Fats Domino: Remembering a Rock and Roll Pioneer

Fats Domino lands near the top of the list in any debate about who invented rock and roll, but in reality, the great pianist and singer’s work demonstrates the futility of searching for a single creator or moment of genesis. Domino, who died Tuesday at 89, was one of the musicians who came from the jazz and blues tradition, added a slightly harder beat and feel to their music, and produced the sound that conquered the world.

Take Domino’s first record, the 1949 cut “.” The 21-year-old Domino took the classic piano blues “” and turned the rolling surge of Champion Jack Dupree’s 1940 version into a full-fledged boogie-woogie gale, adding his own new words. (As his nickname and the song’s lyrics imply, Domino had no hesitations about poking fun at his notable girth, also jokingthathe was as wide as he was tall.) Domino didn’t write the tune, a standard in his hometown of New Orleans. Nor was he the only one to adapt it: Professor Longhair’s “” and Lloyd Price’s “” are siblings, but he beat them to it, and recognized how hard he could make the track rock. Then he added in a touch that remains strikingly weird even today—a vocalized “wah-wah” solo that mimicked the harmonica solos of Delta and Chicago blues.