Hello there!  This week our blog features a great ‘roots rock’ tune, I’m Walkin’.  We will begin with the original version by Fats Domino.  We will then include a cover from Ricky Nelson, and another cover by Tom Petty.

 Fats Domino and I’m Walkin’:

I will confess that for many years I did not appreciate the importance of Fats Domino in music history. But I now realize that he was a major early star whose music helped jump-start the transition from jazz and blues to rock music.

Antoine ‘Fats’ Domino was born in New Orleans in 1928, the youngest of eight children of a Louisiana Creole family.  He 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 New Orleans bars. 

One of Domino’s early employers nicknamed him ‘Fats.’  In part this referred to his playing style, which was reminiscent of stride pianist Fats Waller.  But he also earned the monicker because of his prodigious appetite.  Fats Domino was practically cube-shaped: only 5 feet, 5 inches tall, he weighed in at well over 300 pounds.  Below is a photo of Fats Domino from the 1950s.

In 1949, Fats signed a contract with Imperial Records.  It was noteworthy, as Mr. Domino retained the rights to his music and he received royalty payments. These became incredibly 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 Fats onto a stellar career that lasted for decades. 

The song I’m Walkin’ was written by Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew.  The song has a bouncy, infectious beat and extremely simple lyrics about a man walking and talking about his lost love. 

I’m walkin’, yes indeed and I’m talkin’
About you and me, I’m hopin’
That you’ll come back to me, yeah-yeah

I’m lonely as I can be, I’m waitin’
For your company, I’m hopin’
That you’ll come back to me

What you gonna do when the well runs dry?
You gonna run away and hide
I’m gonna run right by your side
For you pretty baby I’ll even die

I‘m walkin’, yes indeed and I’m talkin’
About you and me, I’m hopin’
That you’ll come back to me

The song I’m Walkin’ was released in January 1957, and made it to #1 on the R&B playlists, the third straight single from Fats to earn that distinction.  However, the record was also a cross-over success, shooting up to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop charts. 

So here is the audio of Fats Domino’s I’m Walkin’.  This is a clip from the movie Blues Brothers.  Jake (John Belushi) and Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) Blues are trying to round up an audience for a fund-raiser to benefit the orphanage where they were raised.  They drive around the Chicago area blaring the song I’m Walkin’ from a big amplifier tied to the top of their Dodge police car, while kids from the orphanage spread word about their concert. 

There is just one drawback to this clip, namely that it has been dubbed into Italian!  However, you can still appreciate the infectious quality of Fats Domino’s classic I’m Walkin’ (is it just me, or has the audio here been speeded up from the original record?). 

In addition to Fats on piano, other contributors on the record I’m Walkin’ include New Orleans musicians Herbert Hardesty on saxophone, Frank Fields on bass and Earl Palmer on drums. 

Next, here is Fats Domino in a live performance of I’m Walkin’. 

This took place at The Hague, Netherlands, in 1977.  You get some good closeups of Fats’ hands as he shows off his stride-piano style (and also the gigantic rings on his fingers).  There is also a nice saxophone solo in the middle of the tune. Fats’ vocals come straight from gospel music, as translated into Rhythm & Blues.  

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

New Orleans rock ‘n roll by Fats and Little Richard was characterized primarily by piano and saxophone, as opposed to the guitar-dominated sounds of artists such as Buddy Holly and Elvis. 

Over Fats Domino’s 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 song was the 1956 Blueberry Hill, which peaked at #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, Fats Domino was an inspiration to an entire generation of rock musicians.  The Beatles loved Fats, and in their early days they practiced diligently to reproduce the sound from various Fats Domino songs.    

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 because it highlights Domino’s standing among his peers, and it also demonstrates Elvis’ genuine appreciation and generosity towards the black musicians who paved the way for his success.

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

After 1995, Fats Domino became almost a recluse in New Orleans.  Mr. 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, flooding in that neighborhood was sufficiently severe that Fats was 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.

Fats Domino passed away from natural causes on Oct. 24, 2017 at the age of 89.  Fat Man, you were a gigantic figure both physically and musically.  You are sorely missed.    

