Role Musician Name D. Fontana | ||
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Albums All the King's Men, A Country Christmas: Celebrate the Season Movies Classic Albums: Elvis Pres, Elvis: Return to Tupelo, 200 Cadillacs | ||
Birth name Dominic Joseph Fontana | ||
D j fontana talks about his years with elvis
Dominic Joseph Fontana (born March 15, 1931, Shreveport, Louisiana, United States) is an American musician best known as the drummer for Elvis Presley for 14 years. He played on over 460 RCA cuts with Elvis.
Contents
- D j fontana talks about his years with elvis
- A tribute to drummer D J Fontana drummer to the King
- Biography
- Appearances
- Recordings
- References
A tribute to drummer D. J. Fontana - drummer to the King.
Biography
Nicknamed "D. J.", Fontana was employed by the Louisiana Hayride to be an in-house drummer on its Saturday night radio broadcast. In October 1954 he was hired to play drums for Presley, and that marked the beginning of a fifteen-year relationship. He performed on the NBC television special known as the '68 Comeback Special.
Fontana joined a band (originally assembled by Sam Phillips without a drummer) consisting of Scotty Moore (lead guitar), Bill Black (bass) and Elvis Presley (rhythm guitar), calling themselves "The Blue Moon Boys". This became the band that would perform and record the vast majority of the Elvis Presley hits of the 1950s (some also including piano and backing vocals from the Jordanaires) including "Heartbreak Hotel", "Hound Dog", "Don't Be Cruel", and "Jailhouse Rock". The band also toured extensively and performed on several television appearances including The Ed Sullivan Show through 1956 and 1957.
"Armed with accuracy, power, swing, dynamics, great time and - the biggest compliment of all - simplicity whenever it was best, D.J. rocked the greatest singer and the greatest songs.... ever. He did it year after year, record after classic record. In a world of one trick ponies and lucky "Rock Stars," D.J. is the real deal." ~ Stan Lynch
"I learned the value of simplicity at the Hayride. I heard Scotty and Bill and Elvis one night and knew that I couldn't mess up that sound. That's why I always play what I feel. If that won't work, I just won't do it again. I think the simple approach comes from my hearing so much big band music. I mixed it with rockabilly." ~ D.J. Fontana
The band officially broke up in 1958 although Fontana and Elvis still played and recorded together regularly throughout the 1960s. Moore would sometimes join them. Moore and Fontana have also performed together without Presley, including a 2002 recording of "That's All Right (Mama) with Paul McCartney. After 1958, Black never played with the band again; he died in 1965.
In 1983, Fontana published a book in pictorial form titled D. J. Fontana Remembers Elvis about his years playing with Presley.
Fontana's Life and Times weekly phonecasting debuted on July 3, 2007.
Fontana's pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in Nashville, which inducted him on January 14, 2009.
On April 4, 2009, Fontana was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland in the sidemen category.
Fontana has been portrayed by Ed Begley, Jr. in the film Elvis (1979) and by Eric William Pierson in the CBS mini-series Elvis (2005).