He was born of French Creole parentage on Februin New Orleans, a city he celebrated in songs such as Walking to New Orleans and where he lived the vast majority of his life. His life and his music brought together many different strands in American culture. In many ways Domino was a perfect crossover artist.
With its pulsating piano and irresistible riffing horns, the recording pointed the way forward to what would soon become known as rock and roll.īy the end of the decade Domino was the most commercially successful of all black pop stars, earning some $700,000 annually from live performances, record sales, publishing royalties (he wrote or co-wrote many of his recordings) and appearances in a string of rock and roll movies such as The Girl Can’t Help It, Jamboree and Shake, Rattle and Roll. In 1950, the portly Domino had enjoyed his first hit with The Fat Man, a rollicking, good-natured ode to his amorous powers penned by his long-time collaborator, band leader and producer, Dave Bartholomew. Thanks to Fats Domino and his fellow rock and rollers the integrated musical genie was out of the segregated bottle. Like other white southerners who opposed the spread of rock and roll music, the mob sensed that somehow this music – played by black and white musicians who drew on black rhythm and blues and white country and pop influences to craft a style that was adored by young black and white fans – represented a serious threat to the racial apartheid of the Jim Crow South.
After the show ended, an angry white crowd even pursued Domino and his fellow black performers back to the Dumas Hotel on Henry Street in the heart of Roanoke’s African-American community. The spectre of black and white youngsters defying southern segregation proved too much for some in the balcony, who began to hurl bottles down on the unexpectedly integrated scene below. Some white fans tried to escape the crush by going downstairs to the less densely packed main floor where, as incredulous local journalists noted, they were spotted sharing seats and “actually dancing” with black rock and roll enthusiasts as Domino ran through an already extensive catalogue of hit songs. On this occasion, African-American fans occupied the dance floor while 2,000 whites crammed into a balcony designed for about half that number. In keeping with the segregation laws of the day, whites and blacks were consigned to separate areas. On Domino was headlining a rhythm and blues show at the American Legion Auditorium in Roanoke, Virginia. Yet, in the mid-1950s, Domino was at the heart of a revolution that transformed western music and had profound social repercussions. With his beguiling smile, genial image and effervescent shuffle-boogie sound, it’s hard to think of him as radical figure in American culture. Rock'n'roll trailblazer Antoine “Fats” Domino has died, aged 89.
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