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Back to Blueberry Hill: Bear Family Releases Massive Fats Domino Box Set in November

September 30, 2019 By Joe Marchese 6 Comments

BUY NOW FROM AMAZON.COM

Get ready to find your thrill, as Bear Family Records has announced the ultimate tribute to singer, pianist, and rock-and-roll pioneer Fats Domino. The new 12CD/1DVD box set I've Been Around is due on November 8. It's packed with 312 tracks including all of Domino's recordings for Imperial Records, the label on which he made his name and recorded his biggest hits from 1948-1962, and ABC-Paramount Records, where he continued turning out stellar work between 1963-1965. This being a Bear Family box, it also features a treasure trove of originally unreleased alternate takes, undubbed and unedited masters, and backing tracks.

With his brash, joyful piano pounding, New Orleans native Antoine "Fats" Domino Jr. was one of the first "crossover" artists to bridge the divide between R&B and pop in the 1950s. It's no surprise that he was one of the first ten inductees in the first class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as he was a major influence on such artists as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Elton John, Bobby Darin, and Randy Newman. All 61 of his R&B chart hits (including nine No. 1s) are present on Bear Family's box, including his 37 top 40 crossover hits. These songs are still as familiar today as they were six decades ago: "Ain't It a Shame," "Blue Monday," "I'm Walkin'," and of course, "Blueberry Hill." The original master tape to the latter, a No. 1 R&B/No. 2 pop smash, is badly damaged, but is presented in superior sound here as derived from a clean, original 78 RPM disk.

I've Been Around replaces Bear Family's 1993 box set Out of New Orleans, which collected the classic Domino oeuvre in 1993 sans the ABC-Paramount material. For this set, every track has been newly remastered and many restored; the 11 songs that were sped up for release as singles in the 1950s are heard in both their original released form and authentic, speed-corrected versions. The DVD includes the 60-minute broadcast version and the 90-minute director's cut of director Joe Lauro's 2016 PBS American Masters documentary Fats Domino and the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll.

It's all packaged with a stunning, 240-page full-color hardcover book with updated and extended liner notes by Rick Coleman; track-by-track commentary by producers Hank Davis and Scott Parker (who have been involved in over 50 Bear Family projects); a comprehensive Domino Imperial sessionography and the most complete ABC-Paramount discography available to date; plus numerous previously unpublished images.

This remarkable collection follows in the footsteps of similarly comprehensive sets released by Bear Family for Domino's fellow rock-and-roll titans Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis. An essential release, I've Been Around is due from Bear Family on November 8.  You can find a pre-order link and the track listing at Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada!

Categories: News Formats: Box Sets, CD, DVD Genre: Pop, R&B/Soul Tags: Fats Domino

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Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with Real Gone Music, has released newly-curated collections produced by Joe from iconic artists such as Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Chet Atkins, and many others. He has contributed liner notes to reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, B.J. Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, and Andy Williams, and has compiled releases for talents including Robert Goulet and Keith Allison of Paul Revere and the Raiders. Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray. Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.

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Comments

  1. Phil says

    September 30, 2019 at 10:05 pm

    Sounds great !
    I wish you could replace the rhino Handmade little richard Reprise sessions with an upgraded version !
    No sessiongraphy , just one alternate song .
    Thanks P

    Reply
  2. Kevin Roberts says

    January 5, 2020 at 8:27 pm

    It appears that this box may have been withdrawn from the market just after its release

    Reply
    • Larry says

      January 9, 2020 at 3:38 pm

      Sure has. Anyone know why? I'm pretty upset about that.

      Reply
      • Avatar photoJoe Marchese says

        January 9, 2020 at 11:29 pm

        Unfortunately, Bear Family hasn't been able to share any details about the cancellation, but we remain hopeful that the box set will arrive at some point down the road. Watch this space for any further developments.

        Reply
        • Luigi says

          February 14, 2020 at 4:58 pm

          Joe
          Upload comment on Amazon indicates there were legal issues with the estate. Don't know what these were,. Bummer as I preordered and it was never shipped. I see Bear Family is reissuing the previous 8CD set without the ABC Paramount Records or the DVD so maybe the issue lies there. Disky had reissued the ABC Records output together with some other Fats Domino late career obscurities on a 4CD set. Poorly remastered and annotated.

          Reply
  3. Luigi F says

    February 17, 2020 at 12:11 pm

    Further update. Steve Hoffman's blog has a lot of discussion but little detail on why this set was withdrawn. Some bloggers were lucky to get shipments before it was withdrawn. Blogs give link on a UK site that has availability.

    Reply

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