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The Origins of Rock 'n' Roll

Bob George

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Rock 'n' Roll, the start of a revolution, the origin of the popular music we listen to today. Where did it come from? Who did it come from? These a questions that have sparked much debate amongst music critics and rock historians. It recently cropped up in a thread about Chuck Berry. So I thought I'd give a bit of a history lesson on rock 'n' roll. This is not to be taken as a 100% accurate recount of the origins of rock 'n' roll. It is merely a compilation of what I've learnt, read and heard about the origins of rock 'n' roll and everything I present as fact in this thread is open for dispute. Let's get started...

The majority of the following information comes from a great website I found that you can go to being clicking here as well as a variety of other sources including text books I have kept from when I studied music and (cover your children's eyes) Wikipedia.

Say the phrase "rock 'n' roll" in mid 20th century America and people will think you're talking about sex. But say that phrase to a sailor, as far back as the 1600s, and he'll think you're talking about boats. "Rock and roll" was a nautical term used to describe the rock (fore and aft motion) and roll (sideways motion) of a ship. This was the term's only meaning up until the early 1900s when it cropped up in gospel music and took on a religious meaning. The first known recorded example of this comes from 1916, in a minstrel recording called "The Camp Meeting Jubilee". If you download the recording you will hear the lyrics:

We've been rockin' an' rolling in your arms
Rockin' and rolling in your arms
Rockin' and rolling in your arms
In the arms of Moses
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There were many other gospel songs with lyrics about "rock and roll". e.g. "Rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham," "Rock me Jesus," "Rock me in the cradle of Thy love," "Rock me Lord," "Rock Daniel," "I Call Jesus My Rock". Then around the 1930s, many secular artists cottoned on to the phrase but used it to describe dancing, sex or both. Some examples are:

"Rock It In Rhythm" Tampa Red (1938)
"Rock Me Daddy" Georgia White (1937)
"Rockin' In Rhythm" Duke Ellington (1928)
"Rock Me In The Groove" Sweet Georgia Brown (1941)
"Detroit Rocks" Montana Taylor (1929)
"Rock MeMama" Banjo Ikey Robinson (1929)
"Rock It For Me" Chick Webb w. Ella Fitzgerald (1938)
"Rock That Thing" Lil Johnson (1929)
"The Boogie Rocks" Albert Ammons (1944)
"Rockin, Rollin Mama" Buddy Jones (1939)
"Rocking & Rolling" Robinson's Knights Of Rest (1930)
"Rock, Aunt Dinah, Rock" Coot Grant (1925)
"Rock Me Mama" Big Joe Turner (1941)
"Rockin' And Swingin'" Don Albert (1936)
"I Want To Rock" Cab Calloway (1942)

Then, in 1947, Roy Brown did a rhythm & blues called "Good Rocking Tonight" that was a parody of gospel, where instead of rocking the Lord, he had church people like Deacon Jones and Elder Brown rocking in a secular manner. "Good Rocking Tonight" was the first time the gospel meaning of rocking (of souls) and the secular meaning (dance, sex) were fused together in the same song. The joke was taken from Louis Jordan's "Deacon Jones" of 1943, in which a Deacon was stealing money from the collection plate, getting drunk on the sacramental wine, and having sex with all the female congregants. Brown took the Deacon one step further and had him rocking. Even the opening line, "Have You Heard The News," is a parody of gospel, since the word "gospel" literally means "good news," which Roy Brown would have known because he grew up in church, where preachers are always talking about whether you have heard the news (about Jesus).

