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His career began with "The Fat Man" (1949, Imperial Records), credited by some as being
the first rock and roll record,
featuring a rolling piano and Domino doing wah-wah vocalizing. The record, a reworking of
"Junker's Blues" by Champion Jack Dupree, was a massive hit,
selling over a million copies and peaking at #2 on the Billboard
R&B Charts. To date Domino has sold in excess of 110 million
records.
Domino then released a series of hit songs with producer and co-writer Dave Bartholomew, saxophonist Alvin
"Red" Tyler and drummer Earl Palmer. Other notable and
long-standing musicians in Domino's band were saxophonists Reggie Houston, Lee Allen, and Fred
Kemp who was also Domino's trusted bandleader. Domino finally crossed into
the pop mainstream with "Ain't That a Shame" (1955) which hit the Top Ten, though Pat Boone characteristically hit #1 with a cover of the song. Domino
released an unprecedented series of 35 Top
40 singles, including "Whole Lotta Loving", "Blue Monday", and a funky
version of the old ballad "Blueberry Hill".
After he moved to ABC-Paramount in 1963,
the bottom fell out of Domino's recording career although he continued as a
popular live act. Though he remained active for decades, he only had one more
Top 40 hit, a cover of
the Beatles song "Lady Madonna," originally
written by John Lennon and
Paul McCartney to
emulate Domino's style.
In the 1980s, Domino decided he would
no longer leave New Orleans, having a comfortable income from royalties and a
dislike for touring, and claiming he could not get any food that he liked
anyplace else. His induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and an
invitation to perform at the White House failed to get Domino to make an
exception to this policy. He lives in a mansion in a predominantly working-class
9th Ward neighborhood, where he is
a familiar sight in his bright pink Cadillac. He makes yearly appearances
at the New Orleans Jazz &
Heritage Festival and other local events, with performances demonstrating
his undiminished talents.
When Hurricane
Katrina was approaching New
Orleans in August 2005, Domino chose to stay at home with his family, due to
his wife's poor health. His house was located in New Orleans’ 9th Ward, an area that was heavily
flooded. On September 1, Al
Embry, his agent, announced that he  had not heard from Domino since before
the hurricane had struck. Later that day, CNN
reported that he was rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter. His daughter, Gospel singer Karen Domino
White, identified him from a photo shown on CNN. The Domino family was then
taken to a Baton Rouge
shelter, after which they were picked up by and stayed in the apartment of JaMarcus Russell,
the starting quarterback of the Louisiana State University football team. The
Washington Post has reported that on Friday, September 2, the Dominos left
Russell's apartment.
His career has been produced and managed since the 1980s by multimedia
entertainment purveyor and music producer Robert G. Vernon. During Vernon's
tenure, Domino's earnings have increased 500%.
Since 1995, Vernon and Domino have been partners (with many other companies,
such as Dick Clark Productions) in the Bobkat
Music Trust. Bobkat Music is an entertainment group that manages the careers
(some posthumous) of Fats Domino, Elvis Presley, Paul Shaffer (keyboardist), Jerry Lee Lewis, Randy Pringle
(writer), and others. Bobkat Music is the official holder of rights (of record)
to "Fats Domino and Friends" (most watched special in Cinemax history, winner of
the ACE Award for "Cinemax Sessions"), not to mention the award-winning Fats
Domino TV commercial for Popeye's Chicken, and is headquartered in the San
Francisco East Bay area.
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fats_Domino#Biography
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