Imperial Records and Fats Domino Dave Bartholomew

dave bartholomeww (amsterdam, 1962)

two years after had first met in houston, lew chudd asked bartholomew become imperial s a&r man in new orleans. bartholomew produced imperial s first national hits, 3 x 7 = 21 , written him , recorded female singer jewel king, , fat man , recorded in december 1949 young pianist, fats domino. fat man —based on junker s blues , lyrics rewritten bartholomew , domino—reached number 2 on r&b chart , sold on 1 million copies, kicking off domino s career. both records featured bartholomew s band, did succession of further hits through 1950s. cosimo matassa said, many times think fats’ salvation dave being able stern enough , rigid enough insist on things getting done... adamant discipline of players.

bartholomew left imperial after disagreement chudd @ end of 1950 , 2 years recorded other labels, including decca, king , specialty. among recordings @ king ding-a-ling , bartholomew wrote , first recorded in january 1952; song later recorded chuck berry, had international hit in 1972, although berry substantially changed song s arrangement , verses , claimed credit writing it. while @ specialty, bartholomew produced lloyd price s recording of lawdy miss clawdy , featured domino (uncredited) on piano. single reached number 1 on r&b chart in mid-1952.

after success, bartholomew returned imperial work again on domino s recordings, co-writing , producing series of r&b hits him. domino s crossover pop chart came in 1955 ain t shame , on bartholomew deliberately sought make domino s style more appealing white record buyers. further hits followed through late 1950s , 1960s: m in love again , blue monday (both in 1956), m walkin (1957), m gonna wheel someday (1959), let 4 winds blow (1961)—all co-written , produced bartholomew—and blueberry hill (1956) , walking new orleans (1960), produced bartholomew. in 1960, fats domino recorded , had hit version of country boy .

over same period, bartholomew wrote, arranged , produced recordings many other imperial artists, including smiley lewis (for whom bartholomew wrote hear knocking , 1 night , both of hits , later recorded other musicians), spiders, chris kenner, earl king, tommy ridgley, robert parker, t-bone walker, roy brown, frankie ford , shirley , lee (who recorded aladdin records , whom bartholomew produced let times roll ). several of bartholomew s songs later covered other musicians. ain t shame recorded pat boone; hear knocking hit gale storm in 1950s , dave edmunds in 1970s; 1 night , witchcraft hits elvis presley; , m walkin charting hit ricky nelson. on several of songs, co-writing credit given wife, pearl king (sometimes confused in error musician earl king).