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The great Fats Domino passed away peacefully last night.

RIP 😢

So many great hits...he will be missed

Blueberry Hill
Ain't That A Shame
My Blue Heaven
Blue Monday
I'm Walkin'
Walking to New Orleans
I'm in Love Again
The Fat Man
Whole Lotta Loving

and many more great songs

One of my favorites - My Blue Heaven

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjRN-74qPuc

One of the greats.

When he sang the blues, it sounded happy.

Just heard it on the radio. Fats... :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIz1cPfTRW4

Well said, sir. Even on songs like "There Goes My Heart Again", where the man's being thoroughly rebuffed, he still sounds like he's having a ball:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSElj-qm5Jc

Eighty-nine is a good age. May he rest in peace.

Jimmy Smith and Fats Domino - Live in Jazz 1962.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFkK8sjDI7c

2017 has been a terrible year for music death's, but I guess when you live as long as Fats did, or Chuck Berry, or Glen Campbell, it should be expected. It really seems like rock and roll just died. Not many guys left from the first generation; Jerry Lee Lewis is still at it, but Little Richard has renounced rock and roll - again - and gone back to the ministry. We've got one Everly Brother left, and he's not singing anymore. It's downright depressing. I really want to be in heaven now with that great band.

Fats Domino passing as announced on New Orleans TV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV0hXwA-dQk


Fats Domino on jewelry, gambling, and why he doesn't get involved in civil rights | 1968 interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYIBh7OIuEk


Fats Domino - Mike Douglas Show 1971 Blueberry Hill - Interview - The Fat Man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FE6rBraNUc

Take heart, LS. We still have Duane Eddy (79) and Ronnie Hawkins (82)----not quite first-generation rock'n'rollers but major names nonetheless in the late '50s, early '60s.

Little Richard about Fats Domino's death:

Little Richard Remembers Fats Domino: 'He Could Make a Piano Talk'

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/little-richard-on-fats-domino-he-could-make-a-piano-talk-w510300

My parents saw him live at Tipitina’s in 2007 when he played his first concert after Katrina, which also happened to be his last concert ever. If you Google “Fat’s Domino - Walkin’ Back to New Orleans” you will see this last concert. It still amazes me that at age 79, his voice still sounded exactly as it did on the original records.

Absolutely!

For those who’d like an in-depth review of Fats Domino’s career, there is a multi part series available for the next several weeks on BBC6 radio.
In your favorite search engine key in Fats Domino BBC radio and it should come right up.
The series was originally broadcast about 15 years ago, so the bittersweet thing is that almost all of those interviewed, with the exception of Dave Bartholomew (who’s well into his 90s now) are now in that great recording studio in the sky.

Agree 100%.

I need to look that one up. There was a PBS special about Fats a couple years ago, but there wasn't any live footage beyond 1962. I found that disappointing. Both times I saw him in concert, 1986 and 1990, he was great. Had most of his original band with him, including Dave Bartholomew and Herbert Hardesty.

Fats Domino second line in New Orleans: Fitting tribute for a founding father of rock 'n' roll


http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/entertainment_life/keith_spera/article_7fb40d5e-bf49-11e7-8bc2-af9acba044fb.html

Everybody loved the Fat Man....funny, I was listening to Elvis Radio on Sirius the day before Fats died, and they played an old clip of Elvis introducing himself at a concert appearance at the International Hotel (think that is right? anyway a Vegas hotel) to the audience as "hello, I'm Fats Domino", which received some laughter.  I figured perhaps Fats was in the audience....kinda eerie to hear the next day that he had passed on....I think "Walkin' to New Orleans" was my favorite....

Yeah, the International. It later beacme the Hilton, I believe around 1971.
Fats and Elvis were friendly. There's a recording from 1970 of Elvis introducing Fats to the audience and mentioning how many gold records Fats had. From time to time he introduced himself as other people, including Fats.

(http://www.fatsonline.nl/fats_elvis.jpg)
ca. 1963
I think this was a picture that was very dear to Fats. I remember after Katrina he bemoaned his grand piano and a picture of himself and Elvis getting destroyed.


