The Cursed Thread of 2019

[robkelk]

RIP Dave Bartholomew, December 24, 1918 - June 23, 2019

He was a trumpeter, songwriter (co-writing "Ain't That a Shame" and "I'm Walkin'"), and arranger, and Fats Domino's producer.

Glenn Miller and Louis Armstrong had recorded Domino’s signature song, “Blueberry Hill,” in the 1940s. However, the Domino-Bartholomew version has become the standard arrangement. When Domino sang the line “The wind in the willow tree,” Mr. Bartholomew created a melody line that overlapped the pianist’s vocal and filled out the song’s sparse accompaniment.

“I was just covering up an empty spot,” he told the New Orleans music magazine Offbeat in 1990. “But now, everybody who plays ‘Blueberry Hill’ has to have that part in the middle. If it doesn’t come up in the middle, then it’s not ‘Blueberry Hill.’ ”