Hello there! This is another entry in our blog series Tim’s Cover Story Goes to the Movies. In these posts, we review a rock and roll tune that features prominently in a film.

This week’s entry is Ain’t That A Shame. This is a great ‘roots’ rock ‘n roll song by Fats Domino that was featured in the 1956 movie Shake, Rattle & Rock! We will then discuss covers of that song by Pat Boone and Cheap Trick.  The tune has been covered by nearly 200 artists including The Four Seasons, Hank Williams, Jr. and Tanya Tucker.

Fats Domino and Ain’t That A Shame:

First, a confession. I have never seen the movie Shake Rattle and Rock!, and I have no real interest in seeing it. The main reason for this blog post is to pay tribute to the great Fats Domino, who passed away from natural causes on Oct. 24, 2017 at the age of 89.

I will also confess that for many years I did not appreciate the importance of Fats Domino in musical history. He was a major early star and his music helped jump-start the transition from R&B to rock music. Fats Domino had a significant influence on rhythm and blues, and was probably the leading exponent of New Orleans R&B music starting from 1950.

Antoine Domino was born in New Orleans in 1928, the youngest of eight children of a Louisiana Creole family.  Young Antoine dropped out of school after completing fourth grade, and he learned to play piano by copying songs from records. By age 14 he was already performing in bars in New Orleans.

One of Domino’s early employers nicknamed him ‘Fats.’ In part this referred to his playing style, that was reminiscent of stride pianist Fats Waller. But he also earned the monicker because of his prodigious appetite. Fats Domino was nearly cube-shaped: only 5 feet, 5 inches tall, he weighed in at well over 300 pounds.

In 1949, Fats signed a contract with Imperial Records. The contract was noteworthy, as Mr. Domino retained the rights to his music and received royalty payments. These became extremely valuable once rock and roll became a commercial powerhouse.

Fats Domino co-wrote a number of rock songs with his producer Dave Bartholomew. As early as 1950, Domino and Bartholomew wrote a song called The Fat Man. It quite likely was the first million-selling R&B record, and launched Domino onto a stellar career that lasted for decades.

Fats Domino’s next big hit was the 1955 release Ain’t That A Shame. The record was mistakenly titled Ain’t It A Shame (even though the song’s lyrics clearly include “ain’t that a shame”), so one can find the song listed under both titles.

Ain’t That A Shame are quite simple; they describe the reactions of a man who blames his unfaithful lover for his misery.

You made me cry
when you said, “goodbye”

[CHORUS] Ain’t that a shame?
my tears fell like rain.
Ain’t that a shame?
you’re the one to blame.

You broke my heart
When you said we’ll part
[CHORUS]

Ain’t That A Shame was the first of Domino’s songs to land in the top 10 on the Billboard pop charts. Fats Domino was a featured artist in the film Shake Rattle and Rock!, and Ain’t That A Shame was one of the songs he performed in that movie.

The movie Shake Rattle and Rock! was a 1956 rock ‘n roll film released by American International. The poster from that movie, featuring a photo of Fats Domino and his band, is shown above.

The plot of Shake Rattle and Rock! is iconic – it’s more or less identical to the plot of every rock ‘n roll film from the 50s. Gary Nelson (Touch Connors) is a disc jockey who is excited by the prospects of the new field of rock ‘n’ roll. He decides to open a dance club for teenagers that will feature rock music.

However, the parents of local youth attempt to ban rock music in their town, on the premise that rock ‘n roll is a breeding ground for juvenile delinquency. So Nelson puts on a show to demonstrate that rock music is exciting but relatively harmless. The musical headliners include Fats Domino, Joe Turner and Tommy Charles.

Here is Fats Domino performing Ain’t That A Shame in a clip from Shake Rattle and Rock!

Although Fats is simply lip-synching to the recording of his song, this is a valuable historical clip. As you can see, Fats Domino’s musical style is strongly influenced by boogie-woogie. His playing definitely brings to mind New Orleans stride piano, and his vocal performance comes straight out of R&B music.

Fats Domino’s music was typical of New Orleans ‘roots’ rock ‘n roll. The premier exponents of NOLA style were Cosimo Matassa, who produced several of Little Richard’s records, and Mr. Domino himself. Some of Little Richard’s records used his band The Upsetters, while on other records the instrumental parts were played by Matassa’s session musicians.

