I’m In Love Again

Fats Domino (1928–2017); Dave Bartholomew (1918–2019)

Not to be confused with Cole Porter’s song of the same name. Up to this point (spring 1956), the White cover of an R&B hit would always outsell the original version, with the exception of Chuck Berry’s “Maybellene”––oddly, a lot of people assumed Chuck Berry was white. But in this case, although the song was widely covered, none outsold Fats Domino. 1956 was a huge breakthrough. This was the year I had four new heroes: Little Richard, Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, and Fats Domino. I liked dozens of other R&B stars, but they were my main men.

Co-writer Dave Bartholomew started one of the early “jump” groups—a small group that played music you could dance to. Another jump band pioneer was Johnny Otis, on the West Coast. I believe the first jump band was led by Louis Jordan in the early 1940s.

After World War II, the big bands faded fast when the crowds began to spend their postwar money on cars and appliances that had not been available before. At the same time, bebop replaced swing, and I had been under the impression that, for the first time, people no longer danced to jazz. But a Facebook “friend” informed me that the new postwar cabaret laws in New York City made dancing in clubs illegal, just as bebop was coming in. So, there was no dancing to bebop in New York. But in Detroit, among other places, hepcats were dancing to Charlie Parker, employing moves as wild and radical as the new music. I’d kill to have seen that. But dancing to the new jazz faded, until it even became uncool to tap your feet to the music.