Bumps Blackwell immediately dragged him to the studio, and a quarter of an hour later the recording of “Tutti Frutti” was in the can, sealing Little Richard's rise to fame.
Today in Music History: Happy Birthday Little Richard (Source: www.thecurrent.org)
From the beginning of 1956 until the end of 1957, he rode the crest of a wave of success. Among the 50 songs he recorded were classics such as “Lucille”, “Good Golly Miss Molly”, “Long Tall Sally” and “The Girl Can't Help It”, the title track of a film in which he played alongside Jane Mansfield. After Elvis, he is the ultimate rock 'n' roll star, which is a sensation considering the color of his skin at the time.
During a tour of Australia with Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent, Ricard suddenly decides to leave the business and become a preacher like his father. He moves to Alabama to attend a seminary. In 1959, he is back again – with a gospel show that is supposed to take him across the United States. But the performances are just as unsuccessful as the accompanying albums. When he tries to regain a foothold with rock 'n' roll in 1962, the genre is already doomed. Nevertheless, Richard manages to sign the as yet unknown Rolling Stones as the opening act for a European tour. For a short time, the equally unknown Jimi Hendrix is part of his backing band in the USA.
Little Richard" Penniman - New Georgia Encyclopedia (Source: www.georgiaencyclopedia.org)
Even though his studio work has since been virtually dormant, he has never really been out of the picture. In the 70s, he publicly came out as gay, and in the 80s and 90s, he appeared several times as an actor, including in the TV series Miami Vice and Baywatch, as well as in the movie “Down And Out In Beverly Hills”.
In 1986, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis. Otherwise, Little Richard alternates between his work as a preacher and as a musician, and he can regularly be seen live on stage in Europe. In spring 2008, Little Richard thrilled an estimated 17 million TV viewers with an energetic performance at the Grammy Awards together with his old colleague Jerry Lee Lewis and John Fogerty. The old masters sat back to back at the piano and Fogerty took on the vocals for a rock'n'roll medley including the hits “Good Golly, Miss Molly” and “Goodness Gracious, Great Balls Of Fire”.
Nat King Cole: Life and work as a musician and singer
Even decades after his death, the discussion is still ongoing as to which aspect of his work has earned Nat King Cole a more important place in music history. Is it his talent as a jazz pianist, or is it rather his charm as an entertainer who was permanently resident in the upper echelons of the charts? Whatever the case, his unbroken popularity, as evidenced by countless best-of compilations and rarity releases, shows that he remains a force in the business.
Early Life
Nathaniel Adams Coles was born into poverty on March 17, 1919 (according to other sources 1917) in Montgomery, Alabama. His father initially worked as a butcher, but took up a calling as a preacher when the family moved to Chicago four years later.
As a child, Cole learned to play his mother's piano and, like his brother Eddie (double bass), was enthusiastic about music. Together they founded the Eddie Cole's Swingsters, toured the Chicago area and signed a recording contract with Decca. The combo also included dancer Nadine Robinson, who married Nat Cole in 1937.
In the same year, the brothers go their separate ways, without their studio recordings ever seeing the light of day. Nat Cole tried his hand as a solo pianist in Los Angeles before performing with bass and guitar accompaniment as a regular guest at the Swanee Inn between 1937 and 1940. The band derived the name King Cole Trio from the first line of a popular children's song (“Old King Cole was a merry old soul”).
Starting a career
With a new contract from Decca, they released their first single “That Ain't Right” in 1941, which climbed to the top of Billboard's Harlem Hit Parade. It was the first of many successes throughout the 40s: the following singles “All for You” (1942), “Straighten Up and Fly Right”, “Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You” (both 1944) made the trio famous nationally, while “(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons” (1946) and “Nature Boy” (1948) even made it to the top of the charts. “The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)” (1946) only reached third place, but in the decades that followed it became a Christmas classic.
This success was no fluke. From the middle of the decade, jazz took new directions such as bebop and, like swing, lost the favor of the general public. The new trend was pop, and Nat King Cole jumped on board with conviction. This decision cost him many fans, but also opened up an audience of millions.
Conquering the Charts
When he reached the top of the singles charts for the third time in 1950 with “Mona Lisa”, the band name had changed to Nat 'King' Cole & the Trio. Soon the last part was dropped, and in the following years the accompaniment changed between a minimal line-up and a full orchestra, depending on the occasion and the show. Cole only occasionally hit the piano and preferred the position behind the microphone.
In the 50s, he is one of the most popular names alongside Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and Dean Martin. His disadvantage compared to them: he is black. He is committed to fighting the omnipresent racism, suing hotels that do not want to accommodate him or moving to a neighborhood in Los Angeles that until then had only been inhabited by white people. At the same time, he tries to smooth things over, which earns him enemies on all sides. He is physically attacked in Alabama during a performance.