The record sold, but Brown's version did not have much of a rocking beat. Even though Brown used both meanings of "rocking" in the lyrics of the song, at this point there was still a wide chasm between gospel music and blues. Then along came Wynonie Harris. He caught on to the humour of Brown's version but decided to take it one step further and infuse a fast gospel back-beat with emphasis on the 2nd and 4th beats of the bar. You can listen to it, via a YouTube video, below:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=gXpxf8iTC3k

When Wynonie Harris' version of Good Rocking Tonight was cut in December of 1947 and hit the charts in 1948, it started a revolution. Although Harris wasn't the first to sing blues with a gospel beat, as others like Big Joe Turner had been doing this for years, it was Harris' record that started the "rocking" fad in blues and R&B in the late 40's. After Harris' record, there was a massive wave of rocking blues tunes, and every black singer had a rocking blues record out by the turn of the decade. It was a sweeping fad that changed R&B forever. "Rocking" was in, boogie woogie was out, and most R&B artists were trying to out-rock each other by making faster music, stronger emphasis on the off beats and a more solid, driving back-beat.

Now that the music had arrived, all it needed was a name. R&B was too broad a term because it was a category which basically included all forms of black music except jazz and gospel. Pretty much any music put out by a black artist was called R&B. But this music was new and revolutionary and therefore needed a new name. Although it's been disputed by rock historians, a Cleveland DJ named Alan Freed is often cited as being the first person to use the term "rock 'n' roll" in reference to this new style of music. He first started saying in 1951 and by 1953 the term had become widely used to describe this music with a strong back beat and racy lyrics.

It was also around this time (1951) that another important rock 'n' roll record came out. "Rocket 88" was recording by Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm but released under the name Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats. The reason this song is important to the evolution of rock 'n' roll is because it was the first to feature a distorted guitar. Something that would become a prominent feature of rock music in the 1960s. The distorted sound of the guitar was an accident. During their trip to Sam Phillip's studio in Memphis to record the song, the guitar amp was damaged in the back of the truck leaving a gash in the material that covered the front of it. When they got to the studio and plugged it in, the sound it produced was distorted because of the damage, but they decided they liked the sound anyway and stuck with it. You can listen to it, again via YouTube, below:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Gbfnh1oVTk0

However, even by 1953, when "rock 'n' roll" was a widely used term and nearly all R&B artists were getting into it, people outside of the club circuit, and outside of America didn't really know about it. That is until 1954 when some hit records came out of rock 'n' roll music. The biggest of which was Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" which was the first international rock 'n' roll hit single. Other prominent singles from around this time were Big Joe Turner's "Shake, Rattle & Roll" and Elvis Presley "That's All Right Mama". The latter of which was more of a rockabilly song; an off-shot of rock 'n' roll that emerged in the Southern states with more of a country influence.

By this time, rock 'n' roll is a worldwide phenomenon. There were TV shows that features rock 'n' roll music and dancing. There were rock 'n' roll singles all over the charts. By about 1956, it was well and truly set in stone. It continued it's prominence until the late 1950s. The fall of rock 'n' roll can probably be attributed to a few events. In December 1957, Elvis Presley received a draft notice and, in March 1958, was enrolled in the US Army. Therefore his recording and performing career was put on hold until 1960. In 1958, Little Richard, fearing his own damnation, abandoned rock 'n' roll and became a born again Christian. In wasn't until 1963 that he realised rock 'n' roll was not "the devil's music" and you can mix rock 'n' roll music with religious. Then in 1959, a plane carrying famous rock 'n' roll artists Richie Valens, the Big Bopper and Buddy Holly, crashed and killed all three. With Elvis serving in the Army, Little Richard serving God and the tragic death of three big names in rock 'n' roll, the style was soon taken over by more new and exciting music from the Motown label, the British Invasion etc.

In closing, as you can see the origins of rock 'n' roll are scattered, and there are many people who can take credit for creating this style of music. But we should just be thankful that this music was created, despite who created it, because without it we wouldn't have had the Beatles, the Stones, Motown music, our very own Michael Jackson, or any of the popular music that has come out in the last half a century.
 
