I actually posted a piece on my blog about Fats on 16th March 2015. The December 1949 recording of The Fat Man is often cited as one of the very first rock and roll records. Check it out on YouTube. Musicologist Ned Domino said that this was rock and roll before anyone had heard those words and says that " Domino crossed a line by playing a stripped-down, more aggressive boogie woogie piano with a series of "piano-triplet-and-snare- backbeat hits".
The Independent's obituary also says: Beginning his music career in 1949, he teamed up with trumpet player and band leader Dave Bartholomew, who produced and co-wrote Domino's first record "The Fat Man" that same year. It was the first rock and roll record to sell over a million copies, and achieved a No.2 ranking on the R&B charts.
But watching last night on Sky Arts, Jon Cleary said that "The Fat Man" was almost identical to "Junker's Blues" recorded by Champion Jack Dupree in 1940. And it is. What Fats Domino did was to blend boogie woogie and rhythm and blues with his own style and "bam!", rock and roll was born.
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