Cole's unique features
With his soft voice and flattering appeal, he played his way into the hearts of a worldwide audience. His tireless touring took him not only across the U.S., to Las Vegas and on television, but also to Europe, Asia and Latin America. His forays into the film industry were less successful. His most important role came in 1957 as W.C. Handy in the biographical film “St. Louis Blues”.
With the rise of rock 'n' roll in the second half of the 50s, Cole turned increasingly to jazz again. The album “After Midnight” was released in 1957, but it only had modest commercial success. In 1956, King was the first African American to receive his own television show, which, after initial success, was discontinued in December 1957. The official reason given was that not enough program sponsors could be found. King explained the failure with racism in the business world, where no black artists were supported.
Going to the Broadway
In 1960, he put together a Broadway show that never made it to the stage. In 1962, however, he had one of the biggest successes of his career with the country-esque “Ramblin' Rose”. This came to an abrupt end three years later: diagnosed with lung cancer in December 1964, Cole died on February 15, 1965 at the age of 45.
His legacy is so great that he was able to achieve commercial success in the decades that followed. The biggest posthumous coup was “Unforgettable”, a duet with his daughter Natalie, who was born out of his second marriage to singer Marie Ellington. A minor hit in 1952, the song, with the added female vocals, not only established itself in the charts, but also won a Grammy in 1992 for “Best Record Of The Year”.
Born on June 1, 1934 in Jacksonville, Florida. Studied at Columbia University, married Shirley, the daughter of country star Red Foley. Became the 'king of cover versions, sweetening almost every original. Regarded as the number one clean guy in the US entertainment industry (the father of four daughters refused a film role alongside Marilyn Monroe because he didn't want to kiss another woman).
In 1955, Pat Boone received a record deal from Dot Records, for which he released exactly 57 singles in the US charts until 1966, including the No. 1 hits 'I Almost Lost My Mind', 'Don't Forbid Me' (both 1956), 'Love Letters In The Sand' and 'April Love' (both 1957) as well as 'Moody River' (1961). In the late 70s, Pat Boone, host of the TV show 'The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom' from 1957-60, focused entirely on Christian music.
Pat Boone | Spotify (Source: open.spotify.com)
In 1997, Pat had a late hit in the U.S. with a heavy metal (!) album. His daughter Debbie had a No. 1 hit in 1977 with 'You Light Up My Life'. Boone sang six of a total of ten German-language titles in the Teldec studios in Hamburg, and the last four in February 1966 in the Saar Studios in Milan to backing tracks that had been produced in Cologne. He took on roles in US productions such as 'April Love' ('Junges Glück im April', 1957), 'Mardi Gras' ('Blaue Nächte', 1958), 'Journey To The Center Of The Earth' ('Die Reise zum Mittelpunkt der Erde', 1 1959), 'The Yellow Canary' (' - Kennwort Canary', 1963), - 'The Pigeon' ('Das Geheimnis der Puppe', 1969) and 'The Cross And The Switchblade' ('Das Kreuz und die Messerhelden', 1969).
New York disc jockey Alan Freed, unwilling to pay higher rent imposed by the managers of the Brooklyn Paramount Theater, moved his highly successful 'Rock 'n' Roll Holiday Jubilee' to the Academy of Music in Manhattan.
This gave rival disc jockey Tommy 'Dr. Jive' Smalls the opportunity to move his show from Harlem to the Brooklyn Paramount, where it opened for a week on December 23, 1955, the day after the opening of Freed's 12-day stand in midtown.
Pat Boone | Biography, Songs, & Facts | Britannica (Source: www.britannica.com)
While Freed's stage shows – like his pioneering radio program – had always been integrated, this was a first for 'Dr. “Jive.” He had a strong cast of R&B performers on the show, including Bo Diddley, Clyde McPhatter, the Flamingos, the Five Keys, and the Turbans. One of the two white acts was a singing group, the Cheers, protégés of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, whose hits were (then) Bazoom and Black Denim Trousers And Motorcycle Boots.
The other... well, as Ruth Brown, another of the show's stars, later said, “Pat Boone, with the white bucks on his feet, who comes home late from school.”
Brown was perhaps a little bemused by the Columbia University English Literature graduate, wearing his trademark white suede shoes, singing to a predominantly black audience, many of whom recognized him from earlier versions by black acts. Others, however, were less impressed. Many years later, Little Richard biographer Charles White wrote: “When [Little Richard's] ‘Tutti Frutti’ climbed the charts, it was covered by two white artists – Pat Boone and Elvis Presley.... This actually helped sell Richard's original version, as people who had never heard rock and roll (sic) became aware of the new sound. But in general, the policy of the 'white' record companies, covering the songs of black artists, was a cruel theft of original talent.” (While Boone's version was a cover and competed, Presley's came out later and only as an album cut).