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Thank you for this information. I don't know why tears welled up in my eyes. That article was fair and honest cause it did not seek to push any one man into prominece., Many people of colour are offended because we feel that the true originators are ignored and one man has been given prominence as if rock and roll revolved around him. Even this article suggested that RnR was international without Elvis which is true. In fact Elvis was more gospel than RnR. I actually bellieve that Elvis new he wasn't worthy of the title King, and that was why he was so unhappy. Anyway, thanks for this history.
 
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yeah elvis certainly doesnt deserve the title that was given to him by the media and the music industry :no: although im a fan of his music (i dont have the slightest interest in him as a person hence why i dont know much about him) i so much prefer his country and gospel songs over the rock 'n' roll ones. elvis in the middle and late '50s rocked. but he didnt revolutionize anything. he simply introduced the black music to the white america. that was basically all he did. he did have a unique style and way of singing though.
i have no interest in his music after 1969. to be frank i have a hard time even looking at him after 1969 or hearing his voice. :no:
 
Roxanne said:
yeah elvis certainly doesnt deserve the title that was given to him by the media and the music industry :no: although im a fan of his music (i dont have the slightest interest in him as a person hence why i dont know much about him) i so much prefer his country and gospel songs over the rock 'n' roll ones. elvis in the middle and late '50s rocked. but he didnt revolutionize anything. he simply introduced the black music to the white america. that was basically all he did. he did have a unique style and way of singing though.
i have no interest in his music after 1969. to be frank i have a hard time even looking at him after 1969 or hearing his voice. :no:
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Roxanne, the bit I highlighted isn't the truth either. Elvis did not introduce RnR to white ameicans. the music was already out there.Take a look at some of his contemporaries and see the audience they play to. They were already playing to white audience. The whole hype surrounding Elvis was because he was a white man playing the music of the black people. Same way everyone idolises Eminem because he raps, or Rod stewart because he sounded black. It was the same for Elvis. He was their Great White Hope. Same tyye of thing went on when the Jackson 5 were doing their thing, the Osmans were elevated and praises as though they were better. We can see the same thing happening with JT as the 'new Kop'. They want to act like he has achieved the same greatness as MJ. The 50's were a terrible time for black artist and it was not unusual for the racist system to wipe them from the history books and impose another. Now they behave as if Elvis was the only one doing it or he did it better than anyone else, which was not true.
About Elvis, I think he was better known for gospel music, which I liked very much.:)
 
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datsy i didnt mean that literally. folks already knew about rock 'n' roll but they wouldnt pay any attention to it. until elvis came. same with eminem. most white folks wouldnt listen to rap until eminem came.
 
Roxanne said:
datsy i didnt mean that literally. folks already knew about rock 'n' roll but they wouldnt pay any attention to it. until elvis came. same with eminem. most white folks wouldnt listen to rap until eminem came.
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I hear what you are saying Roxanne, but I do not think that is true either. Rock and roll was huge in America without Elvis and white people were enjoying it, He did not bring it to the people. That is media hype. What he did do was to bring a 'White face' to Rock and roll, that the MEDIA loved. They loved the fact that a white man was doing it, just like they love the fact that a 'white man' Eminem could rap. They would just as easily call Eminem the King of Rap, if they could get away with it. This is the point I am trying to bring home to you that his status was a media built one. He was great but he was more widely known for his religious music that rock and roll.:)
 
Dear Bob,
EXCELLENT topic..! I took a class in college called the History of Rock & Roll...I was certainly intrigued by its origins...gospel, blues, ect. Music became popular originally from the deep south back in the day of slavery times...

The very beginning of the Elvis era is technically what is called the Rockabilly era...later called Rock & Roll...

For any one that would like to research this topic further, Check out the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame website.
 
Great topic. :) I've always been interested in the history of Rock 'N Roll, it's intriguing how it's matured and developed over the years.
 
