Fats Domino - Live on Air 1987

Live on Air 1987 catches Fats Domino nearly three decades into his career, still delivering New Orleans rock and roll with the same easy authority that made him one of the genre's original architects, captured here as a radio broadcast recording.

Domino had already sold more records than almost anyone in early rock and roll by the time this show happened, his rolling piano triplets and warm, unhurried delivery having shaped the sound coming out of New Orleans years before most of the genre's bigger names got credit for it. By 1987 he'd largely stepped back from constant touring, so a broadcast like this one is a genuine document, an artist decades past his commercial peak still commanding a room with material that never once sounds like nostalgia rather than lived-in craft.

Blueberry Hill opens the set as the song everyone came for, and it still lands with real charm rather than obligation. Ain't That a Shame carries the same rolling groove that helped invent the New Orleans sound in the first place, and Walking to New Orleans closes side two as a genuine hometown anthem, Domino singing about the city that shaped every note he ever played. The Fat Man, his own foundational 1949 single, closes the whole broadcast, bringing the set full circle back to where his career actually started.

A rock and roll pioneer, still delivering the songs that built the genre decades after everyone else had moved on to claiming credit for it.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Blueberry Hill
2. Shake, Rattle and Roll
3. My Girl Josephine
4. I Want to Walk You Home
5. Red Sails in the Sunset Lyrics
6. I'm in Love Again
7. Ain't That a Shame

Side B

1. Blue Monday
2. Walking to New Orleans
3. Swanee River Boogie
4. Your Cheatin Heart
5. I'm Ready
6. Valley of Tears
7. The Fat Man