"The Fat Man" is a
rhythm and bluesRhythm and blues is the name given to a wide-ranging genre of popular music created by African Americans in the late 1940s and early 1950s...
song by
Fats DominoAntoine Dominique "Fats" Domino is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter.-Imperial Records era :...
, considered to be one of the
first rock and roll recordThere are many candidates for the title of the first rock and roll record, but it is arguable whether any such thing exists. As with all forms of music, the roots of "rock and roll" are deep and wide...
s.
The record was recorded for
Imperial Records- The independent and Liberty Records years :Imperial was famous for recordings of rhythm & blues and early rock & roll like Fats Domino and Ricky Nelson. Imperial was licensed to London Records in the UK. In 1960 Lew Chudd bought Aladdin Records...
in
Cosimo MatassaCosimo Matassa is an Italian-American recording engineer and studio owner responsible for many R&B and early rock and roll recordings....
's J&M studio on
Rampart StreetRampart Street is a historic avenue located in New Orleans, Louisiana.The upper end of the street is in the New Orleans Central Business District...
in
New Orleans, LouisianaNew Orleans is a major U.S. port and the largest city in the state of Louisiana. New Orleans is the center of the New Orleans Metropolitan Area, the largest metro area in the state....
on Saturday, 10 December, 1949. Imperial's Lew Chudd had previously asked
Dave BartholomewDave Bartholomew is a musician, band leader, composer, and arranger, prominent in the music of New Orleans throughout the second half of the 20th century.-Overview:...
to show him some locally popular talent, and was most impressed with Fats Domino, then playing at a working class dive in the 9th Ward of New Orleans.
Domino sang and played
pianoThe piano is a musical instrument which is played by means of a keyboard. Widely used in Western music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, along with
Earl PalmerEarl Cyril Palmer was an American drummer and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.Palmer played on many recording sessions, including Little Richard's first several albums and Tom Waits' 1978 album Blue Valentine...
on drums, Frank Fields on string bass, Ernest McLean on guitar, and sax players Herbert Hardesty, Clarence Hall, Joe Harris, and Alvin "Red" Tyler.
The tune is a variation on the traditional New Orleans tune, "Junker's Blues" number by Drive'em Down, which also provided the melody for
Lloyd PriceLloyd Price is an American vocalist. His first recording, "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" was a huge hit on Specialty Records in 1952, and although he continued to turn out records, none were as popular until several years later, when he refined the New Orleans beat and achieved a series of national hits...
's "
Lawdy Miss Clawdy"Lawdy Miss Clawdy" is a song by Lloyd Price. It was first recorded by Price at the New Orleans recording studio of Specialty Records in March of 1952. It was released under the Specialty label in April and was number one on the Billboard rhythm and blues chart for seven weeks and stayed on the...
," and
Professor LonghairProfessor Longhair was a New Orleans, Louisiana blues singer and pianist...
's "Tipitina." "The Fat Man" features Domino's piano with a distinct back beat that dominates both the lead and the rhythm section.
"The Fat Man" is a
rhythm and bluesRhythm and blues is the name given to a wide-ranging genre of popular music created by African Americans in the late 1940s and early 1950s...
song by
Fats DominoAntoine Dominique "Fats" Domino is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter.-Imperial Records era :...
, considered to be one of the
first rock and roll recordThere are many candidates for the title of the first rock and roll record, but it is arguable whether any such thing exists. As with all forms of music, the roots of "rock and roll" are deep and wide...
s.
The record was recorded for
Imperial Records- The independent and Liberty Records years :Imperial was famous for recordings of rhythm & blues and early rock & roll like Fats Domino and Ricky Nelson. Imperial was licensed to London Records in the UK. In 1960 Lew Chudd bought Aladdin Records...
in
Cosimo MatassaCosimo Matassa is an Italian-American recording engineer and studio owner responsible for many R&B and early rock and roll recordings....