Datsymay said:
I hear what you are saying Roxanne, but I do not think that is true either. Rock and roll was huge in America without Elvis and white people were enjoying it, He did not bring it to the people. That is media hype. What he did do was to bring a 'White face' to Rock and roll, that the MEDIA loved. They loved the fact that a white man was doing it, just like they love the fact that a 'white man' Eminem could rap. They would just as easily call Eminem the King of Rap, if they could get away with it. This is the point I am trying to bring home to you that his status was a media built one. He was great but he was more widely known for his religious music that rock and roll.:)
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Well I do agree with Roxanne, in the 50's nobody (white teen) cared about R'nR until Elvis came up with it, only a few were interesting in Bill Haley i.e. Just because it was a black music/sound and there was a lot of racism on the radios/tv's/etc... Black people were good at Jazz ceremony's that's all, because of the "non violent atmosphere" unlike ROCK N ROLL, which was a thug music...it took Elvis (a white guy) to make R'N R an bearable attitude to get along with...

Concerning Eminem, no white guys have waited for him to get used to RAP/HIP HOP music. Remember Gangsta Rap in the 90's, the WestCoast/EastCoast war, I remember perfectly all white males and females screaming 2PAC in all campus in the US (UCLA, Phoenix, Berkeley and New York) even in Europe so much white girls in Paris used to listen Gangsta Rap at that time.
 
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Eminem has been mentioned a bit in the thread. I'm thinking maybe I should do an Origins of Hip Hop thread. But not now, when I get the time. The history of Hip Hop is just as interesting and subjective as the history of Rock 'n' Roll.
 
Actually the term "Rock N Roll" was slang for sex in the black neighborhoods. Alan Freed had nothing to do with it. Black music was called "race" music in the 1930s - early 1950s, not "R&B".
 
Alan Freed does seem to take too much credit for naming it as the genre. IMHO, the genre was already established when Roy Brown and Wynonnie Harris did their versions of "Good Rockin' Tonight".

Rock & roll was a slang term for f***ing. And original rock music was based around these ingredients:

1.) Drums
2.) Saxophone
3.) Piano
4.) Handclapped beats
5.) Jazz improvisation on guitar and bass
6.) Gospel-inspired vocals
7.) Usually sexed-up lyrics like "she wants to rock" or "rocking all night long"

The music of Brown, Harris, Ruth Brown, Hank Ballard & the Midnighters, Ike Turner, LaVern Baker, and Atlantic-era Ray Charles was rock 'n' roll in a traditional term of it.

People say Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters and some of the old blues greats influenced rock music but that's more of an oxymoron since they were literally just blues artists. Sure rock audiences in England adored blues musicians but they didn't provide the foundation of rock 'n' roll.

People sometimes forget about the first real era of rock music which started IMHO in 1947 and through 1956 was an exclusive black genre. In comparison to how white rockers emerged like Bill Haley is like comparing him to the Beastie Boys in hip-hop. By the time Elvis, Little Richard and Chuck Berry emerged, rock music was already here. Fats Domino was probably one of the CLOSEST people to be truly called "the father of rock" since his 1949 hit "The Fat Man" had a rhythm-and-blues/boogie-woogie/gospel feel to it and also New Orleans blues mixed in there.

Then again, the real father was Roy Brown, who didn't get appreciated for his legendary accomplishments until near the end of his life in 1982. Another "father" is also Louis Jordan, but they called his style "jump blues" thought that has been regarded as one of the influences of how rock music was developed which ironically was two years before Louis did "Saturday Night Fish Fry" in 1949. He was the king of "jukebox music". This was before R&B and rock 'n' roll were even thought of as genres.

Also rock & roll was yet another name to call rhythm and blues since the music wasn't as slow as BLUES was. And it had more upbeat material than the usually depressive blues material. Also some other blues records were too crude so rock 'n' roll was blues-light in a way but it was still rebellious and many blues purists were hating on it.

Elvis wasn't even the king of rockabilly much less the king of rock 'n' roll. Bill Haley and the Comets were and Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Vincent and the Everly Brothers were more connected to the growth of rockabilly than even Elvis was.