(https://www.americanbluesscene.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Fats-Domino-and-Elvis.jpg)

(https://phillipkay.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/4-fats-and-elvis.jpg)

The last two come from Presley's press conference after his very first show after his movie phase, in 1969. So it seems that Fats was part of the invitation-only audience.

Great pictures, Rocker. What a shame Fats lost that one (and the grand).

I wonder if Fats can be seen in that show...

I don't think it was filmed. Although there are rumours that TV station footage might exist.

I found it on youtube. Elvis in 1970 introducing Fats. After that Elvis' 1957 studio recording of "Blueberry hill" (it has it's charme but it sounds more like a impromptu version -  also this seems to be an alternate version and not the master take), and then Fats' recording of "Love me" with an live dedication to Elvis (I don't know where the live part comes from and if he also played "Love me" after that comment)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54sVT4CtmEM


And this:

Music legend Fats Domino turns 88 remembering Elvis Presley

https://www.axs.com/news/music-legend-fats-domino-turns-88-remembering-elvis-presley-77005








Here's the "Walkin' back to New Orleans" documentary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QB1tJXBfJg

I was waiting to see what Rolling Stone might do in memory of Fats, but unlike Chuck Berry, he didn't get the cover. I didn't even recognize the woman on the cover. Tom Petty's death got a lot more attention, but I guess that happens when you die young. Fats lived a long, full life, but hadn't been active musically in a long time. To the younger generations, he's either someone they're not familiar with, or someone they heard their parents or (gasp!) grandparents talk about.

Sad, but true. Yet, Fats Domino belongs on the “Mount Rushmore” of Rock and Roll and is one of the reasons a magazine like Rolling Stone even exists.

Absolutely.

Grammys 2018: Watch Gary Clark Jr., Jon Batiste Salute Chuck Berry, Fats Domino
Blues-rock artist, 'Late Show' bandleader cover "Ain't That a Shame," "Maybelline"

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/grammys-2018-watch-gary-clark-jr-jon-batiste-salute-chuck-berry-fats-domino-w515915

Very good! Did Chuck or Fats ever get a Grammy? I mean, other than a lifetime achievement thing?

I don't think so. It seems that the early Rock'n'Rollers' releases usually don't get much attention. Here's what I've found on youtube:

Chuck Berry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwf1UyYaDbM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqyo8kobAHQ

Thanks for those! Pretty cool to see him up there with 2 of his proteges.

Fats Domino: I’ve Been Around - The Complete Imperial and ABC Recordings (12-CD & DVD)


We could have taken the easy way out. The original 1993 box set was out of stock. We could simply have printed more copies and filled orders.

Of course, we didn’t. This is Bear Family Records and we don’t take shortcuts. We’ve invested more than 1000 hours in re-writing, recompiling and re-mastering this box. The brilliant engineering by Christian Zwarg will leave you shaking your head in admiration. You won’t quite recognize some of your favorite Fats Domino tracks because they’ve never sounded this good.
 
We’ve found a lot of new material – some things that were thought to be lost and other things that nobody knew existed. We have alternate takes that have never before been issued.  We’ve got new unedited and non-overdubbed versions of some familiar Fats songs and newly discovered overdubs of familiar songs. We’ve got the intact recording of Blueberry Hill without the tape glitch. We’ve got previously unreleased backing tracks. We’ve also included some examples of Fats working as a session pianist for other artists (including Joe Turner, Lloyd Price and Smiley Lewis) early in his career. And to show how influential Fats’s style was, we’ve included some examples of other performers imitating Fats during his Golden Era.

But the biggest news concerns the Speed-up. Everybody knows that some of Fats’s Imperial records were speeded up for release, making them both faster and pitched in higher keys. But how many of them? And which ones? And just how much were they speeded up? And, in case you wondered, how was it done back in 1955 and by whom? We didn’t have as good a handle on those questions when the original box set was compiled back in 1993, and we sure didn’t know the answers. But we do now. And we admit, back 25 years ago we screwed up some of the speeds on our original box. And when other companies tried to fix things with their Fats Domino reissues, they made their own mistakes and just added to the mess.

