Fats Waller, songwriter: reference sources (web and print); selected songs; recordings, videos; miscellany

Cafe Songbook Music-Video Cabinet: Fats Waller (This section remains in preparation)

Gary Marmorstein in his book Hollywood Rhapsody compares the screen presence of Waller, who appeared in only one major film, to that of Louis Armstrong. Waller, writes Marmorstein, "locked a movie camera in a love-grip and didn't let go. Few men of such girth have exuded such sexiness, a growling, mocking eyebrow-bouncing sensuality that was ripe for the movies. Had Waller lived longer -- he died just months after the release of Stormy Weather, at thirty-nine -- he might have used the movies, or let the movies use him, in new musical ways."

Fats Waller and Ada Brown perform "That Ain't Right" (Nat 'King' Cole & Irving Mills),
with drummer Zutty Singleton, bassist Slam Stewart, and trumpeter and Benny Carter
in Stormy Weather (1943)

• Ain't Misbehavin'
• Black and Blue
• Honeysuckle Rose
• I've Got a Feelin' I'm Fallin'
• Keepin' Out of Mischief Now

Research Resources: Fats Waller

• Amazon (publications, recordings, videos, sheet music, etc.)
• DBOPM (Database Of Popular Music: song list, awards, hit songs, co-writers)
• Discogs.com (songwriting and arranging credits)
• FatsWaller.org (audio, discography, photos, etc.)
• Internet Broadway Database (IBDB) (Broadway productions and song credits)
• Internet Movie Database (brief biography, filmography, movie song credits)
• iTunes
• New York Public Library (catalog entries for books, personal papers, recordings, scores, etc.)
• The New York Times (articles about or related to the songwriter) Review of show: Jason Moran and Meshell Ndegeocello lead a band of jazz musicians through tunes related to Fats Waller (5/16/2011).
• NPR.org (interviews, profiles, other features)
• PBS.org (overview from the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz)
• RedHotJazz.com (overview and discograpjy of original recording sessions)
• Songwriters Hall of Fame (biography and song list)
• Wikipedia (Fats Wallerarticle)
• Arnold Shaw, 52nd Street: The Street Of Jazz, Da Capo Press (reprint of The Street That Never Slept, 1971) -- multiple and extended comments on Waller.
• Maurice Waller and Anthony Calabrese. Fats Waller. New York: Schirmer Books, 1977
• ASCAP Biographical Dictionary, New York: American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, Cattell/Bowker, Fourth edition, 1980 (dates, collaborators, shows/movies, songs, etc., entry p. 526).
• David Ewen. American Songwriters, An H. W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary. New York: The H. W. Wilson Co., 1987 (includes 146 bios of composers and lyricists). -- a wide selection of used copies is available at abebooks.com (entry pp. 413-417).
• Arnold Shaw, The Jazz Age: Popular Music in the 1920s, New York: Oxford University Press, 1987 (multiple references to Waller).
• Barry Singer, Black and Blue The Life and Lyrics of Andy Razaf. New York: Schirmer Books, 1992 (extensive material on Razaf and Waller).
• Gary Marmorstein, Hollywood Rhapsody: Movie Music and Its Makers, 1900-1975,
  New York: Schirmer Books, 1997 (several references to Waller).
• Warren W. Vaché, The Unsung Songwriters: America's Masters of Melody, The Scarecrow Press, 2000 (brief Bio.; entry p. 518-521).
• The Oxford Companion to Jazz, Ed. by Bill Kirchner, Oxford and New York: Oxford Univ. Press: 2000 (multiple and extended references to Waller and his songs).
• William Zinsser. Easy to Remember The Great American Songwriters and Their Songs. Jaffrey, New Hampshire: David R. Godine, 2001 (several comments on Waller in the chapter "Andy Razaf and the African Connection").
• David A. Jasen, Tin Pan Alley: An Encyclopedia of the Golden Age of American Song, New York: Routledge, 2003 (entry, pp. 405-406).
• David A. Jasen and Gene Jones, Spreadin' Rhythm Around: Black Popular Songwriters,
  1880-1930, New York: Schirmer Books, 1998
  (paperback edition, Routledge, 2005 (chapter on Waller plus multiple other references).
• Alyn Shipton, Fats Waller: A Cheerful Little Earful, Continuum: 2005.
• Ken Bloom. The American Songbook, The Singers, The Songwriters and the Songs. New York: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, 2005 (entry for Waller and Razaf, pp. 300-302).
• Philip Furia and Michael Lasser, America's Songs: The Stories Behind the Songs of Broadway, Hollywood, and Tin Pan Alley, New York: Routledge, 2006 (multiple references to Waller).
• Thomas S. Hischak. The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: Theatre, Film, and Television. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008 (entry, p. 777).
• Ted Gioia, The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire, New York: Oxford University Press, 2012 (multiple and extended references to Waller and his songs).
• Fats Waller, "That Ain't Right": bessjazz

Cite this page: Fats Waller, songwriter: reference sources (web and print); selected songs; recordings, videos; miscellany, Cafe Songbook, https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songwriters/w_sws/waller_fats.html