If Elvis was the king of anything, it was as the new king of pop in the mid-1950s since his albums and singles always topped the charts. Plus he had a cool James Dean-inspired image that made him seem thuggish but one that could cross over anyway without trying to be something else. He did rock, rockabilly, pop, gospel, R&B, blues and country, etc. Elvis himself felt them giving him the title "king of rock & roll" was some bullsh*t.

Plus rockabilly was a mixture of country music, boogie-woogie, blues and swing. This was something Chuck Berry picked up on when he did "Maybelline" in 1955. Bo Diddley's guitar riffs also was important to the rise of rockabilly. Chuck, Elvis and Bo had much to do with the development of sixties rock as did Little Richard.
 
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DuranDuran said:
Actually the term "Rock N Roll" was slang for sex in the black neighborhoods. Alan Freed had nothing to do with it. Black music was called "race" music in the 1930s - early 1950s, not "R&B".
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Jerry Wexler coined the name "rhythm and blues" in 1949 (next year will be the 60th anniversary of the name change).

But black music went through so many different definitions over the years it ain't even funny.

First it was "the devil's music" as defined by religious zealots, then it was "race music" as defined by whites, then it was "jungle music", then it was "jukebox music", now it's either "urban" or "R&B" or "contemporary R&B".

In fact Billboard called it different names too:

The Harlem Hit Parade - 1942-1945
Race Records - 1945-1949
Rhythm and Blues Records - 1949-1958
Hot R&B Sides - 1958-1963 (after 1963 until the beginning of 1965, the R&B chart was abandoned on Billboard because a lot of white acts were making R&B positions)
Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles - 1965-1969
Best Selling Soul Singles - 1969-1973 (this is the chart the Jackson 5 and Michael debuted on)
Hot Soul Singles - 1973-1982
Hot Black Singles - 1982-1990
Hot R&B Singles - 1990-1998
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks - 1998-2005 (this was when hip-hop's influence on current R&B was felt upon)
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs - 2005-present
 
Elvis patterned much of his vocal style from Jackie Wilson. Elvis has said many times that Jackie was one of his all time favorites. Off topic, Cissy Houston used to sing backup on some of Elvis' later stuff and Vegas shows. I wonder did he ever babysit Whitney, lol. Jermaine said that Elvis visited them when the Jackson family was playing Vegas and gave them some sort of speech/advice.
 
Actually he patterned his vocals not only from Jackie but also Roy Brown. Elvis learned his mannerisms from his dancing watching some black folks who moved more swiftly than he did but he had good moves. In many ways Elvis was the rockabilly equivalent of Roy Brown and Jackie Wilson and Sam Phillips knew that this kid who styled his hair in a wild pompadour 'do and wore clothing straight from Beale Street singing like a bluesman can make bucks and he was right. The only thing I hate is that Sam Phillips seemingly took too much credit for stuff he didn't really do. True, he founded the legendary Sun Records and molded everyone from Howlin' Wolf, Ike Turner, Muddy Waters, Rufus Thomas, Elvis and Jerry Lee but in many essence he was wrong on two ways:

1.) "Rocket 88" was far from "the first rock & roll" record though it was the first to use guitar distortion though it doesn't take away that it was influential to a lot of future rock artists like Chuck Berry and Little Richard, who said he learned how to play that memorable piano riff in "Good Golly Miss Molly" from Ike Turner's piano playing skills in "Rocket 88".

2.) Elvis wasn't the first white dude to do what he did. BUT he was one of the most successful to do what he did. Plus how can we say that Elvis "stole" when Bill Haley was doing the same thing three years before Elvis even came out with a successful record, plus Carl Perkins was the first artist to do "Blue Suede Shoes" and it was HIS version that became a simultaneous #1 recording (pop, R&B and country), Elvis' only peaked at #20 pop though they credit the song to Elvis, lol. When Elvis came, there was a good amount of white dudes that were selling good rock & roll music to white kids though it still was too dangerous for everyone to accept it.

