Los Angeles Times

Fats Domino put the joy in rock 'n' roll

LOS ANGELES_If Elvis Presley personified the sex appeal of early rock 'n' roll, and Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard channeled the danger lurking within this unbridled form of youthful expression, then Fats Domino was the living embodiment of the pure joy that was an integral part of the musical sea-change that revolutionized world culture in the 1950s.

The argument over exactly where rock 'n' roll began has been debated for decades. But I've long argued that well before Bill Haley & His Comets set teens hopping in 1955 with "Rock Around the Clock," before Elvis first got teens quaking a year earlier with "That's All Right,"

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