1. Fats DominoThe Gold Collection

I’m 74 years old, so you gotta understand that many of my early influences were single releases, not albums, because they mostly didn’t even make albums when I was a kid. Such is the case with Fats, who was undoubtedly the major musical thrill of my formative years, but I list this record because it contains many of my favourite singles, and because it is what I have on my turntable here in the 21st century. I grew up in New Orleans at the time when Fats Domino was still playing clubs there, and I used to tell my mom and dad that I was going to a school dance, then take the streetcar (7 cents) to Rampart Street and go hear Fats. Many times I was the only white person in the joint but nobody seemed to care – we were all there for the music. Seeing Fats’ chubby little fingers fluttering over the keys like a butterfly was a trip. Dave Bartholomew, who wrote much of Fats’ material, played trumpet in the band, and he bent the bell of his horn up so as to be better heard – way before Dizzy G. [Gillespie] got the idea.