By Dr. John 
 
 After John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Fats Domino and his partner, Dave Bartholomew, were probably the greatest team of songwriters ever. They always had a simple melody, a hip set of chord changes and a cool groove. And their songs all had simple lyrics; that's the key. There are no deep plots in Fats Domino songs: "Yes, it's me, and I'm in love again/Had no lovin' since you know when/You know I love you, yes I do/And I'm savin' all my lovin' just for you." It don't get no simpler than that. 
 
 Even when Fats Domino did songs by somebody else, it was still Fats. He could really lock in with his band and play those hard-driving boogie shuffles — it was pre-funk stuff, and it was New Orleans, and he did it all his way. One thing that most people miss, which he did on some of his biggest records, like "Blueberry Hill": He could do piano rolls with both hands. A couple of guys, like Allen Toussaint, could do Fats to a T, but with Fats, there was brothsome little different thing. He was like Thelonious Monk that way. You can always tell when it's Monk and when it's somebody trying to play like Monk. 
 
 I give a lot of credit to Dave Bartholomew, Fats' producer and songwriting partner. They were a team. Dave produced records perfect for Fats. He had the sense to go with the best-feeling take when they were recording. People would have missed something great about Fats if they had just heard the more "correct" takes — the ones without that extra off-the-wall thing that Fats would bring. 
 
 You can't hardly hear the bass on some of Fats' early records. Later, they started doubling the bass line with the guitar, and it made for a very distinctive sound. That became standard with Phil Spector. I don't know if Phil picked it up from Fats or from somebody who picked it up from Fats, but it started with Fats. You can hear a lot of Fats in Jerry Lee Lewis. Anytime anybody plays a slow blues, the piano player will eventually get to something like Fats. I can't tell you the number of times I played sessions and was asked specifically to do Fats. Eighty kajillion little bands all through the South — we all had to play Fats Domino songs. Everybody, everywhere. 
 
 Fats is old school to the max — he loved to work the house, do looooong shows and push the piano across the stage with his belly. That innocence is there in his music. He's a good man, and people respond to that goodness. I don't think it was about anything other than the tradition of working the house and what felt good to Fats. 
 
 When all the payola scandals were happening and it looked bad for rock & roll, Fats did an interview in some magazine. He said, "I don't know what all the trouble is about us being a bad influence on teenagers. I'm just playing the same music I played all my life." That's what Fats was about. He didn't look on what he did as special or different. He just did what Fats did. ||||| Fats Domino, the New Orleans musician whose hit versions of “Blueberry Hill” and “Ain’t That a Shame” were part of the opening salvo of rock ‘n’ roll in the 1950s, has died at the age of 89. 
 
 The death was announced by his daughter, who shared the news with local television outlet WWLTV early Wednesday morning. The Louisiana State Coroner’s Association later confirmed to PEOPLE that the musician had died Tuesday. The cause of death remains unavailable at this time. 
 
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 “We are all touched by the outpouring of love and tribute for our father,” his family said in a statement. “He passed away peacefully at home surrounded by those he loved and those who loved him. His music reached across all boundaries and carried him to all corners of the world. 
 
 …Then I rock myself to sleep 
 
 Prayin’ that I am here to keep 
 
 Then I ride the rising sun 
 
 Gee ain’t I being a lucky one 
 
 We thank you for allowing us to grieve privately during this difficult time. Funeral arrangements are pending.” 
 
 While nascent R&B had coalesced around the Mississippi Delta for at least a generation before, Domino’s music helped bring what was then known as “race music” to mainstream—predominantly white—culture. Throughout the next decade he would mark an astonishing run of more than three dozen Top 40 hits. Selling more than 65 million singles, it was a commercial streak bested only by Elvis Presley. 
 
 Born Antoine Domino Jr. in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward on Feb. 26, 1928, the Creole French musician pioneered a boogie-woogie piano style that would become the bedrock of rock. “What they call rock ‘n’ roll is rhythm and blues,” he admitted in a 1956 profile. “And I’ve been playing it for 15 years in New Orleans.” 
 