's J&M studio on
Rampart StreetRampart Street is a historic avenue located in New Orleans, Louisiana.The upper end of the street is in the New Orleans Central Business District...
in
New Orleans, LouisianaNew Orleans is a major U.S. port and the largest city in the state of Louisiana. New Orleans is the center of the New Orleans Metropolitan Area, the largest metro area in the state....
on Saturday, 10 December, 1949. Imperial's Lew Chudd had previously asked
Dave BartholomewDave Bartholomew is a musician, band leader, composer, and arranger, prominent in the music of New Orleans throughout the second half of the 20th century.-Overview:...
to show him some locally popular talent, and was most impressed with Fats Domino, then playing at a working class dive in the 9th Ward of New Orleans.
Domino sang and played
pianoThe piano is a musical instrument which is played by means of a keyboard. Widely used in Western music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, along with
Earl PalmerEarl Cyril Palmer was an American drummer and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.Palmer played on many recording sessions, including Little Richard's first several albums and Tom Waits' 1978 album Blue Valentine...
on drums, Frank Fields on string bass, Ernest McLean on guitar, and sax players Herbert Hardesty, Clarence Hall, Joe Harris, and Alvin "Red" Tyler.
The tune is a variation on the traditional New Orleans tune, "Junker's Blues" number by Drive'em Down, which also provided the melody for
Lloyd PriceLloyd Price is an American vocalist. His first recording, "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" was a huge hit on Specialty Records in 1952, and although he continued to turn out records, none were as popular until several years later, when he refined the New Orleans beat and achieved a series of national hits...
's "
Lawdy Miss Clawdy"Lawdy Miss Clawdy" is a song by Lloyd Price. It was first recorded by Price at the New Orleans recording studio of Specialty Records in March of 1952. It was released under the Specialty label in April and was number one on the Billboard rhythm and blues chart for seven weeks and stayed on the...
," and
Professor LonghairProfessor Longhair was a New Orleans, Louisiana blues singer and pianist...
's "Tipitina." "The Fat Man" features Domino's piano with a distinct back beat that dominates both the lead and the rhythm section. Earl Palmer said it was the first time a drummer played nothing but back beat for recording, which he said he derived from a
DixielandDixieland music, sometimes referred to as Hot jazz or New Orleans jazz, is a style of jazz which developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century, and was spread to Chicago and New York City by New Orleans bands in the 1910s...
"out chorus." Domino also
scatsIn vocal jazz, scat singing is vocal improvisation with random vocables and syllables or without words at all. Scat singing gives singers the ability to sing improvised melodies and rhythms, to create the equivalent of an instrumental solo using their voice....
a pair of choruses in a distinctive
wah-wahWah-wah is an imitative word for the sound of altering the resonance of musical notes to extend expressiveness, sounding much like a human voice saying the syllable wah. The wah-wah effect is a spectral glide, a "modification of the vowel quality of a tone"...
falsetto, creating a variation on the lead similar to a muted Dixieland trumpet.
- They call, they call me the fat man
- ´Cause I weigh two hundred pounds:
- All the girls they love me
- ´Cause I know my way around
The lyrics refer to watching
CreoleLouisiana Creole refers to people of various racial backgrounds who are descended from the colonial French settlers, African-Americans, and Native Americans from the time before the Louisiana territory became a possession of the United States through the Louisiana Purchase .Historically, the term...
women at the intersection of
Rampart StreetRampart Street is a historic avenue located in New Orleans, Louisiana.The upper end of the street is in the New Orleans Central Business District...
and
Canal StreetCanal Street is a major thoroughfare in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana.Forming the up-river boundary of the city's oldest neighborhood, the French Quarter , it formed the dividing line between the older French/Spanish Colonial era city and the newer American sector, the Central Business...
, which at the time were the business centers of the city's African American and Caucasian population, respectively.
The record saw limited release a few weeks later, and was a local hit in New Orleans for Christmas 1949. It was Domino's debut single, the B-Side being "Detroit City Blues". Imperial advertising claimed it sold 10,000 copies in New Orleans in 10 days, and the record became a national hit in late January 1950.