Also for the first time anywhere we present some of Fats’s biggest hits as they were originally recorded, not sped-up for release. The completely revised book contains a wealth of previously unpublished images, track-by-track musical commentary by the producers, as well as updated and extended notes by Fats biographer Rick Coleman. The box also includes an acclaimed video documentary on Fats’s life and music.

And we licensed primary sources to master from. None of these were cheap. Putting it simply: the music sounds much better on this box set than it ever has before due to the brilliant remastering from the original tapes. Second, the book that we include is much better – in terms of both the writing and the images – than anything anyone has done before, Bear Family included. The new box set is actually a bargain – especially if you take advantage of the introductory discounted price.

We could have taken the easy way out. The original 1993 box set was out of stock. We could simply have printed more copies and filled orders.

Of course, we didn’t. This is Bear Family Records and we don’t take shortcuts. We’ve invested more than 1000 hours in re-writing, recompiling and re-mastering this box. The brilliant engineering by Christian Zwarg will leave you shaking your head in admiration. You won’t quite recognize some of your favorite Fats Domino tracks because they’ve never sounded this good.

 

We’ve found a lot of new material – some things that were thought to be lost and other things that nobody knew existed. We have alternate takes that have never before been issued.  We’ve got new unedited and non-overdubbed versions of some familiar Fats songs and newly discovered overdubs of familiar songs. We’ve got the intact recording of Blueberry Hill without the tape glitch. We’ve got previously unreleased backing tracks. We’ve also included some examples of Fats working as a session pianist for other artists (including Joe Turner, Lloyd Price and Smiley Lewis) early in his career. And to show how influential Fats’s style was, we’ve included some examples of other performers imitating Fats during his Golden Era. 

But the biggest news concerns the Speed-up. Everybody knows that some of Fats’s Imperial records were speeded up for release, making them both faster and pitched in higher keys. But how many of them? And which ones? And just how much were they speeded up? And, in case you wondered, how was it done back in 1955 and by whom? We didn’t have as good a handle on those questions when the original box set was compiled back in 1993, and we sure didn’t know the answers. But we do now. And we admit, back 25 years ago we screwed up some of the speeds on our original box. And when other companies tried to fix things with their Fats Domino reissues, they made their own mistakes and just added to the mess.

But now the mess is over. A lot of those 1000+ hours went into getting speeds exactly right so we can truly present Fats’s music as it was originally released. But what is completely new here is that we also present, for the first time anywhere, examples of Fats’s Greatest Hits as they were originally performed in the studio, at their original speeds and in their real keys. No speed-up. You can be a fly on the wall and hear songs like Ain’t It A Shame and I’m Walking as they actually sounded in Cosimo’s New Orleans studio. That addition alone makes this Box a landmark event.

A lot has also gone into updating and revising the accompanying, lavishly illustrated book by Fats biographer Rick Coleman, and by music historians Hank Davis and Scott Parker. That includes an updated Fats Domino Imperial Records Discography. And what’s more, we extended the Box to include two CDs with all of Fats post-Imperial recordings for the ABC Paramount label. Twelve CDs in all – an upgrade of 50% from the original box. 

Even if you bought the first Bear Family box 25 years ago, Fats Domino: I’ve Been Around is a must for any serious Fats Domino collection. It’s not going to get any better than this.