Blueberry Hill

Steyn On-line ^ | October 29, 2017 | Mark Steyn

[Twotone]

What's the connection between Puccini, Neville Chamberlain and David Bowie?

Answer: The biggest hit of a prodigious talent who died a few days ago at the age of 89.

Fats Domino sold over 65 million records, which is more than any other Fifties rocker save a certain E. Presley. But he was such a modest and self-effacing man (and not just by comparison with relentless self-promoters such as Chuck Berry and Little Richard) that the part he played in a particularly turbulent period of American popular music was often relegated to an afterthought. He last swam, almost literally, into public consciousness a decade or so back during Hurricane Katrina, when he lost his home, his office and his many awards. The RIAA replaced his Gold Records, and President Bush, on a personal visit to New Orleans, replaced his National Medal of the Arts. The psychological toll was harder to ameliorate. Domino pulled out of one stage appearance because of nerves, and then pulled himself together for one final concert - and that was that.

Like his fellow protean rockers Berry and Bill Haley, Antoine Dominique Domino Jr was way too old to be a teen idol. Born the youngest of eight children in a Louisiana Creole family in 1928, he had three-and-a-half grades of education and then went to work for the local iceman. At the age of ten, a jazz-mad brother-in-law taught him to play the piano, and by fourteen he was pounding the ivories in local bars. The bandleader Billy Diamond nicknamed Antoine "Fats", partly because of Fats Waller (composer of our Song of the Week #115, "Ain't Misbehavin'") and partly because he ate a lot, so it seemed to be the general direction in which he was trending.

[Dr. Sivana]

I love watching Fats Domino play the piano. Compare him to other piano players like Billy Joel, Elton John, Carole King.

They are all great, but Fats seems to LOVE his instrument. He gets it to do EXACTLY what he wants it to do, on a shared time table. Carole beats it into submission (check "One Fine Day"). Elton has his well-trained to do tricks, but Fats is in love.

[ontap]

Fats Domino refused to get into politics. If asked he would not respond other than to say he was a musician and singer. He never ever played the race card. He was truly a breath of fresh air!!!

[Rummyfan]

Thanks!

[NewJerseyJoe]

P4L

[Dr. Sivana]

If asked he would not respond other than to say he was a musician and singer

I've heard people given Pat Boone grief for making white versions of Fats music and making money off of it. Fats made good money off of the rights, as he shared writing credit on a lot of it. And of course, Blueberry Hill itself was a cover.

[jjotto]

‘Blueberry Hill’ was written as a big-band jazz tune and recorded that way many times. Big hit for Glenn Miller in 1940. Gene Autry did it in a movie the next year.

[11th_VA]

Great story - who knew - click on link to hear Putin singing ... (I’m not making this up) ...

[lee martell]

In my opinion, Fats D. would have had a longer career with better management. How do you market someone like that, during those times? I don’t know if he spoke well, maybe he preffered the music speak for him. He would have done well with a Las Vegas type gig, where it would be a Legacy theme all the time.

[Big Red Badger]

Blueberry Hill...
Fats

[elcid1970]

“Ladies and gentlemen, Vlad Putin plays and sings “Blueberry Hill”:

(RT video)

“Now you know why he was such a lethal KGB torturer. And yes, that’s Goldie Hawn and Gérard Depardieu and other celebs colludin’ right along with him.”

Mark Steyn is such a card.

But...wait just a second, folks, Vladimir Vladimirovich is not the first KGBchik/Premier to appreciate American music. In 1982 when Leonid Brezhnev croaked, his successor the KGB thug Yuri Andropov was described by liberals as a jazz enthusiast who drank Scotch & therefore someone we could work with.

Andropov must have got his Scotch habit from Ted Kennedy who admired him as a man of peace.

[BeadCounter]

In one of these discussions, someone said Fats was more of a boogie-woogie player originally. I don’t know. A bio would be interesting. I know though, I bought his hits years after he recorded those originally.

At a used book sale, I got Connie Francis’s autobiography, I haven’t really been interested enough to get into it deeply but I enjoy a lot of her songs from back then. She’s called a “queen of rock and roll”.

She even has a number of imitators doing her songs, tribute shows.

[Bigg Red]

mark

[Ace's Dad]

From Mark Steyn: "Blueberry Hill, The biggest hit of a prodigious talent who died a few days ago at the age of 89."

Pardon the vanity Reply, because I must have been in the first group of "disk jockeys" to play that Fats Domino rock & roll hit.

Yes, I was a teen-age disk jockey in the late fifties! Only made it to radio as a writer but I did buy Blueberry Hill (the last record I had to buy, Imperial Records provided the rest of Domino's 45 RPM recordings) for my high school dance jobs. The first item of interest on my interesting life.

[uncbob]

Compare him to other piano players like Billy Joel, Elton John, Carole King.

you forgot the best Jerry Lee Lewis

[uncbob]

I've heard people given Pat Boone grief for making white versions of Fats music and making money off of it

Fats made $$$ off white singers recording 3 of Hank Williams hits--Jambalaya--Cheatin Heart--You Win Again

Nobody that I know gave him grief

[Dr. Sivana]

Fats NEVER would set his piano on fire.

[Dr. Sivana]

Fats got stage fright, and didn’t like travel. He lived the life he wanted to live, stayed married to one woman, and still hit the Hot Hundred in the late sixties with a cover of the Beatles’ Lady Madonna. Not many tried civering the Beatles in that era.

[uncbob]

That was when he was a rocker
When he got back to his country roots he had them painted on

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryiqlBVb2Pw