Fats Domino: Big Beatles Influencer

Rock 'n' Roll pioneer Fats Domino was of great influence on The Beatles and was also the inspiration of one of the Beatles classics: Lady Madonna. The legendary musician from New Orleans has died last Tuesday, aged 89.

Both John Lennon and Paul McCartney were big admirers of Fats Domino; as solo artists they both covered his 1955 classic Ain’t That A Shame and McCartney also played the song during his 1989/90 Get Back Tour. Domino can be seen as one of the major rock and roll pioneers, although he did not flaunt his status as an innovator, or as an architect of a powerful cultural movement:

Well, what they call rock ’n’ roll now is rhythm and blues. I’ve been playing it for 15 years in New Orleans.

Fats Domino, in 1957

Paul McCartney was particularly influenced by the New Orleans singer: his song Lady Madonna is a direct response to Domino's earlier hit Blue Monday.

Video: Fats Domino – Blue Monday

Blue Monday not only had a musical influence, also the lyrics are similar: The song charts the feelings of a hard working male across each day of the week and Lady Madonna tells the same story but through the eyes of a woman. McCartney remembers writing the track: 

Lady Madonna was me sitting down at the piano trying to write a bluesy boogie-woogie thing. It reminded me of Fats Domino for some reason, so I started singing a Fats Domino impression. It took my other voice to a very odd place.

Paul McCartney & Wings – Lady Madonna (Live ’76)

The biggest compliment McCartney could get for writing Lady Madonna, came from Fats Domino himself: Domino covered the song the same year The Beatles recorded it and his version became his last appearance in the American pop Top 100.

Fats Domino – Lady Madonna

Fats Domino - whose most famous songs include Blueberry Hill, I'm Walking and Ain't That a Shame - began his music career in 1949. He was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1986 and later inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, one of the first artists to achieve the honour.

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André Homan

André Homan is a Dutch writer and journalist.

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