"I'm Walkin'" - Rebirth Brass Band

“I’m Walkin’” (PDF) from the Rebirth Brass Band album, Feel Like Funkin’ It Up

From 1955 to 1960, New Orleans pianist Antoine “Fats” Domino recorded a series of Billboard Top 10 hits with local producer Dave Bartholomew that would define a generation of American popular music. Often credited as the father of rock and roll, Domino had been performing around New Orleans as a teenager before starting his recording career in 1949 with Imperial Records. Similarly, Bartholomew was an established bandleader and arranger prior to his songwriting partnership with the pianist, with the result of their first collaboration selling over a million copies.

In the following years, the success of those early records would come to be known as the birth of rock ‘n’ roll, marked by the appearance of “Ain’t That A Shame” in the 1955 Billboard Top Ten along with nearly every Domino / Bartholomew release at the top of the R&B charts through the end of the decade. Like many of their songs, the 1957 hit “I’m Walkin’” inspired multiple cover versions marketed toward whiter audiences that would add royalty payments on top of the sales figures, funding the pianist’s affinity for expensive jewelry and pink Cadillacs. When asked about the origins of rock music, “Fats” Domino explained that it was simply the rhythm & blues they had been playing in New Orleans - the same music that would eventually influence Motown and The British Invasion.

Recommended reading: Blue Monday: Fats Domino and The Lost Dawn Of Rock ‘N’ Roll by Rick Coleman. Published by Da Capo Press.