But now the mess is over. A lot of those 1000+ hours went into getting speeds exactly right so we can truly present Fats’s music as it was originally released. But what is completely new here is that we also present, for the first time anywhere, examples of Fats’s Greatest Hits as they were originally performed in the studio, at their original speeds and in their real keys. No speed-up. You can be a fly on the wall and hear songs like Ain’t It A Shame and I’m Walking as they actually sounded in Cosimo’s New Orleans studio. That addition alone makes this Box a landmark event.

A lot has also gone into updating and revising the accompanying, lavishly illustrated book by Fats biographer Rick Coleman, and by music historians Hank Davis and Scott Parker. That includes an updated Fats Domino Imperial Records Discography. And what’s more, we extended the Box to include two CDs with all of Fats post-Imperial recordings for the ABC Paramount label. Twelve CDs in all – an upgrade of 50% from the original box.

Even if you bought the first Bear Family box 25 years ago, Fats Domino: I’ve Been Around is a must for any serious Fats Domino collection. It’s not going to get any better than this.


https://www.bear-family.com/domino-fats-i-ve-been-around-the-complete-imperial-and-abc-recordings-12-cd-und-dvd.html?fbclid=IwAR1QodyyaMO5h3plIwJ50EDTv9b2dRVU-uz9QlpKw8AkMD6OZknAaNAFRPE

Fats Domino's final performance captured on new Tipitina's Record Club release
His show at Tipitina's in 2007 was originally chronicled in WLAE documentary


Fats Domino did not know he was making a record at Tipitina’s on May 19, 2007.

That night, the rock ‘n’ roll founding father was simply focused on getting through – or out of – what turned out to be his final performance.

Fifteen years later, and five years after his death at age 89, that historic night has been etched into custom-colored, 180-gram blue vinyl.

“Fats Domino: Live At Tipitina’s” is the latest release from the Tipitina’s Record Club, the subscription service launched by the members of Galactic – who also own Tipitina’s – during the pandemic.

The Record Club licensed the live recording from WLAE, the New Orleans public television station that taped Domino’s farewell performance for the award-winning 2008 documentary “Fats Domino: Walkin’ Back to New Orleans.” Narrated by actor John Goodman, “Walkin’ Back to New Orleans” aired on more than 300 PBS stations nationwide.


Now the music from that night is available on brilliant blue vinyl.

Every two months, Tipitina’s Record Club subscribers receive a new vinyl release. Some are previously unheard live recordings, often taped at Tipitina’s, such as archival recordings of the Radiators and Etta James. Others are lovingly restored reissues of hard-to-find New Orleans classics, such as the record club’s recent resurrection of sublime New Orleans rhythm & blues vocalist Johnny Adams’ “After All the Good Is Gone.”

A limited number of Tipitina’s Record Club releases are also available at local record stores.

“Fats Domino: Live At Tipitina’s” features a throwback front cover and a vintage back cover photo of a smiling Domino sporting a tuxedo. In the liner notes, Dirty Dozen Brass Band baritone saxophonist Roger Lewis, who spent more than 35 years in Domino’s band, shares anecdotes about life onstage and on the road with the New Orleans icon.

On the album, just as they did at the show itself, Domino and his band bang out 11 classics in barely 33 minutes. Side A opens with a spry “I’m Walking” and then revisit “Blueberry Hill,” Hello Josephine,” “I’m In Love Again,” “Blue Monday,” “I’m Ready” and “Ain’t That A Shame.”

Side B features “Shake, Rattle and Roll,” “Valley of Tears,” “Jambalaya” and a mash-up of “So Long” and “I Done Got Over It.”

Domino would never perform publicly again. It’s something of a minor miracle that he even performed that night.


Up until the very last minute, no one – not the show's organizers, the audience or even Fats himself – knew for certain if he would actually take the stage.

Shy by nature, Domino in his later years also became increasingly anxious about his ability to perform up to his exacting standards. That anxiety contributed to the last-minute cancellation of his closing set at the 2006 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the first Jazz Fest after Hurricane Katrina.


