“Walkin' To New Orleans” by Fats Domino

Fats Domino's 1960 hit "Walking to New Orleans" started as an offhand remark. Bobby Charles, a Domino devotee whose "Before I Grow Too Old" Fats had already recorded, got called into Domino's dressing room on a tour stop in Lafayette, Louisiana, and invited to visit him at home in New Orleans; Charles said he'd have to walk, having no car. The line stuck, and he knocked out the song for Domino in about 15 minutes.

When Charles made it to New Orleans and sang it for him, Fats loved it, tweaked it and slipped in a nod to his own "Ain't That a Shame", and Dave Bartholomew, the third credited writer, arranged it for the band. They cut it at Cosimo Matassa's studio on Rampart Street, and on Imperial it went to No. 6 on the pop chart and No. 2 R&B.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.