Chart entered :
Chart peak : 34
There's a certain irony here that the beat boom cleared out someone that the Beatles greatly admired and would later honour on record. Fats had been the nearest thing to a cult artist in the early days of the chart, racking up a fair number of hits but only one of them went Top 10.
With some artists there's one clear cut moment where they made the wrong choice and their career never recovered as a result and so it is with Fats. In 1963 Lewis Chudd ,the owner of his label Imperial sold out to Liberty and Fats left in protest. He signed up with ABC Paramount but failed to safeguard his autonomy and found himself having to record in Nashville with new producers of the label's choosing ( Felton Jarvis and Bill Justis ) instead of his long term mucker Dave Bartholomew. Why Liberty wanted to change a winning formula I couldn't say but the results were catastrophic. This record was the only UK hit ( released through HMV ) and his last Top 40 single in the States.
The song was written by Hugh Williams and Jimmy Kennedy in 1935 and was previously recorded by Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, The Platters among others. Fats brings his own personality to the MOR standard - it could only be him- but it plods compared to his previous records and the piano is mixed down in favour of strings and a backing chorus.
"Just A Lonely Man" from February 1964 is one of his own songs and a decent one but the same reservations about Justis's arrangement apply. "Lazy Lady" ( 86 in the States ) is jaunty and silly with a perky Herb Alpert-esque trumpet pepping it up but the lyrics are real back of a fag packet stuff." If You Don't Know What Love Is" from May 1964 is something of a return to form; the vocal chorus is ditched in favour of strident brass and a bluesy harmonica and Fats sounds re-energised as a result. Unfortunately it wasn't a hit in the States either. "Mary Oh Mary" sees Fats moving away from boogie woogie altogether for a Junior Walker style brassy R & B number co-written with Big Al Downing. Fats acquits himself well but it did little business. The same combination wrote "Heartbreak Hill" ( 99 in the States ) , a loosely funky little number with an extended sax break
His first 1965 single was a version of the Depression era woman's blues song "Why Don't You Do Right ?" popularised by Peggy Lee. It's hard to fault it; the arrangement with heavy jazz horns is perfect and Fats's vocal is suitably downbeat. I guess it just didn't get the airplay because he was seen as old hat. HMV don't appear to have released his final single for ABC, "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" here.
He re-appeared in September 1965 on Mercury with a version of "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" which is pretty awful. Fats is no crooner and it's not even well recorded with a horrible trebly sound on the piano. I haven't heard his only other Mercury release " What's That You Got" which saw him reunite with Dave Bartholomew who wrote the song.
In 1967 ABC/ HMV put out one from the vaults, "I'm Livin, Right" an upbeat self-referential pop number. Liberty followed suit with "It Keeps Raining" much later covered by Bitty McLean.
Fats came up with a bona fide new single "Honest Papa's Love Their Mama's Better" on Reprise. It's a self-conscious reversion to his old boogie-woogie style not helped by a murky mix and a slurred vocal that almost sounds as if it's the wrong speed.
He then got a fillip from The Beatles who acknowledged that Lady Madonna ( probably the least-loved of their number ones but it got there ) was conceived as an answer song from a female point of view to his own hit "Blue Monday". Liberty promptly whacked out a double A-side of "Walking to New Orleans / Blueberry Hill" to try and take advantage of the renewed interest then in August Fats released his own cover of "Lady Madonna" which scraped to 100 in the US. He doesn't really do anything different with the song but you can hardly criticise him for that in the circumstances. He followed it up with a version of "Lovely Rita" in the States whilst here "What's That You Got" was re-released in a programme of "Revived 45s" agreed between Fontana, Philips and Mercury.
Fats's last single of the 1960s was his third Beatles cover "Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey", Lennon's cryptically sour response to criticism of him and Yoko. It's a strange choice of cover but Fats does it well enough and there's some great bass playing on the track. Reprise put out a couple more singles in the US but didn't bother releasing them here.
Fats kept a low profile for most of the seventies though there were a number of re-releases as his old labels sought to profit from the Rock n Roll revival. "Blueberry Hill" was actually a (minor) hit again in 1976. In 1978 he sneaked out a new single "Sleeping On The Job" on Sonet, a semi-comic country song about sexual inadequacy in the Dr Hook mould with a nice piano hook. It failed to get much attention but may have led to his getting a small part in Any Which Way You Can and a wildly incongruous country hit with the song "Whiskey Heaven" which bolts on pedal steel guitars to a trademark New Orleans blues and leaves me utterly confused. Perhaps it makes more sense in the film.
After that Fats semi- retired declaring that he no longer wished to perform outside New Orleans and declined an invitation to perform at the White House. He did tour Europe for three weeks in 1995 which is almost certainly going to stand as his last. In 2005 Fats refused to budge for Hurricane Katrina and at one point was thought to have perished when his home was washed out. In fact he had been airlifted out and received the dubious honour of a visit from Dubya while waiting to return home. In 2006 he missed his annual appearance at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival through ill health but did release an album "Alive And Kickin" for a charity helping local musicians. The tracks were recorded during the nineties and find the then sixty-something in good voice if not breaking any new ground. There are some synths in the mix but otherwise it's exactly what you'd expect. In 2007 he played a concert for the charity and that same year a live tribute album was recorded featuring Paul McCartney, Elton John and Neil Young. His last public appearance was a guest appearance ( at 84 ) in the post-hurricane drama series Treme playing the living legend Fats Domino.