 Clive Limpkin/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty 
 
 His records inspired generations of performers—most notably John Lennon, who said that Domino’s “Ain’t That a Shame” was the first song he ever learned how to play. Fellow Beatle Paul McCartney later wrote “Lady Madonna” as an affectionate tribute to Domino, and Presley once dubbed him “the real king of rock n roll.” 
 
 Growing up hearing his father playing violin, he took to music early. Having been taught piano at age 10 by his brother-in-law, jazz musician Harrison Verrett, Domino dropped out of school a short time later to play local bars at night. “Back then I used to play everybody’s records; everybody’s records who made records,” he told Offbeat magazine in 2004. “I used to hear ’em, listen at ’em five, six, seven, eight times and I could play it just like the record because I had a good ear for catchin’ notes and different things.” 
 
 By day he supported himself working a series of odd jobs, including stints at a bedspring factory and as an assistant at an ice delivery service. “In the houses where people had a piano in their rooms, I’d stop and play,” he told USA Today in 2007. “That’s how I practiced.” 
 
 It was during this time that he was given his distinctive nickname by bandleader Bill Diamond—a comment less on his physical size but his piano style, which recalled that of Fats Waller and Fats Pichon. 
 
 By the mid-’40s he had teamed with trumpeter Dave Bartholomew, who would prove an important collaborator. Together they penned what would be Domino’s first hit, “The Fat Man,” a sanitized version of a drug-addled R&B standard called “Junkers Blues.” Released in 1949, it would eventually sell over a million copies. 
 
 With his flamboyant, bejeweled fashion sense, laid-back vocal delivery and, of course, his girth, Domino became one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most visible and distinctive early stars, appearing at DJ Alan Freed’s famous revues, and on variety shows helmed by early television titans Ed Sullivan and Steve Allen. He also had brief roles in films like Shake, Rattle and Rock, The Big Beat and The Girl Can’t Help It—popular rock movies aimed at the burgeoning teen market. 
 
 In 1956 he scored his biggest hit with an amped up version of “Blueberry Hill,” an old musical chestnut that had been popularized by the swing bandleader Glenn Miller over a decade earlier. Domino followed up this success with a pair of Top 5 songs, “Blue Monday” and “I’m Walkin’.” 
 
 The pop hits continued into the ’60s with “Whole Lotta Lovin’,” “I’m Gonna Be a Wheel Someday,” “Walkin’ to New Orleans” and “My Girl Josephine.” His version of “Lady Madonna”—the Beatles song he inspired—marked an appropriate end to his string of Hot 100 entries, but he continued to be a force on the Country charts for many years. 
 
 Jazz Archiv Hamburg/ullstein bild/Getty 
 
 In honor of his immense influence to music, the portly piano-playing prodigy was honored with an induction into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987. He declined to attend either ceremony, preferring to stay in his native New Orleans. 
 
 He refused to leave even on Aug. 29, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina brought havoc to the city. Rumors quickly spread that Domino had died in the aftermath, with one misinformed fan spray-painting the message “RIP Fats. You Will Be Missed” on the side of his home. However, the star had survived the destruction and was ferried away by family members in a boat. 
 
 He retired from music in 2007, but remained a familiar presence around the city in his eye-catching pink Cadillac—and his matching pink-roofed house. “I just drink my little beers, do some cookin’, anything I feel like ” he told London’s Daily Telegraph in 2007. 
 
 Stars and notables took to social media to mourn the loss of the music icon. 
 
 “Rest in peace Fats Domino, the great rock ’n’ roll pianist and singer who thrilled us in our early days in Liverpool. His hit records like ‘Ain’t That A Shame’, ‘Blueberry Hill’, ‘I’m In Love Again’ and many others introduced us to the sounds of New Orleans rock ‘n’ roll,” McCartney wrote in a tribute on his website. 
 
 “We were excited to meet Fats once in his home town of New Orleans. He was wearing a huge star spangled diamond encrusted watch which was our first encounter with bling! His voice, piano playing and musical style was a huge influence on us and his appearance in the film ‘The Girl Can’t Help It’ was truly magnificent. As one of my favourite rock ‘n’ roll singers, I will remember him fondly and always think of him with that twinkle in his eye. I read that he had eight children. He himself was named Antoine. His kids were named Antoine III, Anatole, Andre, Antonio, Antoinette, Andrea, Anola and Adonica. Now that is pure Fats!” 
 
