David Louis Bartholomew (born December 24, 1918) is an American musician, bandleader, composer, arranger and record producer, prominent in the music of New Orleans throughout the second half of the 20th century.
He was born Davis Bartholomew in Edgard, Louisiana, to Mary
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and Louis Bartholomew. He learned to play the tuba and then took up the trumpet, taught to him by Peter Davis, who had also tutored Louis Armstrong. Around 1933, Bartholomew moved with his parents to New Orleans, where he played in local jazz and brass bands, including Fats Pichon's band on a Mississippi riverboat. After a stay in Jimmie Lunceford's band, he joined the US Army during World War II. He developed writing and arranging skills as a member of the 196th Army Ground Forces Band.
At the end of the war Bartholomew returned to New Orleans and, by November 1945, had started leading his own dance band, Dave Bartholomew and the Dew Droppers, named for a local club, the Dew Drop Inn. The band became locally popular, described as "the
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bedrock of R&B in the city. A local journalist wrote of the band in June 1946, "Putting it mildly, they make the house 'rock'". In 1947, they were invited by club owner Don Robey to perform in Houston, Texas, where Bartholomew met Lew Chudd, the founder of Imperial Records.
Bartholomew and his band made their first recordings, including "She's Got Great Big Eyes", at Cosimo Matassa's New Orleans studio for De Luxe Records in September 1947. Their first hit was "Country Boy", credited to Dave Bartholomew and His Orchestra, which reached number 14 on the national Billboard R&B chart in early 1950. Prominent members of the band, besides Bartholomew
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on trumpet and occasional vocals, were the saxophonists Alvin Tyler, Herb Hardesty and Clarence Hall, the bass player Frank Fields, the guitarist Ernest McLean, the pianist Salvador Doucette, and the drummer Earl Palmer. They were later joined by the saxophonist Lee Allen.
Two years after they had first met in Houston, Lew Chudd asked Bartholomew to become Imperial's A&R man in New Orleans. Bartholomew produced Imperial's first national hits, "3 x 7 = 21", written by him and recorded by the female singer Jewel King, and
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"The Fat Man", recorded in December 1949 by a young pianist, Fats Domino. "The Fat Man"—based on "Junker's Blues", with lyrics rewritten by Bartholomew and Domino reached number 2 on the R&B chart and eventually sold over one million copies, kicking off Domino's career Both records featured Bartholomew's band, as did a succession of further hits through the 1950s. Cosimo Matassa said, "Many times I think Fats’ very salvation was Dave being able to be stern enough and rigid enough to insist on things getting done... He was adamant as he could be about the discipline of the players."
"The Fat Man", recorded in December 1949 by a young pianist, Fats Domino. "The Fat Man"—based on "Junker's Blues", with lyrics rewritten by Bartholomew and Domino reached number 2 on the R&B chart and eventually sold over one million copies, kicking off Domino's career Both records featured Bartholomew's band, as did a succession of further hits through the 1950s. Cosimo Matassa said, "Many times I think Fats’ very salvation was Dave being able to be stern enough and rigid enough to insist on things getting done... He was adamant as he could be about the discipline of the players."
Bartholomew left Imperial after a disagreement with Chudd at the end of 1950 and for two years recorded for other labels, including Decca, King and Specialty. Among his recordings at King was "My Ding-a-Ling", which Bartholomew wrote and first recorded in
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January 1952; the song was later recorded by Chuck Berry, who had an international hit with it in 1972, although Berry substantially changed the song's arrangement and verses and claimed credit for writing it. While at Specialty, Bartholomew produced Lloyd Price's recording of "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", which featured Domino (uncredited) on piano. The single reached number 1 on the R&B chart in mid-1952.
In 2015, the New Orleans City Council declared Aug. 19 Dave Bartholomew Day.
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He remains a resident of New Orleans and his 100th birthday is Christmas Eve 2018.