Fats Domino – Walking To New Orleans

Antoine “Fats” Domino is among the most understated and underrated great musicians and performers who emerged during the era of vintage R&B and rock ‘n’ roll. Domino had a pleasing, if limited, voice, and his piano technique relied heavily on triplets, two-handed fills, and elements of boogie-woogie. His delivery occasionally also revealed in his enunciation the influence of a Creole patois, even though Domino’s primary language is English, not French. Yet he recorded a host of unforgettable, exuberantly delivered, epic singles that remain among the most delightful and memorable songs issued from the Crescent City.

Domino’s music wasn’t rowdy or rebellious, nor was he an experimental or probing lyricist offering mournful laments or challenging expositions on social injustice. Instead, Domino earned 23 gold records by largely confining his material to celebratory party tunes, suggestive or anticipatory stanzas, and dance/novelty cuts. Domino was greatly assisted by remarkably creative producer/trumpeter Dave Bartholomew and a dynamic band that included saxophonists Herbert Hardesty, Clarence Hall and Red Tyler, guitarist Ernest McLean, pianist Salvador Doucette, bassist Frank Fields, and drummer Earl Palmer.

Domino dabbled in numerous idioms including country, blues, pop, Cajun, jazz and gospel, though his forte was always rollicking, stomping R&B. There’s been a critical tendency to overemphasize that white artists such as Ricky Nelson and the Fontaine Sisters covered Domino selections, the implication being that Domino was another tragically exploited African-American performer languishing while faux rockers were thriving. But as this set repeatedly shows, Domino himself covered Hank Williams, Guy Lombardo, Bobby Mitchell, Bobby Charles, Louis Jordan and Smiley Lewis, and his great tunes weren’t always trumped by inferior pop versions. For example, both Domino’s and Nelson’s renditions of “I’m Walkin” peaked at #4 on the pop chart.

The new four-disc boxed set Walking To New Orleans qualifies as the finest sounding and most representative compilation of his prime compositions and performances. It covers material cut from 1949 to 1962 and is sequenced chronologically, reflecting the changes in production methods and material choices that affected Domino’s output.

The requisite hits are all here, among them “Ain’t That A Shame”, “Blue Monday”, “Whole Lotta Lovin'”, “Blueberry Hill”, “Walkin’ To New Orleans”, “My Blue Heaven”, “The Fat Man”, “I’m Walkin'”, and “Jambalaya (On The Bayou)”. But these discs are equally rewarding for the rarities and oddities among the 100 featured items. There’s the bombastic “Swanee River Hop”, Hoss Allen’s featured theme song for many years on WLAC-AM. Domino nicely managed to squeeze several measures of rippling left-hand phrases and right-hand accompaniment into a 2:46 number. It also includes songs that were featured in the four rock movies Domino made cameo appearances in during 1956 and 1957, most notably the theme for The Big Beat.

Domino (and Bartholomew) also skillfully adapted seemingly unsuitable songs. “I Can’t Go On (Rosalie)”, for example, was a country tune recast as an R&B frolic, and “What’s The Reason I’m Not Pleasing You” was turned from a 1930 swing/pop hit for Guy Lombardo & Jimmy Dorsey into a shuffle smash for Domino. Likewise, his monster reworking of Hank Williams’ “Jambalaya” reflected Domino’s passion for other Williams classics such as “You Win Again” and “Your Cheatin’ Heart”, though the latter lacks the verve or singular edge of “Jambalaya” and seems more a calculated effort to mimic Ray Charles’ early-’60s success at adapting country hits.

Still, most of the compositions on Walking To New Orleans have a vocal freshness and musical vitality equaled only by a handful of American music pioneers. Elvis Presley was the lone artist to sell more records during the ’50s than Fats Domino, and this invaluable reissue sonically reaffirms why Domino rose to that level.