What was Fats Domino like to work with?
He was a lovely man. Very well presented and never permitted anyone to rest their drink on the piano without a coaster, which saved a lot of polishing time I don’t mind telling you. I was responsible for his nickname in fact which is a modest achievement in which I take considerable pride. I recall he was in the studio ruminating on the fact that Antoine, his Christian name, wasn’t especially musical and didn’t convey the image he wanted. He needed something with more élan and his suggestion was Black because he was. Black that is. He was black. Did you know Fats Domino was black?
Yes, I did.
How very well informed you are. He said to me “Hey Simon, what do you think of the nickname Black?” And I paused in my work, which if I recall correctly involved the buffing of microphone stands and pointed out that while catchy, it didn’t highlight an aspect of his visage that was unique in any way. The rest of his musical group were all at least mulatto, to use an expression that has gone out of vogue of late and I fear might not be PC, but you’ll forgive an old man for using antiquated terminology this once I’m sure. The point is that every member of his group was dark-skinned in some way and so defining himself as black wasn’t in any way a signifier. So dear old Antoine was left without a nickname and asked me what set him apart from those around him.
And you said he was fat?
Not directly no. A gentleman doesn’t call another gentleman “fat” even if he is morbidly obese. No, I observed the rest of the group, who as a man appeared as if they were in dire need of a snack or possibly a five-course meal with matching table wines, and then compared them to Antoine, who resembled a man who regularly dined his way through multiple course feasts. The suggestion I made, although I relayed it as tastefully as possible in a voice inaudible to anyone else, was Portly.
Portly Domino?
It has a ring don’t you think? Portly Domino. It’s better than “Rotund” which was my first thought and “Well Fed” which was my second.
And he didn’t like it?
He played with the sound for a time but settled on Fats and a sobriquet was born. He eventually had 8 children, I’m led to understand, and I wonder if he ever considered naming one of them Portly. It might not have been the first name that came to mind but I would imagine any parents required to dispense half a dozen names in rapid succession must be running short of worthy relatives to commemorate and names that simply had a pleasing tone must have begun to develop an appeal.
I’m sorry to say the answer is no. He had a naming scheme which he and his wife adhered to.
Did they? What scheme was that then?
Antoinette, Anola, Adonica, Anatole, Andre, Andrea, Antonio and Antoine*
Really? Well, that’s rather cheery. I wonder what possessed him to choose Anatole over Andrew or Adam? I think it just goes to show that musicians are not like the rest of us. They think differently in a number of key ways.
* I can attest that this is true, unlike Simon’s claim that he created Domino’s nickname which I can’t verify.
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