Fats Domino

Fats Domino married Rosemary Hall in 1947 and the couple was happily married until her death in 2008. They had eight children. Even after his commercial success, he lived in his old neighborhood for a long time.

As Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in August 2005, he chose to stay in his house with his family as his wife was very ill. His house was heavily flooded and he was rumored to have died in the hurricane. Someone even wrote the message ‘RIP Fats’ on the walls of his house, and his house was vandalized. However, the rumors were unfounded as a Coast Guard helicopter had rescued him and his family. In January 2006, his home was renovated.

During his career, four major riots occurred at his concerts—one was on November 2, 1956, at the concert in Fayetteville, North Carolina. While police used tear gas to control the unruly crowd, Domino had to jump out of a window and was slightly injured.

Antoine Domino Jr was born on February 26, 1928, to Antoine Caliste Domino and Marie-Donatille Gros. His father worked as part-time violinist at a racetrack. He had seven siblings, all older to him. He grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was of French Creole descent.

He initially attended the Louis B. Macarty School but dropped out after the fourth grade. He did a number of odd jobs to earn money.

When he was a young boy, his brother-in-law Harrison Verret taught him to play the piano and introduced him to the New Orleans music scene. Fats Domino started performing as a singer and pianist at the age of ten, and when he was 14, he started performing in bars.

In 1949, Fats Domino signed a contract with Imperial Records and was paid based on the sales of records. He co-wrote his first song ‘The Fat Man’ with producer Dave Bartholomew. The song was an immediate hit. Motivated by the success, he released several more hit songs with Bartholomew.

His first pop ‘Ain't That a Shame’ reached the Top Ten Billboard pop singles chart in July 1955. The cover version of the song by Pat Boone reached number 1. In his career, he had 37 Top 40 singles, but none could make it to the top of the Pop chart. By that time he also started earning $10,000 a week.

In November 1955, his debut album ‘Carry On Rockin’ was released; it included his hit songs and some tracks that were not yet released as singles. The album was reissued as ‘Rock and Rollin' with Fats Domino’ in 1956 and reached No. 17 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart. In 1956, his recording of ‘Blueberry Hill’ became a smashing hit.

Between 1956 and 1959, he had several hit singles including ‘I'm Walkin’, which reached No. 4 on the pop chart, ‘Valley of Tears’ and ‘I Want to Walk You Home’, both of which reached No. 8, ‘It's You I Love’ and ‘Whole Lotta Loving’, both of which reached No. 6, and ‘Be My Guest’, which reached No. 8 on the pop chart.

In 1956, he was cast in two films—‘Shake, Rattle & Rock!’ and ‘The Girl Can't Help It’. His hit song, ‘The Big Beat,’ was included in Dick Clark's 1957 film, ‘American Bandstand’.

Fats Domino’s song ‘Ain't That a Shame’ peaked at No.1 on the Billboard R&B chart. It eventually sold a million copies and was later included in Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.

His song ‘Blueberry Hill’, which sold more than 5 million copies worldwide, reached the No. 1 spot on the R&B chart and remained there for 11 weeks. It also reached the No. 2 position on the Billboard Juke Box chart and stayed there for two weeks.