Fats Domino - The Gold Collection
I'm 74 years old, so you gotta understand that many of my early influences were single releases, not albums, because they mostly didn't even make albums when I was a kid. Such is the case with Fats, who was undoubtedly the major musical thrill of my formative years, but I list this record because it contains many of my favourite singles, and because it is what I have on my turntable here in the 21st century. I grew up in New Orleans at the time when Fats Domino was still playing clubs there, and I used to tell my mom and dad that I was going to a school dance, then take the streetcar (7 cents) to Rampart Street and go hear Fats. Many times I was the only white person in the joint but nobody seemed to care - we were all there for the music. Seeing Fats' chubby little fingers fluttering over the keys like a butterfly was a trip. Dave Bartholomew, who wrote much of Fats' material, played trumpet in the band, and he bent the bell of his horn up so as to be better heard - way before Dizzy G. [Gillespie] got the idea.