 Words fail me in this moment of deep heartache and sadness. We have lost a legend. One of my heroes. New Orleans’ Fats Domino is dead. pic.twitter.com/HZNbQRI889 — Wendell Pierce (@WendellPierce) October 25, 2017 
 
 RIP fats domino… you helped pave the way for new orleans piano players… see you on top of that blueberry hill in the sky ❤️🙏🏼❤️ — Harry Connick Jr (@HarryConnickJR) October 25, 2017 
 
 I found My Thrill on " Blueberry Hill"! RIP Fats Domino — Samuel L. Jackson (@SamuelLJackson) October 25, 2017 
 
 "That innocence is there in his music … people respond to that goodness." – Dr. John on Fats Domino. 
 
 RIP, Fats.https://t.co/99OCUgZNxt pic.twitter.com/FLSTMcJ7M0 — Dr. John (@akadrjohn) October 25, 2017 
 
 Fats Domino you brought me so many hours of pleasure. Rest In Peace Sir — Charlie Daniels (@CharlieDaniels) October 25, 2017 
 
 RIP one of New Orleans' musical giants, Antoine "Fats" Domino. Ain't that a shame. — Harry Shearer (@theharryshearer) October 25, 2017 
 
 RIP Fats Domino, one pf the last of the Founding Fathers. “Come on pretty baby, we’re gonna rock, gonna roll, until the early light.” — Stephen King (@StephenKing) October 25, 2017 
 
 Rest in paradise to Fats Domino. He paved the way for so many. I remember listening to his music as a little boy. #Fatsdomino 🎶🎶 — LLCOOLJ. (@llcoolj) October 25, 2017 
 
 “Words fail me in this moment of deep heartache and sadness,” wrote Wendell Pierce. “We have lost a legend. One of my heroes. New Orleans’ Fats Domino is dead.” ||||| Antoine “Fats” Domino, the iconic New Orleans singer-songwriter whose piano-playing sound and smiling face entertained generations of audiences around the world and introduced an unmistakable rock and roll-rhythm and blues sound to the world, died early Tuesday morning. He was 89. 
 
 His daughter told WWL-TV anchor Eric Paulsen, a longtime friend, that Domino died peacefully at home surrounded by family. 
 
 ALSO: Celebrities react to Fats' death 
 
 The always-reclusive and shy Domino had retired from performing shortly after Hurricane Katrina and had been in declining health over the past few years. He gave his last public performance in 2007 at Tipitina’s. In 2006, he famously at the last second backed out of a performance at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, though he appeared on stage, encouraged by Paulsen and others to smile and wave at the thousands of fans who had gathered to see him perform. 
 
 See the list of Fats' biggest hits - it's a long one 
 
 New Orleans Advocate music writer Keith Spera once called Domino the most significant contributor to the New Orleans musical canon, second only to Louis Armstrong. “And Domino’s bond with his hometown proved the more unbreakable.” That’s because although he traveled the world, often reluctantly, to perform – sometimes as many as 10 months out of the year- he was deep down a son of the Ninth Ward – so much so that he had to be rescued from his compound there after the levee breaches flooded the area during Hurricane Katrina. “It is difficult to imagine him habitating any other environment than his natural one,” Spera wrote. “You can take Domino out of New Orleans – rarely – but you cannot take the New Orleans out of Domino.” 
 
 VIDEO: Emotional Eric Paulsen recalls friendship with Domino 
 
 VIDEO: Domino tours devastated home after Katrina, vows to stay in New Orleans 
 
 Beginning in 1949 with “The Fat Man,” Domino and his longtime collaborator and producer Dave Bartholomew cranked out hit after hit, laying a foundation for what would become rock and roll in the 1950s. 
 
 Born in New Orleans on Feb. 26, 1928, Domino was one of nine siblings in a musical family. He spoke Creole French before he spoke English, and was taught to play the piano by his brother-in-law, Harrison Verrett. He dropped out of school and began performing in music clubs and bars. That was where Bartholomew discovered him in 1949. 
 