IMHO, like Maxxx would say, Elvis came at the right time: television and films were starting to embrace rock acts (The Treniers, a popular black rock group in the 1950s, was the first rock act to appear on television; Bo Diddley was the first rock act, not to mention first black male musician, to perform on Ed Sullivan in 1955; Bill Haley & the Comets' "Rock Around the Clock" was the leading single for the film "Blackboard Jungle"), Little Richard and Chuck Berry had JUST broken to the mainstream with their hits. When Elvis finally hit the national pop charts (he already had five hits on the country charts in 1955) in 1956, he had a wisecrack manager that knew how to promote him as a brand in Col. Tom Parker, and plus since he was way handsomer and younger than Haley and not "dangerous" as Little Richard but still more controversial than Pat Boone, who you could probably say was the real "music stealer", that made him easy to get to where he got to. Plus he was in RCA Records and RCA at the time was the biggest musical company in the world.

So in many ways what made Elvis controversial in the mid-1950s worked in his favor not only because he was a pop singer but because he was finally the man to take Frank Sinatra down as the torch bearer of what became popular music in 1956. That's what made Elvis what he became. The myth around here is that people claim he had named himself the "king of rock & roll" to defend why Michael couldn't have possibly called him "the king of pop", which he didn't but still... but in truth Elvis HATED that nickname until he died. He didn't even like being called "The King" but much like Michael, he couldn't say anything so he went along with it, self-proclaimed, media-proclaimed or not. He became something of an enigma after 1956.

In fact Elvis would be the first to say that people LIKE Jackie, LIKE Roy Brown, LIKE Little Richard, LIKE Fats Domino, LIKE Chuck Berry, LIKE Louis Jordan, INSPIRED, INFLUENCED and SHAPED him. Plus he was also influenced by Nat Cole, Frank Sinatra, Hank Williams, Bill Haley, Ike Turner and Dean Martin among others. His catalog only shows how so far from rock music he really was, hell he even had a SOUL record out in 1969! I mean, the way people have created these long-standing myths doesn't really understand the true history of rock music and how one man cannot be credited for what was already molded by others in the past.

Also, people who often get mad about Elvis gotta understand that in 1956, musical racism was still apparent even as Richard and Chuck were breaking through. If I'm not mistaken, wasn't it Col. Tom Parker who named Elvis "the king of rock 'n' roll" though he didn't particularly LIKE rock 'n' roll? Obviously if Tom Parker was the reason why the myths were created around Elvis, wouldn't that explain the way this media has been blinded by wrong facts and lies?

Plus rock 'n' roll evolved into different sounds after the dawn of the 1950s: doo-wop, rockabilly, soul, Motown, Brill Building, British invasion, blues rock, acid rock, folk rock, country rock, psychedelic rock/soul, fusion music, funk, disco, techno, electronica, punk, new wave, heavy metal, alternative, grunge, industrial, nu-metal, neo-soul, emo, etc.

It's hard to say who was the one man who molded ROCK & ROLL music but its origins do go back as far back as the beginning of time before it became a music genre. This is when things get confusing because the media NAMES the music and then we get boxed in and say they're the king of this or they're the king of that, or they're the queen of this, or they're the queen of that and obviously it's b.s.

This is why we still have arguments about who really influenced anybody because everyone is so quick to put someone down while picking someone up and embracing that person and anyone who was a pioneer in an art form gets overlooked because their story wasn't as volatile as the one they often credit. Rock music is a VERY diverse art form that is already over sixty years old, it just didn't start in Sun Records studios or in Chess Records studios or even in New Orleans where Little Richard recorded "Tutti Frutti", they were just popularized after the sound was finally embraced.