As is the case on this record, New Orleans rock ‘n roll was characterized primarily by piano and saxophone, as opposed to the guitar-dominated sounds of artists such as Buddy Holly and Elvis.

Since have already covered Fats Domino’s early career, we will now pause briefly to discuss some of the other musical stars of Shake Rattle and Rock!

Joe Turner was a Kansas City blues musician who is one of the claimants for the “first rock ‘n roll song.” In Turner’s case this was his 1954 blues song Shake, Rattle and Roll.  Turner had been a blues singer in the 30s, when he performed with Count Basie and also the Duke Ellington Revue. Then in 1951, Ahmet Ertegun signed him to his Atlantic Records label.

In 1954 Turner released Shake, Rattle and Roll, which was subsequently covered by both Bill Haley and Elvis Presley. By the way, Bill Haley eliminated a number of Turner’s more risqué verses in Shake, Rattle and Roll.

Tommy Charles, another of the musical artists in the film Shake Rattle and Rock! was a country-rock performer who looked promising back in 1956, but whose career never panned out.

After his singing career stalled, Charles returned to Birmingham, Alabama, where he became a successful radio DJ. Charles featured witty banter on his shows and introduced several comedy characters.

Unfortunately, Charles’ main claim to fame in later years was organizing a boycott of Beatles records following John Lennon’s 1966 comment that the band was “bigger than Jesus.” Charles urged his listeners to bring Beatles records and collectibles to his radio station, where they were fed through a wood chipper.

So, ten years after appearing in a movie where his character fought against prudes trying to ban rock music, Tommy Charles was leading protests by destroying Beatles records. Presumably the irony of this was lost on Mr. Charles.

Now back to Fats Domino. Over his career he landed an amazing 37 songs on the Billboard top 40 pop charts. Of his songs, 40 made it into the top 10 on the R&B charts. His most successful tune was the 1956 Blueberry Hill, which made it to #2 on the pop charts and #1 on the R&B listings.

Fats Domino’s hit records ended around 1964. This was partly because of the British Invasion, which few American artists were able to survive. In Domino’s case this was also because Fats left Imperial Records when they were sold in 1963.

However, Domino was an inspiration to an entire generation of rock musicians. The Beatles loved Fats; Ain’t That A Shame was the first rock song that John Lennon ever learned, and both Lennon and Paul McCartney made solo recordings of that song.

In 1959, Elvis Presley gave his first concert at the Las Vegas Hilton. Fats Domino was in the audience, and after the concert a reporter referred to Elvis by his nickname, “the King.”
Presley gestured toward Domino, who was taking in the scene. “No,” Presley said, “that’s the real king of rock and roll.”
This is worth remembering both because it highlights Domino’s standing among his peers, and because it demonstrates Elvis’ genuine appreciation and generosity towards those black musicians who paved the way for his success.

Fats Domino was one of the inaugural group of rock musicians who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. The following year, he was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

After 1995, Fats Domino became almost a recluse in New Orleans. He refused to leave the city because he claimed it was impossible to get the food he loved anywhere else.  So, in 1998 when President Bill Clinton gave Domino the National Medal of Arts, his daughter picked up the award on Fats’ behalf.

Domino did not even leave his house in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  He claimed that he stayed in his home to care for his wife Rosemary, who was in poor health. However, the flooding in that neighborhood was sufficiently severe that Fats and his wife were eventually air-lifted out of the area by helicopter.

After several years when he did not perform, Fats Domino made a surprise appearance at a 2009 concert to raise funds to rebuild schools and playgrounds that had been destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

Fat Man, you were a gigantic figure both physically and musically. You will be missed.

Pat Boone and Ain’t That A Shame:

We encountered Pat Boone earlier in our blog post on the Little Richard song Tutti Frutti. So here we will briefly review Pat Boone’s life and career.

Pat Boone surfaced in the mid-50s as an up-and-coming young musician from Nashville. While artists such as Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard were perceived as rebels, dangerous and frightening, Pat Boone was a throwback to your parents’ generation. He was marketed as a handsome, soothing, comfortable, wholesome crooner, and an outspoken icon of middle-class morality.

