It all began toward the end of a rollicking rehearsal when between songs the guys started talking about what they planned to do in the week ahead.
Danny mentioned that lately he had been getting out early to take his walks in the morning before the heat set in. That prompted Charlie to start singing that Fats Domino song, “I’m walkin’, yes, indeed, and I’m talkin’ ‘bout you ‘n’ me…”.
Well, Danny — who by anybody’s definition is a walking jukebox — started playing the old tune.
Sam and Jack quickly picked up the vibe. Charlie reached for the banjo to add a little pepper to the pot while Randy searched his memory bank for the words and melody.
Suddenly the song just started arranging itself. Click here to give it a spin.
About the Song
Fats Domino wrote “I’m Walkin’” in 1957, working with his frequent collaborator Dave Bartholomew.
It became Domino's third release in a row to reach No. 1 on the R&B chart, where it stayed for six weeks.
Flashback: How Fats Became Fats
Down in New Orleans in 1947, bandleader Billy Diamond heard a stocky 19-year-old French Creole lad named Antoine Dominique Domino playing at a backyard barbecue.
Diamond was so impressed with the pianist that he hired him for his band, The Solid Senders, booking him to play with his crew at the Hideaway Club in the Crescent Club’s Ninth Ward, where he would earn the princely sum of $3 a week.
Two years later, Antoine — whom by then Diamond had christened “Fats” — was still at the Hideaway when he was discovered by former trumpeter Dave Bartholomew, the New Orleans A&R man for Imperial Records, a fledgling independent label out of Los Angeles.
The Partnership
The two partnered up and started working together. Soon, they had refashioned a number called “Junker’s Blues” (an old New Orleans song about heroin addiction) into a tune they called “The Fat Man.”
Initially, folks at Imperial hated it; however, they warmed to it considerably when it became an immediate hit, selling a million copies after its December 1949 release.
Today "The Fat Man" often is called the very first rock ’n’ roll record. Musicologist Ned Sublette says the song in fact was rock and roll before that term was even coined.
Critics say Domino staked out new musical territory by playing a stripped-down and more aggressive boogie-woogie piano with a series of hot triplets and snare-like backbeats.
Curiously, Fats himself, though, was not convinced that his work was of a new genre. Years later — in 1956 — he commented, “What they call ‘rock and roll’ is rhythm and blues, and I've been playing it for 15 years in New Orleans."
Meanwhile, “The Fat Man” was the beginning of a beautiful friendship with Bartholomew. In the mid-1950s, Dave and Fats wrote more than 40 hits for Imperial, including the Billboard No. 1 pop chart hit “Ain’t That a Shame,” as well as “Blue Monday,” “I’m In Love Again” and “Whole Lotta’ Loving.”
And of course — eight years into their collaboration — came that kicky “I’m Walkin’.”
Crossing Over
That particular song also solidified Fats Domino's crossover appeal when it peaked at No. 4 on the pop singles chart.
Later that same year, Ricky Nelson covered it on an episode of his mom and dad’s hit television series, The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet. Subsequently, Rick’s 1957 single also reached No. 4 on the pop chart as well as No. 10 on the R&B chart.
Sixty-two years later, Fats’ original Imperial Records release was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
"I'm Walkin'"