TIME MACHINE
APRIL 1955
…Fats Domino turns
shame to triumph
Crescent City Roller: bejewelled Mr Antoine Dominique ‘Fats’ Domino Jr mans the 88s; cover version chancer Pat Boone; Ain’t It A Shame, on wax.
Getty (5), Alamy
APRIL 14
At first, Dave Bartholomew wasn’t keen on Ain’t That A Shame – or Ain’t It A Shame, as it appeared on its original Imperial records label – as it seemed too simplistic. Nicknamed ‘Leather Lungs’ back when he was a jazz trumpeter in New Orleans, Bartholomew had been producing and arranging Louisiana pianist and singer Antoine ‘Fats’ Domino since his 1950 breakthrough, The Fat Man. That pounding single was a distorted back-and-forth rocker with a big bottom and rolling, bluesy keys. For all its driving beat, this new love-lost song was different, more delicate; more pop, even.
Maybe it was where they recorded it. Before, Fats’ songs had invariably been cut at home in New Orleans, at Cosimo Matassa’s J&M Recording Studio. A snug, direct-to-disc set-up, J&M was installed in the back of the family appliance store on Rampart Street on the edge of the French Quarter (famously, it later became a launderette). But on March 15, Fats had been gigging in Los Angeles at the 5-4 Ballroom, and his and Bartholomew’s new co-write was recorded at Master Recorders in Hollywood. Those accompanying on the date included new sax player Herbert Hardesty, guitarist Walter ‘Papoose’ Nelson, drummer Cornelius Coleman and bassist Billy Diamond, who was credited for giving Fats his nickname.