This was not just a marketing tool designed to sell records: it was pretty much an accurate description of Pat Boone’s character. Thus, music executives saw Pat Boone as the ideal white pop singer who could ‘cover’ songs released by “threatening” black performers.

Below is a photo of Pat Boone circa 1955, playing a ukelele.

Little Richard, one of the black artists whose songs were covered by Mr. Boone, brilliantly summarized the situation.
The white kids would have Pat Boone upon the dresser and me in the drawer ’cause they liked my version better, but the families didn’t want me because of the image that I was projecting.

Here is Pat Boone with his cover of Fats Domino’s Ain’t That A Shame.

This is just a one-minute clip of Pat Boone’s cover, but it shows off his talents. He has a beautiful singing voice, and he provides an energetic cover of the Fats Domino original.  However, in keeping with Boone’s white-bread mentality, he initially suggested changing the title of his version to Isn’t That a Shame (!)

Ain’t That A Shame was Pat Boone’s first song to hit #1 on the Billboard pop charts. Over the next couple of years, Boone produced covers of Tutti Frutti and Long Tall Sally by Little Richard, I Almost Lost My Mind by Ivory Joe Hunter, and I’ll Be Home by The Flamingos.

Although we may see the Pat Boone version as a rather pale and bland imitation of the original, Boone’s version reached many people who otherwise might never have heard the original.

Black artists whose songs were ‘covered’ by white singers had radically different responses. For example, Little Richard was seriously pissed off that the rights to his songs were being sold rather cheaply to artists like Pat Boone.

In fact, in the song Long Tall Sally, Little Richard deliberately sped up the lyrics in the line “he saw Mary comin’ and he ducked back in the alley.” The idea was to make it more difficult for artists like Pat Boone to ‘steal’ his song.

On the other hand, Fats Domino seemed quite happy that Pat Boone had covered one of his hits. During one of his concerts,
Domino invited Boone on stage, showed a big gold ring and said, “Pat Boone bought me this ring.”

Pat Boone enjoyed great commercial success in the late 50s, when he became a fixture on the Billboard pop charts. Although he started out with ‘covers’ of songs by black artists, Pat Boone continued on to have a long and distinguished career.

Like so many other artists of his day, Boone’s pop music career did not survive the British Invasion, at which time he turned to gospel and country music. He also hosted the highly successful TV show The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom and appeared in a number of movies.

Pat Boone took seriously his image as a righteous dude (“prude,” perhaps). He made headlines by refusing to kiss his co-star Shirley Jones in the 1957 film April Love.

More recently, he has stated that liberalism reminds him of cancer, with its “filthy black cells.” He has also assumed the mantle of strident anti-gay advocate that was previously identified with Anita Bryant.
On December 6, 2008 Boone wrote an article for WorldNetDaily wherein he drew analogies between recent gay rights protests and recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India. … In it, he asserted that marriage is a biblically ordained institution, which the government has no part in defining … He concluded by warning that unless they’re checked, the “hedonistic, irresponsible, blindly selfish goals and tactics of homegrown sexual jihadists will escalate into acts vile, violent and destructive.”

Although we are critical of Pat Boone and his world-view, in all fairness we should point out that he had a terrific voice and reportedly he genuinely admired rock music.

Pat Boone was the ideal performer to “clean up” rhythm and blues. By converting that rough and sensual music to a format acceptable to white middle-class tastes, he greatly increased the reach of R&B and rock ‘n roll in its early days.

Cheap Trick and Ain’t That A Shame:

Cheap Trick is a rock quartet that emerged from Rockford, Illinois in the mid-70s. In 1973, guitarist Rick Nielsen joined forces with three musicians from the greater Chicago area to form a rock quartet.

Below is a photo of Cheap Trick from 1977. From L: lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Robin Zander; drummer Bun E. Carlos; bassist Tom Petersson; lead guitarist Rick Nielsen.

The group spent a few years building up a regional reputation, and in 1976 they signed a contract with Epic Records. Their first few albums found little commercial success. However, for some reason Cheap Trick’s records became best-sellers in Japan. This is reminiscent of the parody movie This Is Spinal Tap, where the band’s reputation in the U.S. languishes, while they have a cult following in Japan.