Ricky Nelson and I’m Walkin’:

Nearly every early rock artist worked his way up in the music business through small clubs, county fairs and seedy venues.  But Ricky Nelson was the exception: he began at the top.  His father Ozzie Nelson was a successful bandleader who started a family comedy show on radio in the 40s that featured his wife Harriet and sons David and Ricky.  The show was a big success and in the 50s transferred to television, where it became one of the longer-running shows in TV history. 

Here is a photo of teen heartthrob Ricky Nelson. 

As a result of his media exposure, the goofy younger brother Ricky was already a household name when he developed an interest in rock and roll in the mid-50s.  With his stunning good looks and pleasing voice, Ricky’s singing success seemed like a sure thing.  After Ricky’s cover of Fats Domino’s I’m Walkin’ made it into the Billboard Top 10 in 1957, Ozzie began featuring Ricky singing on his TV show, where he quickly became a teen idol. 

As Richie Unterberger says, “So far the script was adhering to the Pat Boone teen idol prototype — a whitewash of an R&B hit stealing the thunder from the pop audience, sung by a young, good-looking fella with barely any musical experience to speak of.”

The parallels to Pat Boone seemed unmistakable; however, the reality was markedly different.  Unlike the goody-two-shoes Pat, Rick (‘Ricky’ changed his name to Rick as soon as he reached 21) was much more the teenage rebel.  He joined a greaser car club called The Rooks, got into scrapes with the cops, and worked hard to pattern his vocals on idols like Carl Perkins. 

Here is Ricky Nelson in a performance of Fats Domino’s I’m Walkin’. 

This appeared on a 1957 segment of The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet.  The song cuts away at various points to show the crowd, including Ozzie & Harriet enjoying Ricky’s singing.  It also has some corny clips of young girls swooning over Ricky’s feeble attempts at gyrating his hips. 

Ricky’s voice is not really strong, and he sings in a flat, almost monotone style; however, his vocals have been seriously underrated.  Also, Ricky had terrific arrangements on his recordings; this was primarily due to James Burton, a guitar genius whose proficiency gained him the appellation “Master of the Telecaster.”

But in this clip, it is Ozzie’s band that seems to be backing up Ricky.  This was a point of contention between Ricky and his control-freak father; Ricky wanted rocking backup musicians, while Ozzie thought that his own band members (who not only had no clue about rock ‘n roll, but were openly contemptuous of the genre) were perfectly acceptable. 

The “Rick Nelson sound” on his records should really be called the “James Burton sound.”  Burton worked with Rick Nelson’s band first as rhythm guitarist and next as lead guitar, but he also was in tremendous demand as a session guitarist, in large part through his exposure on the TV live music program Shindig!  In addition to his great solo on Hello Mary Lou, beginning in 1969 Burton was the leader of Elvis Presley’s TCB band until Presley’s death in 1977. 

Between 1957 and 1963, Rick Nelson had a string of great pop hits.  They tended to fall into two general categories: relatively hard-charging rockabilly songs such as Be-Bop Baby and It’s Late; and soft ballads such as Poor Little Fool and Travelin’ Man.  Thousands of Rick Nelson fan clubs were formed worldwide, and Ricky gained tremendous TV exposure singing on the Ozzie and Harriet Show.   During this period Nelson trailed only Elvis and Pat Boone in the number of top-40 records he produced. 

Critical acclaim was harder to come by for Rick.  But I really loved his music, and his combination of rockabilly and pop introduced rock music to millions of listeners.  He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.  

Like so many other early American rock musicians, Rick Nelson’s career did not survive the British Invasion.  He naturally turned to country-rock and had one more hit, Garden Party in 1972 with his Stone Canyon Band. 

Although Rick Nelson had a serious fear of flying, he leased a Douglas DC-3 that had a checkered history of malfunctions.  On Dec. 31, 1985 Nelson, long-time girlfriend Helen Blair and his band flew from Alabama to a New Year’s eve party in Dallas.  The plane crash-landed in DeKalb, Texas.  The two pilots managed to escape the burning wreckage, but all seven passengers were killed, including Nelson, who died at age 45. 

