First off, let me say something: the book has a major error in the entry for this album. It lists the wrong title, citing the admittedly confusingly similar album This is Fats!, released a year after the correct album, This is Fats Domino!. The track listing and accompanying short essay is for the correctly titled album, so that will be the album I review here. Hopefully this will be the only major error made in this book, but I’m only six albums in at this point, so that’s difficult to say.

Anyways, this album didn’t impress me as much as I had hoped. It’s a quality album, don’t get me wrong, but it just didn’t make that much of an impact on me. The opening track, “Blueberry Hill”, is very good, with great jazz instrumentation and a memorable vocal performance. It was one of his biggest hits, and for good reason too. However, this is one of those albums that sadly makes the huge mistake of making the best track the first track, and a lot of the following songs just don’t meet the expectations that “Blueberry Hill” sets. There are still quite a few good songs though, such as “What’s the Reason I’m Not Pleasing You”, “Reelin’ and Rockin'”, “Poor Poor Me”, and the instrumental “The Fat Man’s Hop”. The instrumentation is very good throughout, with particular note going to the piano, saxophone and percussion.

Overall, I wasn’t quite disappointed, but I wasn’t quite impressed either. I don’t have a positive or negative opinion. I’m just kind of indifferent, to be honest. There were several good tracks, but it just didn’t really do much for me. What are your thoughts?

Next up: Songs For Swingin’ Lovers! by Frank Sinatra (1956)