In 1978, Cheap Trick embarked on a tour of Japan, where they encountered an effusive reception from frenzied local fans. The band performed two concerts at the Nippon Budokan. Selected songs from those two concerts were combined into a single album Cheap Trick at Budokan.

The original plan was to release the album only in Japan. However, bootleg copies of the album began selling like hotcakes, so in February 1979 Epic Records released it in the U.S. That album went triple platinum in the States, and two singles from that album made the top 40 in the Billboard pop charts.

The first single hit was I Want You To Want Me, which was a song from a prior Cheap Trick album that had flopped. The second song from the Budokan live album was the group’s cover of the Fats Domino song Ain’t That A Shame.

On the basis of this album, Cheap Trick became a world-renowned classic-rock band. Over the years the band released a number of albums and had some singles make the charts; however, they were best known for their live concerts.

Lead guitarist Rick Nielsen assembled a valuable collection of unusual and rare guitars, which he played at the group’s live shows. Robin Zander has a terrific, clear voice that is featured in the group’s hard-rock hits. And Bun E. Carlos alternates massive thumps on the bass drum with rapid-fire staccato bursts on the snare.

Here is Cheap Trick in 1980, in a live performance of Ain’t That A Shame. This is the version of the song that the group made famous in their 1979 album Cheap Trick at Budokan.

What a terrific cover! Here, Rick Nielsen appears with a Fender Stratocaster decorated with a black and white hounds-tooth check pattern that matches his trousers.

Drummer Bun E. Carlos begins with a heavy-duty drum introduction. Later in the tune he will throw in some machine-gun raps on his drum kit. Following an extended instrumental intro, lead singer Robin Zander steps in with his great classic-rock vocals.

Rick Nielsen combines excellent finger-work with slide guitar in his solos. His work reminds me somewhat of lead guitarist Angus Young from the band AC/DC. All of this produces a memorable hard-rock version of the Fats Domino classic song.

Well, Cheap Trick has continued producing records and touring for several decades. In 2007, the State of Illinois designated April 1 of each year as Cheap Trick Day, in honor of their local band.

The membership of Cheap Trick has been remarkably constant over the years. Bassist Tom Petersson left the group for about 6 years in the mid-80s but then returned.

In about 2010, Bun E. Carlos stopped touring with the band. Although the group  announced that he would continue to collaborate and contribute to recording sessions, in 2013 Carlos filed suit against his former mates, claiming that they had frozen him out of the band’s decisions.

The other members of Cheap Trick filed a counter-suit; eventually the group resolved their differences, although Carlos stopped touring and recording with the band.

After performing for over 40 years, Cheap Trick was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016. Every year the Hall of Fame holds an induction ceremony where all of the newly inducted members are invited to perform.

Cheap Trick performed a set of four numbers at the Hall of Fame concert. The original four members of Cheap Trick were inducted into the Hall, so it was a pleasure to see Bun E. Carlos once again drumming with the band.

The end of each year’s induction ceremony always ends with a big free-for-all number involving the inducted groups and additional musicians. So here is a video of the final performance at the 2016 Rock Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

This clip features Cheap Trick and other artists jamming to Ain’t That A Shame.

As you can see, this is a rowdy performance. While the members of Cheap Trick at least know the song (it was a perennial favorite in their concerts), the other musicians were not so fortunate.

The song features, among other artists, Steven Van Zandt, Sheryl Crow (whose mic doesn’t work), David Coverdale of Deep Purple, and Steve Miller. We also see the horn section of Chicago, who endeavor without success to make themselves heard. When one spots Paul Shaffer, one of the greatest session musicians and band organizers in history, desperately trying to follow the music, you know that this number was not rehearsed beforehand!

Well, this is all a hot mess – amateurish, terrible sound quality, ragged and shoddy guitar solos, the whole enchilada. On the other hand, we get an energetic jam from veteran musicians who are delighted that their body of work is finally being recognized by their peers and fans. That ain’t a shame!

Source Material:

Wikipedia, Ain’t That A Shame
Wikipedia, Shake Rattle and Rock! (1956 film)
Wikipedia, Fats Domino
Wikipedia, Pat Boone
Wikipedia, Cheap Trick