A Brief History
On October 24, 2017, rock and roll and New Orleans jazz pioneer Antoine “Fats” Domino died. His 1949 song, “The Fat Man,” is considered by some to be the first rock and roll hit, selling over a million copies. Elvis Presley and the Beatles were fans of Domino, and Fats is not the only great person of considerable girth.
Digging Deeper
Another rock and roller, Chubby Checker, got his stage name from a comparison to Fats Domino! Yet another rock and roll great, Mama Cass Elliot, is enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and deserves it.
Our most rotund US President, William H. Taft, went on to serve as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court after his time as president.
Even chubby athletes have achieved success in sports, including basketball’s Charles Barkley, known as “The Round Mound of Rebound.” Baseball pitcher Bartolo Colon packed on pounds after age 30 and achieved great success despite weighing 285 pounds
Question for students (and subscribers): Who is your favorite fat person? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
DeWitt, Howard. FATS DOMINO: BLUEBERRY HILL TO MILLIONS. Kindle, 2021.
Schubart, Bill. Fat People. Magic Hill Press, 2010.
The featured image in this article, a screenshot of Fats Domino singing “Blueberry Hill” on the Alan Freed Show, is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in the United States between 1928 and 1977, inclusive, without a copyright notice. For further explanation, see Commons:Hirtle chart as well as a detailed definition of “publication” for public art.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
