Fats Waller

On December 15, 1943, at age 39, Waller died aboard an eastbound train in the vicinity of Kansas City, Missouri, following a west coast engagement. The highest charting single in the US was the original release of "Only You" at #67. This song, a searing treatment of racism, black and white, calls into question the accusations of "shallow entertainment" levelled at both Armstrong and Waller. Vince went on to record a single with Paul Quinn, had a brief project with Undertones singer Feargal Sharkey as The Assembly, and then founded the pop group Erasure. With Razaf he wrote "What Did I Do (To Be So Black and Blue)?" 1929 which became a hit for Louis Armstrong. After the band split in 1983, Alison Moyet went on to a successful solo career. He also appeared in several feature films and short subject films, most notably "Stormy Weather" in 1943. The You And Me Both album saw greater songwriting input from Moyet, adding a rather more mature and soulful flavour, particularly on the hit single Nobody's Diary.

Waller also made a successful tour of the British Isles in the late 1930's, and appeared in one of the earliest BBC Television broadcasts. Heavily influenced by earlier bands like Kraftwerk, Yazoo expanded upon the synthpop formula by juxtaposing Moyet's bluesy emotional vocals with Clarke's clinical electronic hooks. Their art pop sound referenced disco but added a more new wave disaffected attitude that disco lacked. His weight and drinking are believed to have contributed to his death. They recorded two albums entitled Upstairs at Eric's and You and Me Both. His nickname came about because he weighed nearly 300 pounds (136 kg). Their biggest hits included the singles "Only You" (later successfully covered by the socialist acapella group The Flying Pickets), "Don't Go" and "Situation". He collaborated with the Tin Pan Alley lyricist Andy Razaf and had a commercially successful career, which according to some music critics eclipsed his great musical talent. Mute Records continued to release the output of this new Clarke project.

Among his songs are "Squeeze Me" 1919, "Ain't Misbehavin'" 1929, "Blue Turning Grey Over You" 1930, "Honeysuckle Rose" 1929, "I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling" 1929, and "Jitterbug Waltz" 1942. Clarke surprised many by quitting Depeche Mode just as they were beginning to reap success, claiming that they "just weren't getting on, really", forming Yazoo with the then unknown Moyet. Before his solo career, he played with many performers, from Erskine Tate to Bessie Smith, but his greatest success came with his own five- or six-piece combo, "Fats Waller and his Rhythm". Clarke had been the main song-writer in Depeche Mode, who had at that point recorded one album and three singles for Mute Records, including the hit Just Can't Get Enough. He was an excellent pianist--now usually considered one of the very best who ever played in the stride style--but his songwriting and his lovable, roguish stage personality ("One never knows, do one?") overshadowed his playing. Yazoo consisted of:. Johnson introduced Waller to the world of rent parties (a party with a piano player, designed to help pay the rent by charging the guests), and soon he developed a performing career. 'Yazoo'.

Johnson. They were formed in 1981, using a moniker that Alison Moyet had seen on the labels of old blues albums.. Waller studied classical piano and organ before apprenticing himself to legendary Harlem stride pianist James P. Yazoo (known as Yaz in the U.S.) were an English electropop duo from Basildon, Essex, who had a number of top ten hits in the British and American charts in the early 1980s. He was born Thomas Wright Waller in New York City. For alternate meanings, see Yazoo (disambiguation).. Fats Waller (May 21, 1904 - December 15, 1943) was an African-American jazz pianist, organist, composer and comedic entertainer. The below article is about Yazoo the music band.