"Cut for cut, there's not a catalog in rock'n'roll that is so purely enjoyable" - Stephen Thomas Erlewine (Pitchfork)
"One of the most exciting performers & an enormous influence on my career" - Paul McCartney.
"I read an article about Fats Domino which has really influenced me. He said, you should never sing the lyrics out very clearly." - Mick Jagger, speaking in 1968, on the source of his own sometimes mumbled vocal delivery.
"After John Lennon & Paul McCartney, Fats Domino and his partner Dave Bartholomew were probably the greatest team of songwriters ever" - Dr. John.
"One of my musical heroes and main inspirations" - Elton John.
"My earliest influence in music comes from Fats Domino" - Bob Marley.
"The first record I ever bought was Fats Domino's 'Sick & Tired'." – Lee "Scratch" Perry, a song that is widely believed to have inspired the entire reggae-sound.
"The pioneer" - Questlove (The Roots).
"He's marvelous" - John Lennon, upon meeting Domino, one of his idols, in 1964.
"Fats made things his own. Even on little frothy tunes whipped up in the studio, the phrasing and delivery was always Fats. It's an amazing singularity I think most artists would die for. That amazing uniqueness." - Cosimo Matassa, owner and operator of J&M Studio, where Domino cut most of his hits.
"The man who proved piano was a rock 'n' roll instrument" - Billy Joel, upon inducting Domino into the first class of the Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Fame.
"Domino is so consistently innovative and infectious that (his music) never grows tiresome" - Bill Dahl (Allmusic.com)
"I heard (Fats Domino's debut record) 'The Fat Man' and went 'Oh My God!'" - Lou Reed, The Velvet Underground, on the record and artist that first inspired him to rock.
"(Domino's) 'The Fat Man' should be considered a rock 'n' roll standard." - John Fogerty, Creedence Clearwater Revival.
"The first 45 RPM record I ever bought was 'Going To the River' (a #1 hit in 1953) by Fats Domino. That was one of the first rock 'n' roll records I heard." - Jerry Allison, drummer for Buddy Holly & The Crickets.
"One of the greatest artists who ever lived. I think Fats is a genius" - Lloyd Price, Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Famer.
"The first song I learned was 'Ain't That A Shame' by Fats Domino" - John Lennon, on his musical education.
"Ain't That A Shame is one of the most characteristic of his style that never rocked harder than it needed to, but never relented a whit either. The piano communicates so much joy, (yet) it never drowns out the sadness of the lyric in its own sweetness... carrying the weight of that contradiction without ever resolving it" - Dave Marsh, rock critic.
"You don't know what he meant to us!" - Al Jardine of The Beach Boys on Domino's influence on the group.
"All of Fats music had a heck of a groove to it... People use the expression a lot, 'one of a kind', but he definitely is one of a kind" – Ellis Marsalis
"One of the founding fathers of Rock 'n' Roll... It's music that just gets better with time... his recorded legacy will forever guarantee his place among popular music's immortals." - Tony Rounce (Ace Records)
"Fats Domino's music got to my soul, I loved all of his records. He's gotta be one of the greatest singers of all-time." - Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson, on a prime inspiration.
"(Domino's) 'I'm In Love Again was the first rock 'n' roll record I ever heard." - George Harrison.
"I've been influenced by everyone from Benny Goodman on: Sam Cooke, Wilson Pickett, Fats Domino" - Bruce Springsteen.
"In the white honky tonks where I was playing they were punching 'Blueberry Hill' (on the jukebox) and white cats were dancin' to Fats Domino." – Carl Perkins, on the cross-cultural appeal of Domino at the peak of both of their careers in 1956.
"(The first record I ever bought) was 'Blueberry Hill' by Fats Domino." – Emmylou Harris.
"Listening to Autry's original version shows just how thin and bland the original material was. Somehow, Domino managed to make a cheesy, throwaway love song into a cornerstone of rock and roll." - David A. Graham (The Atlantic) on Domino's transformation of "Blueberry Hill"
"His records jump out of the speakers and demand you feel good... his piano was a party-making machine... his feel was infectious. Fats was pure joy." - Adam Weiner (Low Cut Connie)
"(Domino's recording of) 'Blue Monday' is as close to perfection as one can imagine. The eight-bar sax break is a gem of almost frightening economy." - Hank Davis, writer, on Domino's own favorite recording, his unrivaled band and specifically sax player's Herb Hardesty's contribution to their sound.
"Fats band was tighter than wallpaper is to paint!" - Harold Winley, bass singer for the Clovers, a group who rivaled Domino's massive popularity in the early to mid-50's with 19 Top Ten R&B Hits of their own.
"It made you want to move. There was nothing you could do, you HAD to move!" - Ruth Brown, Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Famer, on the effect Domino's music had on listeners.
"Walking To New Orleans is an anomoly within Domino's career which demonstrates even more reasons for his success. It's (his) one slow, heavily orchestrated number... the lyric drips blues... Fats never seemed more disarming than when most mournful" - Dave Marsh, rock critic.
"It was revolutionary" - Famed Cleveland DJ, Bill Randle, on Domino's crossing over from strictly black audiences to integrated crowds at early to mid 50's concerts in the city, making him the first black artist to consistantly appeal to white listeners with rock 'n' roll.
"Earth shattering" - Jerry Wexler, legendary Atlantic Records producer, on the legacy of Domino's music.
"Domino's reputation rivals that of Elvis Presley with rock 'n' roll fans" - TIME magazine, 1957.
"Fats Domino is the REAL King Of Rock 'n' Roll" - Elvis Presley, 1969, when asked about holding the mythical title himself.
"Well, I wouldn't want to say that I started it (rock 'n' roll), but I don't remember anyone else before me playing that kind of stuff." - Fats Domino.
