David Louis Bartholomew (December 24, 1918 – June 23, 2019) was an American musician, bandleader, composer, arranger, and record producer. He was prominent in the music of New Orleans throughout the second half of the 20th century. Originally a trumpeter, he was active in many musical genres, including rhythm and blues (R&B), big band, swing music, rock and roll, New Orleans jazz, and Dixieland. In his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he was cited as a key figure in the transition from jump blues and swing to R&B and as "one of the Crescent City's greatest musicians and a true pioneer in the rock and roll revolution".[1]
At the end of the war, Bartholomew returned to New Orleans, and by November 1945, had started leading his own dance band, Dave Bartholomew and the Dew Droppers, named after a local hotel and nightclub, the Dew Drop Inn.[8] The band became locally popular, described as "the bedrock of R&B in the city",[7] and according to the music historian Robert Palmer, was a "model for early rock 'n' roll bands the world over".[1] A local journalist wrote of the band, in June 1946: "Putting it mildly, they make the house 'rock'."[6] In 1947, they were invited by club owner Don Robey to perform in Houston, Texas, where Bartholomew met Lew Chudd, the founder of Imperial Records.[6]
Bartholomew and his band made their first recordings, including "She's Got Great Big Eyes", at Cosimo Matassa's New Orleans studio for De Luxe Records in September 1947.[9] Their first hit was "Country Boy", credited to Dave Bartholomew and His Orchestra, which reached number 14 in the national BillboardR&B chart in early 1950.[10] Prominent members of the band, besides Bartholomew on trumpet and occasional vocals, were saxophonists Alvin Tyler, Herb Hardesty, and Clarence Hall, bass player Frank Fields, guitarist Ernest McLean, pianist Salvador Doucette, and drummer Earl Palmer. They were later joined by saxophonist Lee Allen.[5][pageneeded]
Imperial Records and Fats Domino
Bartholomew in Amsterdam, 1962.
Two years after they had first met in Houston, Lew Chudd asked Bartholomew to become Imperial's A&R man in New Orleans.[6][11] Bartholomew produced Imperial's first national hits, "3 x 7 = 21", written by him and recorded by singer Jewel King, and "The Fat Man", recorded in December 1949 by a young pianist, Fats Domino. "The Fat Man" — based on the drug-themed "Junker's Blues", with lyrics rewritten by Bartholomew and Domino to attract a wider audience,[3][6]:51 reached number two on the R&B chart and eventually sold over one million copies, kicking off Domino's career.[1]
Both records featured Bartholomew's band, as did a succession of further hits through the 1950s.[6] Bartholomew's "genial, steady-rolling arrangements" contributed to the music's success.[3] Cosimo Matassa said, "Many times, I think Fats' very salvation was Dave being able to be stern enough and rigid enough to insist on things getting done... He was adamant as he could be about the discipline of the players."[1]
Bartholomew left Imperial after a disagreement with Chudd at the end of 1950, and for two years, he recorded for other labels, including Decca, King, and Specialty.[1] Among his recordings at King was "My Ding-a-Ling", which Bartholomew wrote and first recorded in January 1952; the song was later recorded by Chuck Berry, who had an international hit with it in 1972, although Berry substantially changed the song's arrangement and verses and claimed credit for writing it.[5]:33 While at Specialty, Bartholomew produced Lloyd Price's recording of "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", which featured Domino (uncredited) on piano. The single reached number one on the R&B chart in mid-1952.[12]
After that success, Bartholomew returned to Imperial to work again on Domino's recordings, co-writing and producing a series of R&B hits for him. Domino's crossover to the pop chart came in 1955 with "Ain't That a Shame" (initially titled "Ain't It a Shame"),[13] on which Bartholomew deliberately sought to make Domino's style more appealing to white record buyers.[1] Further hits followed through the late 1950s and early 1960s: "I'm in Love Again" and "Blue Monday" (both in 1956), "I'm Walkin'" (1957), "I'm Gonna Be a Wheel Someday" (1959), "Let the Four Winds Blow" (1961) — all co-written and produced by Bartholomew — and "Blueberry Hill" (1956) and "Walking to New Orleans" (1960), also produced by Bartholomew.[14]
A broken Broadmoor record in debris in the formerly flooded Broadmoor neighborhood after Hurricane Katrina
After Imperial was sold to Liberty Records in Los Angeles in 1963, Bartholomew remained in New Orleans, working for Trumpet Records and Mercury Records and then establishing his own label, Broadmoor Records, in 1967.[1] The label folded the following year, when its distributor, Dover Records, collapsed.[17]
In the 1970s and 1980s, Bartholomew led a traditional Dixieland jazz band in New Orleans, releasing an album, Dave Bartholomew's New Orleans Jazz Band, in 1981. He also took part in Fats Domino's international tours during that period. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a nonperformer in 1991, and released two further albums in that decade, Dave Bartholomew and the Maryland Jazz Band (1995) and New Orleans Big Beat (1998), while continuing to make occasional appearances with his band at festivals.[1][7]
Bartholomew married Pearl King in 1942. After her death in 1967,[16] he married Rhea (née Douse), with whom he had four sons and one daughter.[3] He remained a resident of New Orleans, and celebrated his 100th birthday on Christmas Eve 2018, but plans for a celebration concert were suspended after he was hospitalized.[18]
1957: Roy Brown, No. 29 US pop, No. 5 R&B 1961: Fats Domino, No. 15 US pop, No. 2 R&B 1962: Sandy Nelson, No. 107 pop 1967: Jerry Jaye, No. 107 US pop 1974: Jack Reno, No. 57 country
Pearl King (later recordings also credit Anita Steinman)
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1958: Elvis Presley, No. 4 US pop, No. 10 R&B, No. 1 UK 1972: Jeannie C. Riley, No. 57 country 1975: Mud, No. 32 UK 1976: Roy Head, No. 51 country 2005: Elvis Presley, No. 1 UK (reissue)