With some artists there's one clear cut moment where they made the wrong choice and their career never recovered as a result and so it is with Fats. In 1963 Lewis Chudd ,the owner of his label Imperial sold out to Liberty and Fats left in protest. He signed up with ABC Paramount but failed to safeguard his autonomy and found himself having to record in Nashville with new producers of the label's choosing ( Felton Jarvis and Bill Justis ) instead of his long term mucker Dave Bartholomew. Why Liberty wanted to change a winning formula I couldn't say but the results were catastrophic. This record was the only UK hit ( released through HMV ) and his last Top 40 single in the States.
The song was written by Hugh Williams and Jimmy Kennedy in 1935 and was previously recorded by Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, The Platters among others. Fats brings his own personality to the MOR standard - it could only be him- but it plods compared to his previous records and the piano is mixed down in favour of strings and a backing chorus.
"Just A Lonely Man" from February 1964 is one of his own songs and a decent one but the same reservations about Justis's arrangement apply. "Lazy Lady" ( 86 in the States ) is jaunty and silly with a perky Herb Alpert-esque trumpet pepping it up but the lyrics are real back of a fag packet stuff." If You Don't Know What Love Is" from May 1964 is something of a return to form; the vocal chorus is ditched in favour of strident brass and a bluesy harmonica and Fats sounds re-energised as a result. Unfortunately it wasn't a hit in the States either. "Mary Oh Mary" sees Fats moving away from boogie woogie altogether for a Junior Walker style brassy R & B number co-written with Big Al Downing. Fats acquits himself well but it did little business. The same combination wrote "Heartbreak Hill" ( 99 in the States ) , a loosely funky little number with an extended sax break
His first 1965 single was a version of the Depression era woman's blues song "Why Don't You Do Right ?" popularised by Peggy Lee. It's hard to fault it; the arrangement with heavy jazz horns is perfect and Fats's vocal is suitably downbeat. I guess it just didn't get the airplay because he was seen as old hat. HMV don't appear to have released his final single for ABC, "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" here.
He re-appeared in September 1965 on Mercury with a version of "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" which is pretty awful. Fats is no crooner and it's not even well recorded with a horrible trebly sound on the piano. I haven't heard his only other Mercury release " What's That You Got" which saw him reunite with Dave Bartholomew who wrote the song.
In 1967 ABC/ HMV put out one from the vaults, "I'm Livin, Right" an upbeat self-referential pop number. Liberty followed suit with "It Keeps Raining" much later covered by Bitty McLean.
Fats came up with a bona fide new single "Honest Papa's Love Their Mama's Better" on Reprise. It's a self-conscious reversion to his old boogie-woogie style not helped by a murky mix and a slurred vocal that almost sounds as if it's the wrong speed.
He then got a fillip from The Beatles who acknowledged that Lady Madonna ( probably the least-loved of their number ones but it got there ) was conceived as an answer song from a female point of view to his own hit "Blue Monday". Liberty promptly whacked out a double A-side of "Walking to New Orleans / Blueberry Hill" to try and take advantage of the renewed interest then in August Fats released his own cover of "Lady Madonna" which scraped to 100 in the US. He doesn't really do anything different with the song but you can hardly criticise him for that in the circumstances. He followed it up with a version of "Lovely Rita" in the States whilst here "What's That You Got" was re-released in a programme of "Revived 45s" agreed between Fontana, Philips and Mercury.
Fats's last single of the 1960s was his third Beatles cover "Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey", Lennon's cryptically sour response to criticism of him and Yoko. It's a strange choice of cover but Fats does it well enough and there's some great bass playing on the track. Reprise put out a couple more singles in the US but didn't bother releasing them here.
Fats kept a low profile for most of the seventies though there were a number of re-releases as his old labels sought to profit from the Rock n Roll revival. "Blueberry Hill" was actually a (minor) hit again in 1976. In 1978 he sneaked out a new single "Sleeping On The Job" on Sonet, a semi-comic country song about sexual inadequacy in the Dr Hook mould with a nice piano hook. It failed to get much attention but may have led to his getting a small part in Any Which Way You Can and a wildly incongruous country hit with the song "Whiskey Heaven" which bolts on pedal steel guitars to a trademark New Orleans blues and leaves me utterly confused. Perhaps it makes more sense in the film.
After that Fats semi- retired declaring that he no longer wished to perform outside New Orleans and declined an invitation to perform at the White House. He did tour Europe for three weeks in 1995 which is almost certainly going to stand as his last. In 2005 Fats refused to budge for Hurricane Katrina and at one point was thought to have perished when his home was washed out. In fact he had been airlifted out and received the dubious honour of a visit from Dubya while waiting to return home. In 2006 he missed his annual appearance at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival through ill health but did release an album "Alive And Kickin" for a charity helping local musicians. The tracks were recorded during the nineties and find the then sixty-something in good voice if not breaking any new ground. There are some synths in the mix but otherwise it's exactly what you'd expect. In 2007 he played a concert for the charity and that same year a live tribute album was recorded featuring Paul McCartney, Elton John and Neil Young. His last public appearance was a guest appearance ( at 84 ) in the post-hurricane drama series Treme playing the living legend Fats Domino.
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