 Another collaborator, bass player and bandleader Billy Diamond, gave him his now-famous nickname. “I knew Fats from hanging out at a grocery store. He reminded me of Fats Waller and Fats Pichon,” Diamond said in an interview. “Those guys were big names and Antoine — that’s what everybody called him then — had just got married and gained weight. I started calling him ‘Fats’ and it stuck.” 
 
 It also helped generate the first recording for Domino and Bartholomew, “The Fat Man.” The song, written by the pair and recorded at Cosimo Matassa's studio, became one of a series of recordings for Imperial Records that sold between 500,000 and 1 million copies. The songwriting pair also found success in mainstream America with their 1955 song "Ain't It A Shame,” which was retitled to its now widely known, "Ain't That A Shame." The next year, Domino’s cover of “Blueberry Hill” became his highest charting hit. 
 
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 Also that year, Domino had four other Top 40 hits including “My Blue Heaven.” Later hits came in 1959 with “Whole Lotta Loving,” “I’m Ready,” and “I Want to Walk You Home.” 
 
 The songs and lyrics Domino and Bartholomew wrote were often simple and to the point, with an unmistakable beat. Domino once described the songwriting process as taking inspiration from everyday life."Something that happened to someone, that's how I write all my songs. I used to listen to people talk every day, things would happen in real life. I used to go around different places, hear people talk. Sometimes I wasn't expecting to hear nothin', and my mind was very much on my music. Next thing I'd hear, I would either write it down or remember it good." 
 
 During his career and his rise to fame in a segregated America, Domino was also credited with enduring the challenges of racial discrimination to become one of the defining pioneers of rock and roll music - popular among fans of all races. 
 
 His distinctive style of piano playing, backed by the distinctive sound that Bartholomew arranged in the bands he led, helped Domino stand out. His work also influenced countless other musicians, including the biggest act of the 1960s – the Beatles, who gleefully met him backstage during their 1964 concert at City Park Stadium. “There wouldn’t have been a Beatles without Fats Domino,” John Lennon was once quoted as saying. 
 
 Ironically, it was the British invasion led by the Beatles that pushed Domino off of the popular music charts. But he continued to perform around the world, cementing his reputation as a music giant. He and Bartholomew were among the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was famously shy and once declined an invitation to perform at the White House, though he accepted the National Medal of Arts from President Bill Clinton in 1998. In 2006, President George W. Bush made a personal visit to Domino’s 9th Ward home, still badly battered by Katrina. 
 
 Domino was one of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted by Billy Joel in 1986. 
 
 ALSO: Who's in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? See the list of inductees 
 
 Four songs of Domino's were named to the Grammy Hall of Fame for their significance in music history: “Blueberry Hill,” “Ain’t It A Shame,” “Walking to New Orleans” and “The Fat Man.” 
 
 Domino was also presented with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987. 
 
 He was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987. Rolling Stone magazine listed him at #25 in the list of 'Greatest Recording Artists of All Time.' 
 
 The magazine said: After John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Fats Domino and his partner, Dave Bartholomew, were probably the greatest team of songwriters ever. They always had a simple melody, a hip set of chord changes and a cool groove. And their songs all had simple lyrics; that's the key. There are no deep plots in Fats Domino songs: "Yes, it's me, and I'm in love again/Had no lovin' since you know when/You know I love you, yes I do/And I'm savin' all my lovin' just for you." It don't get no simpler than that. 
 
 © 2017 WWL-TV
– Rock 'n' roll legend Fats Domino is dead at age 89, reports WWL-TV of New Orleans. His daughter confirmed the news to the station. No cause of death was immediately released, but the singer—born Antoine Domino Jr. in New Orleans, per People—was surrounded by family and friends. Fats soared to fame in the early days of rock 'n' roll with hits such as "Blueberry Hill," "Ain't That a Shame," and "Walking to New Orleans" and was one of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Rolling Stone once put him at No. 25 on a list of the "100 Greatest Artists" of all time.