The dying in November 2015 of the peerless Allen Toussaint was an excellent loss to the heritage of rhythm and blues music, and right this moment we’re reminiscing concerning the first time he ever appeared on file — for one more departed New Orleans figurehead. It was as a 19-year-old in 1957, when Allen was requested to sound just like the star whose disc it was, and whom he had grown up listening to, Fat Domino.
Allen’s musical schooling as a younger man rising up on the outskirts of New Orleans was vastly knowledgeable by Domino and one other favorite son of the Crescent Metropolis, Professor Longhair. In 1957, as Toussaint started to make his personal manner as a studio musician, he performed the piano (uncredited, as was nearly at all times the case on the time) on Domino’s music “I Want You To Know.”
In an interview with NPR (Nationwide Public Radio) in 1988, Toussaint recalled the circumstances of the recording session. “[It] was popular during that time to play like other people,” he mentioned. “I hadn’t established who I actually was but so in the event that they needed somebody who would play like others, like Ray Charles or Fat Domino, they might very nicely name me and know they might get what they have been searching for.
Take heed to uDiscover Music’s Fat Domino Finest Of playlist.
“And Fats Domino was out of the country, and Dave Bartholomew, who was his producer and writer on many songs, called me in to play like him, like Fats Domino would play on a song called ‘I Want You To Know’ and another called something about a little school girl. And I went in and played, and that was sort of a milestone in my early getting started…it never was hush-hush among the musical community. The guys around knew, and it was kind of fun.”
“I Want You To Know,” with Fat’ vocals duly added, appeared because the flipside of his “The Big Beat” single late that 12 months, which was the title music of a film starring William Reynolds. The A-side went to No.26 on the American pop chart, however such was Domino’s reputation by then that the B-side grew to become a Prime 40 hit in its personal proper, reaching No.32 in an 11-week run.
Purchase or stream “I Want You To Know” on The Full Imperial Singles.
