Fats Domino - My Blue Heaven: The Best of Fats Domino

"They call me the fat man..."

It's hard to find fault with the music of Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino. He was a great performer bar none, a man who dripped entertainment and emotion from every pore. He was a great singer, blessed with a hypnotic rumble of a voice. His vocals rang with soul and charisma and enthusiasm. He was a gifted pianist too, with an obvious knack for rolling, spacious melodies that packed a healthy dose of r&b grit and raw soul. If you're trying to fill in a stylistic timeline, jot him down in some euphoric niche between New Orleans r&b and early rock `n' roll. He excelled at combining the melody of the former with the rhythms of the latter (inasmuch as the two could be said to have differing melodies or rhythms).

All of which is to say, if you care at all about good, gutsy music, you should have some Fats in your collection. This disc is a damn good place to start. It features a lot of his best and most beloved songs, form the gritty majesty of the tile track to the gospel stomp of "Blue Monday" to the rolling grace of "Blueberry Hill" to the seductive party stomp of "The Big Beat" to the funky awesomeness of "Let The Four Winds Blow." Excellent sound quality, too, crisp and clear.

You'll want to get other stuff, too. Maybe a few of the twofer reissues of his proper LPs. But that's for later. Right now, just get this disc and enjoy. It's easy. May 17, 2008

A good compilation but his style can get monotonous

All the Fats hits I can recall and then some. Only problem can be that his style of performing can get monotonous; I would recommend keeping it for the ones you really like and don't overplay the CD--set the CD to play the tracks you really like and skip the ones you don't. After checking all the other offerings out there, I felt this was the best collection of his hits. April 21, 2008

One of New Orleans' More Engaging Exports

"My Blue Heaven - The Best of Fats Domino," EMI Imperial, 1990, is a good, thorough compilation of all the 1950's hits, on Imperial, that made the piano-playing Domino famous. And a few more seminal bits and pieces, too: the Cd's got 20 cuts in all. It's also a solid illustration of what makes Domino one of New Orleans' (his home town's), most engaging, entertaining exports.

The cuts included here, like all Domino's work for Imperial, were produced by his close, long-term friend Dave Bartholomew, and what a stroke of luck that proved for the musician. Domino and Bartholomew also wrote many of the biggest hits together: I expect those royalties have added up to quite a mountain of Carnival gewgaws over the years. Seems like Domino got in on the ground floor, when Bartholomew and Lew Chudd, owner of Imperial, joined forces, and went looking for exciting new acts around the Big Easy. They found the barely twenty year old Domino playing a local club, utilizing a half-forgotten old-style of pianism, what they called locally jailhouse blues. Nobody else was doing it - Bartholomew and Chudd were blown away. The trio cut their first single, "The Fat Man," in 1950, and, for several years thereafter, Domino's work languished in rhythm and blues. But times were changing, and Domino crossed over into rock and roll with "Ain't It A Shame," in 1955. If you were around at the time, you'll know that the white singer Pat Boone quickly covered it, as "Ain't That a Shame," and had a pretty big hit with it, too. But Domino and Bartholomew were getting the royalties, even so, and were able to cry all the way to the bank.

Many more hits followed, several of them covered by white performers at the time. But the hits live to this day, alive on the radio and in our hearts, in Domino's smooth stylings. Every one of them is in this compilation: the title song, of course, and "I'm In Love Again,""When My Dreamboat Comes Home,""Blueberry Hill, "Blue Monday,""I'm Walking," "Whole Lotta Loving,""I Want to Walk You Home," and "Walking to New Orleans."You have to say that these guys had a big hand in creating rock and roll, ribald, good time category.

Some years ago, I was lucky enough to see Domino in person, in Las Vegas. He was good-humored, highly entertaining - and, perhaps he was inspired by the venue, but those diamond rings all over his piano-playing hands winked, flashed and sparkled in the limelight. He's definitely one of the more engaging exports to come out of New Orleans.


February 17, 2008

A Gem Out of New Orleans

Fats Domino is a true gem out of New Orleans. As I listen to this CD I savor the sounds that we may never hear coming out of New Orleans again. There is a feeling of sadness and longing as you listen to Fats sing Walking To New Orleans. August 14, 2006

When whippoorwills call

Elvis Presley once called Fats Domino "the real King of Rock and Roll". Listening to the evidence on this CD, one might be inclined to agree with him. These are songs that helped to define rock and roll (although a couple of them actually pre-date the rock and roll era). This is great stuff, and it's a good sampler of his best work (although he recorded many other great songs besides the 20 included here). The songs are presented in chronological order, except for the title song, which comes first. One might ask "why was this CD named after 'My Blue Heaven', which wasn't even one of his biggest hits?" Well, there was a movie with that title that came out around the same as this CD did. It starred Steve Martin and Rick Moranis, and it wasn't a very big hit either. Anyway, if you are looking for a single disk Fats Domino collection, this is a good one. February 27, 2004

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