Initially, there were rumors that the plane had caught fire because passengers on the flight were free-basing cocaine.  This rumor was based on the fact that Rick Nelson had serious addiction issues, particularly with cocaine.  However, it is now believed that the most probable cause of the crash was a faulty cabin heater, and that the plane may have been on fire even before it crashed.  

Here’s to Rick Nelson; a teen idol who left us much too soon. 

Tom Petty and I’m Walkin’:

Tom Petty was born in October, 1950 in Gainesville, Florida.  From an early age, he aspired to be a rock musician.  In his youth, an uncle who was working on one of Elvis Presley’s movies introduced Tom to Elvis.  However, it was the Beatles who really inspired the teen-age Petty.  “The minute I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show … there was the way out … I really saw in the Beatles that here’s something I could do.” 

At age 17, Tom dropped out of high school to play bass in a band.  One of his early guitar teachers was Don Felder, who later joined The Eagles.  While playing in rock bands, Tom Petty also took jobs with the University of Florida grounds crew, and briefly worked as a gravedigger.  Below is a photo of Tom Petty.

Tom Petty fronted a group called The Heartbreakers, where he sang lead vocals and played guitar.  The group’s third album, the 1979 release Damn The Torpedoes, shot up to #2 on the Billboard albums charts, and made the group an overnight success.  Rock critic Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic called Damn The Torpedoes “one of the great records of the album rock era.”

Petty and the Heartbreakers subsequently released a series of hit singles, cementing his popularity.  The band were among the acts performing in the 1985 Live Aid concert.  And in 2001, they were one of the headliners at the tribute concert following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers recorded their version of I’m Walkin’ for a 2007 tribute album, Goin’ Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino.  For that album, 30 different artists each recorded a cover of a Fats Domino tune.  The album is rather noteworthy: it was critically acclaimed as “one of the more remarkable tribute albums to surface in recent years…(s)panning the worlds of rock (Neil Young, Elton John, Los Lobos, Tom Petty), blues (B.B. King), country (Willie Nelson), jazz (Herbie Hancock), and even reggae (Toots & the Maytals).”

So here is Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers with their cover of I’m Walkin’. 

The YouTube clip that I obtained has just the audio from Tom Petty.  I think that the band does a good job with the song.  They nail the most important part, in that they keep the beat rolling along.  In addition, they throw in extended saxophone solos, which make the cover more authentic. 

In 1988 Tom joined friends George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison in a group called The Traveling Wilburys.  The conceit was that they were brothers who had formed a traveling band.  Tom’s stage name in that group was Charlie T. Wilbury.  The band produced two albums, the second of which was recorded after Roy Orbison had passed away. 

In 1989, Tom Petty released his first solo album, although members of the Heartbreakers band contributed to several of the cuts.  Again, the album contained top singles such as I Won’t Back Down and Free Fallin’. 

On the morning of Oct. 2, 2017, Tom Petty was found in cardiac arrest, and was taken to the UCLA Medical Center; however, he passed away that evening.  The coroner’s report was that he had died from an accidental drug overdose. 

Petty’s wife told the authorities that he was dealing with emphysema and a fractured hip, and that the hip issue left him in incredible pain.  However, Petty’s body contained fentanyl, oxycodone and two fentanyl derivatives, sedatives temazepam and alprazolam, and anti-depressant citalopram.  This seems a large number of drugs, and the presence of fentanyl raises questions; however, the authorities concluded that this was an accidental death. 

In 2001 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  And in 2005 Petty was awarded the Billboard Century Award.  Earlier in 2017 Petty had been named the Musicares Person of the Year in honor of his philanthropic activity. 

We were sad to lose Tom Petty at a relatively early age; he is greatly missed. 

Source Material:

Wikipedia, I’m Walkin’

Wikipedia, Fats Domino

Wikipedia, Ricky Nelson

Wikipedia, Tom Petty