In most cases in the Covered series so far, the songwriters had most of their hits done by others, such as the team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. But in the case of the songwriting team of Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew, Fats Domino had a couple dozen big hits with these songs. Bartholomew also had a solo career, but he just dabbled in that with a small number of records compared to Domino, and didn't have any big hits. However, I wanted to post something from this team, because I get the impression that Domino's songwriting talent isn't well known, compared to say, Chuck Berry from the same era, and Bartholomew's contribution is even less known. I've found enough material for two volumes.
Domino had most of his hits in the 1950s and early 1960s. They were such big hits that I think it took a while before many people decided to make their own versions. So even though this volume begins way early, in 1949, with the songs in chronological order, it quickly moves to the 1970s and after. I didn't include any of Domino's own versions, since the whole point is to highlight these songs through cover versions. However, I did include one song recorded by Bartholomew, since few people have heard his stuff.
If you want to know more about these two, here are their Wikipedia pages:
Domino and Bartholomew had a long and fruitful songwriting collaboration, from Domino's first hit in the late 1940s until 1963, when Domino finally switched record companies. That put him in a different company than Bartholomew and effectively ended their partnership, although it seems they stayed on good terms. That probably was a bad move on Domino's part, since that's when his hits stopped, although the Beatles and the rest of the British Invasion coming the next year probably was a big factor as well. Generally speaking, the songs co-written by both of them were recorded by Domino. But Bartholomew was a producer as well, and he had a number of hits done by others, such as "I Hear You Knocking" and "One Night." Domino died in 2017, and Bartholomew died in 2019.
I'll have more to say in Volume Two. This volume is 44 minutes long.
01 3 x 7 = 21 (Jewel King)
02 Toy Bell (Bees)
03 I'm in Love Again (Fontane Sisters)
04 Shrimp and Gumbo (Dave Bartholomew)
05 I'm Walkin' (Ricky Nelson)
06 The Big Beat (Del Vikings)
07 Witchcraft (Elvis Presley)
08 Let the Four Winds Blow (Searchers)
09 The Land of a Thousand Dances (Wilson Pickett)
10 I Hear You Knocking (Dave Edmunds)
11 Grow Too Old (Bobby Charles)
12 I'm Ready (Band)
13 Sick and Tired [Return of Django] (Neville Grant)
14 Ain't That a Shame (John Lennon)
15 Blue Monday (Cat Stevens)
16 The Fat Man (Robbie Robertson)
17 One Night (Joe Cocker)
https://www.imagenetz.de/hixnN
I couldn't find any good photos of Domino and Bartholomew together when they were young (although I did find a good one for Volume 2), so I had to make one from scratch. I took a photo of Domino and another of Bartholomew and put them together. The one of Domino was in color, but it clearly was colorized by someone before I got my hands on it. I adjusted the colors somewhat to hopefully make the colorization less obvious. I took a black and white photo of Bartholomew and colorized it. He's in a grey jacket and Domino is in a blue one.
Indeed, Domino--the only artist who was a major rock and roll star before rock crossed over who sustained that success into the crossover era--is an underrated figure at this point, and Bartholomew isn't nearly as well known as he deserves.
ReplyDeleteA friend of a friend once worked as a security person at a hotel. He would often get a call that someone was playing the piano in the hotel bar without authorization; usually it was someone very drunk and annoying. But one day he got the call, and Fats Domino and come in and started up an impromptu concert. He did NOT put a stop to that, just sat down and enjoyed it with the rest of the lucky guests.
Domino really didn't have any role in writing "Land Of 1000 Dances"; he just took half the royalties in exchange for recording it. Chris Kenner of "I Like It Like That" fame wrote it.