26 February: Fats Domino

Fats Domino was born on this date in 1928. 10 things you might not know about him:

1. Fats Domino was born in New Orleans and was given the name Antoine Domino Jr. His family was of French Creole background, and Louisiana Creole was his first language.

2. Domino learned to play the Piano in about 1938, taught by his brother-in-law, the Jazz guitarist Harrison Verrett.

3. He left school at 14. Sources differ as to whether his first job was as an assistant to an ice cream man or working in a bedspring factory! Either way, he was playing in bars in the evenings.

4. When he was 19, he offered to play at a Barbecue held by his sister at her house. One of the guests was a band leader called Billy Diamond, who offered Domino a job on the spot. It was Diamond who gave him the nickname “Fats”, partly after pianists Fats Waller and Fats Pichon, but also because he ate a lot.

5. His first hit song was called The Fat Man, and is cited as the first rock and roll single and the first to sell more than 1 million copies.

6. His biggest hit was Blueberry Hill with five million copies sold. However, it was almost never released. Producer Dave Bartholomew didn't believe it was Fats' style and also thought it had already been recorded too many times. It was taking too long to record, he thought, and wanted to scrap it altogether. However, Imperial boss Chudd disagreed. He had Bunny Robyn, the sound technician, piece together a final version from the many takes they’d recorded, and released it in 1956 as a B-side to Honey Chile. In no time, it had reached number one.

7. When Domino appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956, his band were hidden behind a curtain and they were only allowed to perform one song, thanks to racism (“we can’t have too many black faces on TV, you know”) and prejudice against the style of music. Nevertheless, Blueberry Hill sold a million copies the day after Fats appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. The following year, Perry Como had Fats and his band on his show and this time, he performed more than one song with his band on stage with him.

8. Fats Domino had eight children and all their names began with the letter A – Antoine III, Anatole, Andre, Antonio, Antoinette, Andrea, Anola, and Adonica.

9. When he was 77, he lost everything to Hurricane Katrina. He’d chosen not to evacuate because his wife, Rosemary, was in poor health.

10. Domino died on October 24, 2017, at his home in Harvey, Louisiana, at the age of 89, from natural causes.