Fats Is As Fats Does...
David Wayne | Santee, CA United States | 04/28/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"After a legendary 12-year career at Imperial Records, during which he sold an estimated 50 million records, Fats Domino moved to ABC-Paramount (receiving a $1 million bonus to sign). He also moved his recording base from his home in New Orleans to Nashville. Other than that, it was business as usual for Fats Domino. Fats was a great singer and player of Blues, who was drafted into the whole Rock and Roll trend, profitting greatly from it. He sang the Blues throughout his Imperial tenure, and he continued singing the Blues at Paramount. This is an all-inclusive look at Fats doing what Fats does, featuring 59 tracks from The Fat Man's singles and four albums from 1961 to 1964 at Paramount. If you are a big fan of Fats Domino, as I am, you will love this material. It's nothing more than a continuation of what Fats had always done, with new songs like "When I'm Walkin'" and "There Goes My Heart Again" and reinterpretations of classic standards like "Red Sails In The Sunset," which was the biggest hit of his post-Imperial output. Why did so many of these singles not become major hits, as Fats enjoyed in the 50's? Musical tastes were changing. Fats stayed the same. Just as some album cuts of his that appeared in the late 50s, had been recorded almost a decade earlier, so too did Fats release songs during the 60s that would have been hits in earlier times. Fats still had his voice (and he does to this day), good material, and a love for singing and playing. WE were the ones who changed. His albums still sold decently, but Fat's ABC contract lapsed just as the British Invasion was changing the face of American pop. The fans wanted The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and their ilk. Fats Domino, still playing the kind of Blues he was playing when he made his first record in 1949 ("The Fat Man," a newer version of which is featured here), became a well-loved and highly successful star on the Rock and Roll Revival circuit."
Track Listings (59) - Disc #1