Plus early rock 'n' roll came Detroit, New Orleans, Los Angeles, New York and other places. Atlantic had early rock before RCA or even Sun did. Some other labels like Modern also had early rock. You just have to listen to the records to know what I'm talking about but it wasn't a full Southern thing that exploded either. Just like hip-hop wasn't just founded by a deejay in New York. The actual first hip-hop record, be as it may, was actually recorded by a FUNK GROUP from L.A. (Fatback Band). Rap music has evolved since 1947 also when Louis Jordan had two songs where he did nothing but talk to the music.

It's gotta start from somewhere or multiple places or multiple people, I just hate how people always take credit without realizing how factually wrong they are.
 
off topic- troubleman is there ANYthing about music that u dont know ? :lol:
ur like a music cyclopedia in motion lol :p
 
Elvis

Datsymay said:
Elvis did not introduce RnR to white ameicans.
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He sort of did in a way. Before him it was basically considered "jungle bunny" or "race" music by whites in the US the same way ragtime and jazz was before it. Jazz wasn't really accepted by whites in general until Benny Goodman came along and was named "King Of Swing". The mainstream radio stations would play cleaned up Pat Boone covers of Little Richard songs. But the underground stations would play the black performers and the "hip" white teens would seek out these low powered stations and buy the records. Many of the older whites didn't like Elvis, because was 'corrupting the youth', and he was thought of as hillbilly white trash, as far as "cultured" Americans were concerned. However, Elvis could be shown on TV (at least from the waist up, lol), when a Sam Cooke was less likely to be shown. But Sam was just as popular as Elvis for a time as far as hit records go, but he couldn't get the same kind of bookings or publicity and mainly did the Chitlin' Circuit shows.
 
Datsymay said:
Same way everyone idolises Eminem because he raps.
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Run DMC 1st popularized rap to mainstream America. The Beastie Boys, who were white, were popular way before Eminem came along. There were also others like 3rd Bass, and even Vanilla Ice & Marky Mark.
 
Rock 'n' Roll Britannia {2013}

This is a documentary about early rock n roll in Britain
 
By David Browne | October 25, 2017 | Rolling Stone
fats-43712b3a-fbe9-4093-a402-10d6d12b1549.jpg

Fats Domino, the genial, good-natured symbol of the dawn of rock and roll and the voice and piano behind enduring hits like "Blueberry Hill" and "Ain’t That a Shame," died Tuesday at the age of 89. Mark Bone, chief investigator with the Jefferson Parish coroner’s office in Louisiana, confirmed his death to the Associated Press.

A contemporary of Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis, Domino was among the first acts inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and was reportedly only second to Presley in record sales thanks to a titanic string of 11 top 10 hits between 1955 and 1960.

Those hits, which also included "I’m Walkin,’" "Blue Monday" and "Walking to New Orleans," sounded like nothing that came before. Thanks to his New Orleans upbringing, Domino’s signature songs fused Dixieland rhythms, his charming, Creole-flecked voice, and his rolling-river piano style. His hits, most co-written with his longtime producer and partner Dave Bartholomew, became rock standards, covered by Led Zeppelin, Cheap Trick, Randy Newman, Ricky Nelson, and John Lennon, among many others. Lennon, who remade "Ain’t That a Shame" (first called "Ain’t It a Shame" on Domino’s recording) on his 1975 Rock & Roll album, said the song had special meaning for him: It was the first tune he ever learned to play, on a guitar bought for him by his late mother. "It was the first song I could accompany myself on," he said in 1975. "It has a lot of memories for me."

"After John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Fats Domino and his partner, Dave Bartholomew, were probably the greatest team of songwriters ever," Dr. John told Rolling Stone in 2004. "They always had a simple melody, a hip set of chord changes, and a cool groove. And their songs all had simple lyrics; that’s the key." Domino himself, who preferred to let his music rather than image do the talking, was typically modest about his accomplishments: "Everybody started callin' my music rock and roll," he once said, "but it wasn't anything but the same rhythm and blues I'd been playin' down in New Orleans."

