US SINGER AND pianist Fats Domino has died aged 89.
The rock ‘n’ roll veteran was best known for his hits Blueberry Hill and Ain’t That a Shame, which became standards, and he sold more than 65 million records.
Domino, who was born in New Orleans in 1928, released his first album in 1949 and went on to become one of the most influential performers in the nascent genre in the 1950s and into the 60s.
He was named as number 25 in a Rolling Stone magazine list of the Top 100 Greatest Artists in 2010.
Dr John, another renowned New Orleans music figure, wrote the entry for Domino in that Rolling Stone list:
Even when Fats Domino did songs by somebody else, it was still Fats. He could really lock in with his band and play those hard-driving boogie shuffles — it was pre-funk stuff, and it was New Orleans, and he did it all his way.
Fats, Dr John wrote, was renowned for his marathon concerts, and loved to “work the house … and push the piano across the stage with his belly”.
Hurricane Katrina
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, and received a National Medal of the Arts from President George W Bush in 2006.
That was a replacement version of the medal – after his original one was lost in Hurricane Katrina.
His fate was initially unknown after the storm struck in August 2005 – and there were fears that the singer had died.
It turned out that he and his family were rescued by boat from his home, where he lost three pianos and dozens of gold and platinum records, along with other memorabilia.
More recently, he made a cameo appearance, aged 85, in Treme – the David Simon series focusing on New Orleans’ recovery from Katrina.
- With reporting from Associated Press
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