Pat Boone, 1950s teen idol, still surprising (Source: www.ocala.com)
Of course, in life, nothing is that simple. Many acts, including Teresa Brewer, Gale Storm, Georgia Gibbs, the McGuire Sisters, the Diamonds, and Bill Haley, recorded their own versions of R&B hits for the white market.
As Boone himself told former Newsweek pop critic Karen Schoemer, “The revisionist idea has somehow taken hold that by covering an R&B record as a pop artist, we impeded the progress of the original artists, rather than augmented it. But in those early days, R&B music wasn't played on pop radio. It was too raw, rough, unfinished-sounding, garbled – you couldn't understand all the words. People were accustomed to big bands and polished productions. Deejays weren't willing to play it and people weren't willing to receive it. But when we made a more polished pop version of a song, it had a chance and started to catch on. People don't understand the role that the cover versions played. It was pop artists doing R&B music that put the spotlight on the original artists and opened the door.”
...And Joe Smith, “...Everyone was aware that the original artists weren't going to get played on 90% of the radio stations in America. They didn't want to play an R&B record by Chuck Berry, Fats Domino or Little Richard. In fact, the original artists hoped and prayed that their records would be covered by someone who could get airplay because it meant their records would get even more exposure in their own field. It would change later...but we were like catalysts that helped R&B become rock and roll.”
“When I first heard Boone's 'Ain't That a Shame,' I didn't like it,” Domino told biographer Rick Coleman. ‘It took two months to write, and he almost ditched it just like I did.’ It kind of hurts.”
Pat Boone Receives a Lifetime Achievement Award at AFM 2022 (Source: www.wnct.com)
Domino, who benefited from both the writers' royalties and the indirect exposure, may have changed his mind in later years. “I went to see Domino at Al Hirt's in New Orleans,” Boone Smith recalled. “When he heard I was in the audience, he called me up on stage and said to the crowd, ‘I want you all to know something. You see this ring?’” He had a big diamond ring on each of his fingers, and he pointed to the most prominent of his diamond rings and said, “This man bought me this ring with this song.” And we sang “Ain't That A Shame” together.” Years later, Domino brought Rick Nelson on stage to duet on I'm Walkin‘, a Domino original that Nelson had brought to the top in the wake of Fats’ own version.
While no one is going to confuse a Pat Boone record with one by Little Richard, Domino, or Big Joe Turner, some of his R&B-influenced songs were legitimate hits and had their own charms. Indeed, Boone landed four singles on the Billboard R&B singles chart. Certainly, black-and-white songwriters were lining up to get the attention of either Boone or Dot Records' boss Randy Wood. And many of them succeeded.
Not every song on this compilation of Boone's up-tempo material started life as an R&B cover or revival; but all have the same vibrant spirit; that of a man who loves what he does and wants to share the fun.
And now some remarks on the most notable songs in this collection.
Born in Tennessee and educated at North Texas State College, Pat Boone appeared on local radio programs and was selected to appear on the nationally-syndicated “Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour,” where he won three times and was invited to a special competition among multiple winners. While in New York City, he auditioned for another national program, “Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts.”
“On Saturday night,” Boone said in 1993, ‘I won on Ted Mack,’ qualifying for the finals, and ”on Monday I went on Arthur Godfrey and won a week's worth of performances on his daily radio show. The Ted Mack people told me I won, but they had to disqualify me.”
Pat had cut a few sides in a Tony Martin pop vein on a small, local label to no avail. But one day while visiting his parents in Tennessee, he got a call from Randy Wood. Owner of Randy's Record Shop near Gallatin, Wood also ran the Dot Records label out of his store. “Randy had been watching me for a couple of years and was convinced I could sing like a pro. He was excited, he was nice, we shook hands and he said he'd call me as soon as he found a song that suited me.”
Months went by and Boone was back in school in Texas when he finally heard from Wood. “He sent me a ticket to Chicago where I was to record a song called ‘Two Hearts’.”
An unlikely choice for Boone – whose idols (remember this was before Elvis Presley broke through) were his father-in-law, country singer Red Foley, and Bing Crosby – Two Hearts was the third hit by the Charms, a black group from Cincinnati, recorded for the Deluxe label. Another Charms hit, Hearts Of Stone, had been successfully covered by the Fontaine Sisters for the white market a few months earlier, also for Dot (another Charms hit was a black market cover of Cheers' Bazoom).
“I had never heard 'Two Hearts' before, but from the title I thought the song would be something in the waltz time as Perry Como might do.” Then Wood put on a portable record player in his hotel room and repeatedly played the bouncy R&B dance tune with a boogie beat. The arranger and conductor of Boone's version was Lew Douglas, who worked as an arranger for NBC Radio's Chicago orchestra and recorded with acts like Joni James in Chicago.