Born in 1928, Antoine Domino was playing piano and performing in New Orleans honky tonks and bars by the time he was a teenager. At 14, he dropped out of high school, taking jobs like hauling ice and working at a bedspring factory as a way to supplement his music. Domino’s career was effectively kicked off at New Orleans Hideaway Club. While playing piano in local bandleader Billy Diamond’s band, Diamond nicknamed Antoine "Fats" — partly in homage to keyboard-playing predecessors like Fats Waller and partly because, as Diamond told one crowd, "I call him ‘Fats,’ ‘cause if he keeps eating, he’s going to be just as big!" Domino was initially hesitant about the nickname, but it stuck.

Later, at the same club, Domino met Bartholomew and Imperial Records head Lew Chudd, who signed Domino to his label. In 1949, Domino cut his first Imperial single, "The Fat Man," a rewrite of the drug-addiction song "Junker’s Blues" that many consider one of the earliest rock records. Although it didn’t make the top 40, it was a huge R&B hit and established Domino’s sound and image for decades to come.

From then on, Domino’s hits kept coming. He scored nine gold singles, although he never had a No. 1 record on the pop chart. (Frustratingly, Pat Boone’s vanilla remake of "Ain’t That a Shame" did go No. 1 in pop in 1955.) In his memoir, Chuck Berry wrote admiringly that, in 1955, Domino was making $10,000 a week on tour.

From the start of his career, Domino wasn’t a larger-than-life figure like Presley or Lewis. Married at 20, he was a notorious homebody who eventually had eight children (all of whose names began with the letter "A"). Asked by Rolling Stone in 2007 about riots that took place during early rock and roll shows that featured him and other acts, Domino simply replied, "I don’t know. It wasn’t anything in the music, so it must have been something in the audience."
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Fats Domino in 1973

Yet Domino’s influence was tangible. In 1968, Paul McCartney wrote the Beatles’ "Lady Madonna" with Domino in mind (Domino would cut his own version that same year). To ensure that bass guitars on his records could be heard above his rumbling piano, Bartholomew would double the bass and guitar parts — a technique later picked up on by Phil Spector for his Wall of Sound. Domino’s dexterous piano style, influenced by pioneering predecessors like Waller and Professor Longhair, also reverberated. "Anytime anybody plays a slow blues," Dr. John told Rolling Stone, "the piano player will eventually get to something like Fats. It was pre-funk stuff and it was New Orleans and he did it all his way. He could do piano rolls with both hands. He was like Thelonious Monk in that way."

In 1960, Domino released his last top 10 hit, "Walking to New Orleans." Soon after, he left Imperial and continued recording for a number of other labels. As with his 1950s peers, he scored few hits from that point on — but more due to changing times than from the scandals or army duty that derailed Presley and Lewis. As Rolling Stone writer Charles M. Young wrote about Domino’s less-than-dark side, "Offstage, he gambled a bit, had a thing for fancy cars and jewelry and was known to cook beans in his hotel room."

Domino continued to record and tour for decades after his initial success. In 2005, he was back in the news after his Lower Ninth Ward home was flooded to the roof during Hurricane Katrina. After initial reports that he was missing, Domino was eventually rescued and, with his wife Rosemary and one of their children, lifted into a boat. "I ain't missin' nothin’," Domino said after the rescue. "Just one thing that happened, I guess. I'm just sorry it happened to me and everybody else, you know?" In the storm, he lost most of his possessions, including almost all of his gold records.

As disastrous as it was, Katrina also gave Domino a renewed life. Alive and Kickin', a new album released a year after the storm, became one of his most acclaimed works (RS named it one of the top albums of the year). In 2007, he released Goin’ Home, an all-star Domino tribute album featuring covers by Elton John, Nell Young, Tom Petty, Robert Plant, Willie Nelson, Norah Jones, Lenny Kravitz, and Lucinda Williams.

Of his partner’s contributions to rock history, Bartholomew said Domino is "just like the cornerstone — you build a new church and you lay the cornerstone, and if the church burns down the cornerstone is still there."
 
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