Cheap Trick – Ain’t That A Shame

The song was written by Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew and Fats released it in 1955.

Fats Domino really liked Cheap Trick’s version of the song…reportedly it was his favorite cover version of his song. Domino gave Cheap Trick his gold record for his 1955 single, which is held by guitarist Rick Nielsen! That is really special.

The song peaked at #35 in the Billboard 100, #10 in Canada, and #24 in New Zealand in 1979. It was from the album Cheap Trick at Budokan in 1979. Dave at A Sound Day had a nice write up about the album…that is probably why I thought of this one. Another live version of song, recorded in 1999, was released on the 2001 album Silver.

I’m a huge Fats Domino fan…I first heard Fats on Happy Days as a kid. This song and Blueberry Hill are the first songs I remember by him.

This was the first song to crossover from the R&B charts to the mostly white pop charts of the day. Like several other songs previously heard exclusively in black bars or nightclubs, it was covered by the crooning Pat Boone.

Concerned about how people would respond to the title…Pat was going to change it to “Isn’t It A Shame” but the producers realized that would not exactly be the same.

Yea Pat Boone covered it…like he did other songs. I usually am not negative in my posts but no I don’t like Pat Boone’s renditions of those great rock and roll songs. Saying that…did it help the artists he covered? Yes it gave Domino and Little Richard’s songs a boost…it’s a shame (No pun intended) it took that to help Fats and Little Richard.

Pat Boone: “When I recorded their songs, my records of their songs sold 10 times that – and introduced them to the white audiences, or the pop audiences. So, they were grateful for my having recorded their songs. And of course, we became friends, as well.”

From Songfacts

This is a heartache song about a breakup that was the other partner’s fault. Domino wrote it with Dave Bartholomew, who worked on most of Domino’s hits.

Boone’s cover was a huge hit, going to #1 on the US Pop charts and reaching #7 in the UK. This gave Domino’s original recording a boost, and helped it cross over.

Like he did on “I’m Walking,” Domino made sure the beginning of this song was quite memorable, since if the hook comes right at the beginning, it’s more likely to be heard.

You may not know the lyrics, but you probably know how the song starts:

You made… (bomp bomp)
Me cry… (bomp bomp)
When you said… (bomp bomp)
Goodbye… (bomp bomp)
Ain’t that a shame

This was a favorite songwriting trick of Domino’s, as he looked for a good, simple section to start a song. And even though songs like this one were often attached to melancholy lyrics, it was the sound that Domino felt was important – if he could make it sound happy, it would evoke pleasant memories.

This was Fats Domino’s first hit song that was not recorded in New Orleans, where the singer lived. He recorded it on March 15, 1955 in a Hollywood studio when he was on tour in Los Angeles. Imperial Records had the engineers compress Fats’ vocals and speed up the song a bit to make the song sound less bluesy and give it more mainstream appeal. This also made it more difficult for other artists to cover the song.

In 1960, Domino recorded a sequel called “Walking To New Orleans,” where he leaves and goes back to his hometown.

This was used in the 1973 movie American Graffiti. It was also used in the movie October Sky.

Cheap Trick’s 1978 cover went to #35 in the US and helped make their At Budokan album a huge hit. A portion of the first guitar solo in their version, played by Rick Nielsen, is lifted from the opening harmonica riff from the Beatles’ “Please Please Me.” That same riff is also used in the guitar outro to the track “The House is Rockin’ (Domestic Problems)” from the band’s 1980 album Dream Police.
According to Nielsen, Cheap Trick got the idea to record the song after hearing John Lennon’s 1975 cover version.

In 2007, this was used in commercials for Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper. >>

This was the first song that John Lennon learned to play. Lennon later recorded the song in a duet with Yoko Ono, and his fellow Beatle Paul McCartney also recorded the song.

A sample of this song is used as a response to an alien invasion in Buchanan & Goodman’s 1956 hit, “The Flying Saucer.”

Jon Batiste and Gary Clark, Jr. performed this in tribute to Domino at the Grammy Awards in 2018 along with “Maybellene,” in honor of another rock legend who died in 2017, Chuck Berry.