The music world is in mourning following the death of rock ’n’ roll pioneer Antoine “Fats” Domino Jr on Tuesday, at the age of 89.
The laidback crooner - who died from natural causes at his home in Harvey, Louisiana - was the youngest of eight children born to a musical family in New Orleans.
His father played the violin and he learned piano from a brother-in-law at the age of nine, PBS News Hour reports. A year later, says Rolling Stone magazine, he was “playing for pennies in honky-tonks like the Hideaway Club”, the New Orleans venue where he earned the nickname Fats.
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He went on to outsell every rock ’n’ roll artist in the 1950s with the exception of Elvis Presley, scoring hits with songs including Ain’t That a Shame, Blue Monday, I’m Walkin’ and Blueberry Hill.
Here are five little-known facts about Fats.
His first language was French
Domino’s parents were of French-Creole origin, and French was the first language he learned at home, the BBC says.
He left school at 14 to sing in clubs
Domino dropped out of school and did odd jobs including hauling ice by day while singing at local clubs at night. By 1949, he was earning $3 (£2.27) a week at the Hideaway Club when he was signed by Imperial Records, says the Entertainment Tonight website.
Domino influenced The Beatles
Paul McCartney was trying to write a “bluesy boogie-woogie thing” when he wrote Lady Madonna, the former Beatle said in a 1994 interview. “It reminded me of Fats Domino for some reason, so I started singing a Fats Domino impression,” said McCartney, according to The Independent. “It took my other voice to a very odd place.” Domino enjoyed Lady Madonna so much that he covered the song.
A teenaged Tommy Boyce wrote Domino’s Be My Guest
Tommy Boyce, who would later write songs for The Monkeys, was a teenager when he wrote Be My Guest, and waited for hours at a hotel where Domino was staying to present him with the demo. Domino liked it, recorded it and sold more than a million copies, The Independent says.
Domino lost his home in Hurricane Katrina
Domino was living in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, just a few blocks from his childhood home, when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. His home was severely flooded, and he was rescued from his second-floor balcony by boat, reports New Orleans newspaper The Times-Picayune.