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antoine “fats” domino has left new orleans for the last time

I NEVER THOUGHT of Antoine “Fats” Domino as a rock & roll artist. I thought he was a rhythm & blues-based artist, maybe a boogie-woogie artist, definitely a New Orleans artist. For some reason, white teenagers in the ’50s glommed onto him and the rest is rock & roll history.

I mean, yeah, when I was a kid inheriting my Aunt Judy’s 45 collection, I thought everything in it was rock & roll, from great stuff like Fats and the Platters to Fabian and silly jive like Who put the bomp in the bomp-bah-bomp-bah-bomp, who put the ram in the rama-lama-ding-dong? [Read more] “antoine “fats” domino has left new orleans for the last time”

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what exactly was a “rock & roll album” in those days?

WHAT EXACTLY IS A ROCK & ROLL ALBUM? To answer that question, we need to answer another: What is rock & roll music? After sixty years, we still don’t have a definition that everyone agrees with! Arguments about its definition and its origin in the early ’50s—no wait, was it the late ’40s?—have [Read more] “what exactly was a “rock & roll album” in those days?”

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rock and rollin’ with fats domino at wikipedia

I’M WORKING ON A PIECE titled “What Was the First Rock & Roll LP Album of the ’50s?” At one point, I turned to Wikipedia for information to determine the release date of Fats Domino’s first album, Rock And Rollin’ With Fats Domino. I wasn’t prepared for what I found—although I should have been. [Read more] “rock and rollin’ with fats domino at wikipedia”

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I know, it’s only rock & roll (or is it only rock and roll?)

I KNOW, IT’S ONLY ROCK & ROLL, but I like it and so do millions of others (although the number of faithful may be dwindling as we age and the Hip-Hop Era endures). The phrase “rock & roll” as it refers to music and dancing has been with us for almost seventy years and appears to have originally been a black American euphemism for sex that goes back even further. [Read more] “I know, it’s only rock & roll (or is it only rock and roll?)”