In the spring of 2007, he approached the late Roland von Kurnatowski, the businessman who owned Tipitina’s at the time, about performing a benefit for the club’s nonprofit. Members of the Tipitina’s team were hopeful and excited, if a bit wary.

The night of the show, Domino's refurbished classic Cadillac couch, salvaged from his flooded home, adorned the Tipitina's stage. The Professor Longhair banner above the stage and the Longhair bust near the door sported replicas of Domino’s signature captain's cap. Fans had flown in from as far away as New York and Washington, D.C.

Shortly after 9 p.m., Domino's brother-in-law, singer Reggie Hall, kicked off the show. Backstage, it was still touch-and-go as to whether or not an anxious Domino would play. Several close friends, including retired judge Steve Ellis and his wife Haydee, as well as WWL-TV morning show anchor Eric Paulsen, were on hand to lend emotional support.

At one point, Paulsen stood at the side of the stage alone with Domino, a reassuring arm around his shoulders.

“Once you get up there, it'll be like the old days,” Paulsen later recalled telling Domino. “You'll be fine. Start with ‘I’m Walkin’ and it will go from there."


To huge cheers, Domino settled in at the piano at 10:45 p.m. and launched “I’m Walkin’.” His band, featuring a five-man horn section anchored by Roger Lewis and Herb Hardesty – a Domino sideman since the 1940s – fell in behind him.


Whatever his phobias, when Domino was finally at the piano, he was transported to 1955. His voice was as sunny as ever, his playing strong and laden with trills and other sonic trademarks.

As he barreled through “Blueberry Hill,” “My Girl Josephine” and “I’m in Love Again,” he grew more confident. After each song, Reggie Hall whispered the next title in Domino's ear; without hesitation, Domino plunged in like a human jukebox. Perhaps sensing the historic moment, even Hardesty took a moment to snap a picture.

But after reeling off four songs in 10 minutes, Domino attempted to flee. Paulsen intercepted him at the side of the stage and gently explained that maybe he should play a few more. Paulsen suggested the first song that came to mind: “Blue Monday.”

So Domino returned to the piano and launched “Blue Monday.” He beamed as he leaned into the microphone at his side, rolling his shoulders as he worked the keys. Warmed up, he played hard, showing off, finishing “I'm Ready” with a flourish.


Throughout the set, Hardesty and Lewis stepped up for multiple solos on tenor and baritone sax, respectively. But the night centered on the short, stout man in the patterned cream-colored sport coat, shiny chocolate-brown shirt and glittering jewelry.

“So Long” segued into “Natural Born Lover,” a modest hit from 1960. He returned to "So Long, " with its prophetic farewell lyrics: "So long, I'm all packed up and on my way."

With that, Domino headed for the exit. He and the band had spent a little more than 30 minutes onstage – about the length of an old-school album.

Fifteen years later, that album exists, courtesy of WLAE and the Tipitina’s Record Club.




Source: https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/music/fats-dominos-last-show-subject-of-tipitinas-record-club-lp/article_39e78c9e-763a-11ed-9f23-8bfdfd223c06.html?fbclid=IwAR3Mxlz_HjYP4AFIdVnA57_jfOl5-cqkH1KW4BZK4jprjFydaXVf-43s_gI

I didn’t know about the 2018 Grammys tributes, the 2019 box set, or the new live album. Thanks to Rocker and all for sharing and commenting. The one thing I’m confused on: I thought the 1993 box set was released by EMI/Capitol and Imperial Records? The Bear Family Records team claims it here, though; did EMI/Capitol recruit the Bear Family team (or whatever lineup existed at that time) to compile the box? I just got a hold of a copy of the 1993 box set last year. Is it a “waste” now? And unfortunately, despite my best efforts to search for a copy of the new live album, they’re all gone.  :'(     The record club doesn’t have any, and the same is true of Discogs. I’ll have to keep periodically searching; I would love to have it.

Yeah, I'd love to have it, too. I do have his last studio album, Alive and Kickin', from 2006. Fats' music just had a great rhythm to it, it feels like breathing to me. Can't imagine my life without his music.