obits

New Orleans Rock-and-Roll Icon Fats Domino Dies at 89

Fats Domino. Photo: PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images

New Orleans rock-and-roll musician Fats Domino has died, TMZ reports. He was 89. The legendary singer and pianist was a mainstay on pop and R&B charts from 1949 to the 1960s, recording hits like “Ain’t That a Shame,†“Blue Monday,†“I’m Walkin’,†and “Blueberry Hill.†Domino sold over 65 million albums, received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. Domino — whose real name was Antoine Domino Jr. — earned the nickname “Fats†in the 1940s while working at a mattress factory in New Orleans. His first hit record was “The Fat Man,†and he went on to outsell Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Buddy Holly combined, according to NPR. Born and raised in New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward, Domino moved to a suburb of the city with one of his eight children after Hurricane Katrina. His daughter told TMZ he died surrounded by family and friends.

New Orleans Rock-and-Roll Icon Fats Domino Dies at 89