Fats Domino - I've Been Around: The Complete Imperial & ABC-Paramount Recordings (2019)

A lot of new material has been added including unreleased alt takes, undubbed and unedited masters, and instrumental backing tracks. Also for the first time anywhere we present some of Fats's biggest hits as they were originally recorded, not sped-up for release. The completely revised book contains a wealth of previously unpublished images, track-by-track musical commentary by the producers, as well as updated and extended notes by Fats biographer Rick Coleman. The box also includes an acclaimed video documentary on Fats's life and music.

We could have taken the easy way out. The original 1993 box set was out of stock. We could simply have printed more copies and filled orders. Of course, we didn't. This is Bear Family Records and we don't take shortcuts. We've invested more than 1000 hours in re-writing, recompiling and re-mastering this box. The brilliant engineering by Christian Zwarg will leave you shaking your head in admiration. You won't quite recognize some of your favorite Fats Domino tracks because they've never sounded this good.

We've found a lot of new material - some things that were thought to be lost and other things that nobody knew existed. We have alternate takes that have never before been issued. We've got new unedited and non-overdubbed versions of some familiar Fats songs and newly discovered overdubs of familiar songs. We've got the intact recording of Blueberry Hill without the tape glitch. We've got previously unreleased backing tracks. We've also included some examples of Fats working as a session pianist for other artists (including Joe Turner, Lloyd Price and Smiley Lewis) early in his career. And to show how influential Fats's style was, we've included some examples of other performers imitating Fats during his Golden Era (Amazon)

As a buyer of the previous Fats bear family box I was hoping for great things with this set. I’m not disappointed the sound quality is so dynamic and lifelike. Fats Domino has never sounded this good. The 10x10 inch box is gorgeous, the CD's are nice and easy to remove too. The book is a beauty. Sad to hear that this box set has already been deleted for contractual reasons with the Fats Domino estate. So I thank my lucky stars. A wonderful treasure.