JIMI AND FATS DOMINO
Collected on this page are some anecdotes and bits of trivia about Jimi Hendrix & Fats Domino. I'm sure that there are more - if you have something to add please email me at
So on a very much related note - HELP:
I'm quite sure that I have either heard Jimi introduce "Hey Joe" as "Hello Josephine" or read about him doing so. So I believe that there is a recording / concert review / interview / etc. out there where either Jimi or Noel introduces "Hey Josephine" or "Hello Josephine" - but I can't at the moment for the life of me remember where...
"Hello Josephine" would be a reference to / an alternate title for the Fats Domino -song originally recorded and released in 1960 as "My Girl Josephine": "Hello Josephine, how do you do? Do you remember me baby, like I remember you?"
ONE NIGHT (1965/1966)
"One Night" was originally released by Smiley Lewis in 1956, covered by Elvis Presley in 1958 (with partially rewritten lyrics) and again covered by Fats Domino in 1961 (with original lyrics). 3
Curtis Knight & the Squires with Jimi Hendrix on guitar recorded a live version of "One Night" on the 26th of December 1965 or 22nd of January 1966 (see the Curtis Knight Live Recordings -page), the band is however clearly covering the Elvis version and not the Smiley Lewis / Fats Domino -version of the song. Though Curtis forgets and / or improvises a lot of the lyrics what he is singing clearly is the watered down "one night with you" Elvis-version of the lyrics and not the original "one night of sin" -lyrics.
It's a bit of a mystery to me as to why the Squires in 1965/1966 played the Elvis version of the song originally released in late October 1958 and not the original "sinful" Smiley Lewis / Fats Domino -version. Though the Elvis version was of course a bigger hit and thus the better known version. Since Curtis doesn't seem to be too familiar with the lyrics the song may not have been a regular part of the set?
SICK AND TIRED (1966)
In 1966 Ricky Mason recorded a cover version of "Sick And Tired" for PPX Enterprises Inc, of course produced by Ed Chalpin. The song isn't a Fats Domino original but the cover by Mason, which features Jimi Hendrix on guitar, is clearly based on the Fats Domino -recording of the song released in March 1958. 6
You can read more about this session and the song on the Ricky Mason -section of this site but I'll quote myself here in order to give you the short version:
The song was first released in 2018 by Sundazed / Experience Hendrix on the flipside of a Jayne Mansfield single under the title "I Need You Every Day" and credited to "copyright control". Peter Strömbäck discovered that the song actually isn`t called "I Need You Every Day", instead it`s a cover of the Chris Kenner & Dave Bartholomew -composition "Sick And Tired". The music has been heavily re-arranged to the point that it`s hard to recognize the tune but the lyrics are practically the same as on the original. The 2020 CD / LP release of the song on the album No Business had it titled as "I Need You Every Day [Sick & Tired]"
As Jimi`s guitar part closely resembles one that he later used for the studio version of "Bleeding Heart" in 1970 and as he was credited as arranger on the Curtis Knight "How Would You Feel" RSVP 45 (recorded under the same producer at around the same time as the Ricky Mason song) I believe it`s quite possible that it was Jimi who was responsible for the reworking of the music.
WINTERLAND (1968)
Jim Marshall photographed Jimi backstage at Winterland on the 12th of October 1968, 4 operating a portable record player 2 with a can of Miller in his hand (see picture 5 in this Time magazine article).
It looks like Jimi is either closing or opening up the portable player in the picture with a copy of the Fats Domino album Fats Is Back (released circa August / September 1968) 5 in the foreground. Below is an enlarged detail from the picture, the sleeve of the LP can be seen in front of the record player (I superimposed an upside down picture of the sleeve on top of the Winterland shot for comparison).
BACKSTAGE AT WINTERLAND 12 OCT 1968 - detail of a picture taken by Jim Marshall
We of course don't know how or why the LP ended up in the picture, The Fats Is Back LP was a relatively new release that had just entered the Billboard chart at the time so pretty much anybody could have brought it with them. We do know that Jimi liked Fats Domino and the LP was released on Reprise (Jimi's US label at the time) but someone may just as well just have happened to have walked in with the LP. In any case, whatever the reason it looks like the album was being played backstage at Winterland in October 1968. According to the sleeve notes musicians on the LP include at least two that Jimi was familiar with from the early days, King Curtis and Chuck Rainey.
Minneapolis (1968)
Shortly after the concerts at Winterland Jimi mentioned Fats Domino in an interview with Tony Glover done in Minneapolis on the 2nd of November 1968:
GLOVER: Does an audience worry you when they rush the stage like that?
HENDRIX: No man, I used to do it for Fats Domino, and I wasn’t about to sit down just ‘cause somebody told me to!
Just a casual mention of Fats Domino from Jimi but an interesting one. He had been photographed playing a Fats Domino LP just three weeks earlier so one wonders whether Fats Domino for some reason was especially much in his mind at the time since he brought his name up here?
Also, his remark that he "used to do it" ie rush the stage for Fats Domino tells us that he had attended at least one Fats Domino concert, probably before September 1966. Would be fascinating to know exactly when and where Jimi Hendrix saw Fats Domino live...
SOURCES:
1 the interview was published in the december-january, 1969 -issue of Metanoia. It also circulates on tape but the recording omits Jimi's comment about Fats Domino and instead picks up right after it so the Fats Domino -reference only exists in print - unless the circulating copy of the tape is incomplete.
2 I haven't found out what the exact model of the record player is and there's of course very little of it visible in the picture but there were several very similar looking players available in the 1960s. So I'm quite certain that's what Jimi is setting up or already playing in the picture, also supported by the fact that there's an LP sleeve laying next to it...
3 Chronology of "One Night":
Originally released by Smiley Lewis on the 45 "One Night / Ain't Gonna Do It" (Imperial X5380) circa February 1956
The best known version is by Elvis Presley released on the 78 / 45 "One Night / I Got Stung" (RCA Victor 47-7410) in late October 1958. The single shows up on several radio station playlists from 25 October 1958 onwards, for example WTRY in Troy, New York. A full page ad for the 45 was published in the 1 November 1958 issue of Cash Box and the single was also reviewed and selected to be the "Disk of the Week" in the same issue. The single entered the Billboard "Honor Roll Of Hits" at number 19 in the 10 November 1958 issue). Note that the A side / B side coupling / listing for this 45 and 78 varies a lot depending on the discography / text / pressing but I'll go with "I Got Stung" as the A side as that's how the original 1 November 1958 full page ad in Cash Box listed the single, both on the sleeve pictured and in the text.
Later covered by Fats Domino on the LP Let The Four Winds Blow (Imperial LP 9153) released circa July 1961 (reviewed in the Cash Box 5 August 1961 -issue)
4 picture dated by Ben Valkhoff & Luigi Garuti
5 a full page ad for the "Lady Madonna" 45 and the Fats Is Back LP was published in the 7 September 1968 -issue of Cash Box. The LP was listed under "NEW ACTION LP'S" in Billboard 12 October 1968 and entered the Billboard TOP LP's -chart for week ending October 19 1968 at number 189 in the 19 October 1968 -issue.
6 "Sick And Tired" by Fats Domino was released both as a 45 & 78 with the same catalog number:
Fats Domino - "Sick And Tired / No, No" (Imperial X5515) USA March 1958
See the Ricky Mason Recordings With Jimi Hendrix -page for more information.