Eight years ago today (June 13, 2018), DJ Fontana died in his sleep in Nashville at age 87. You’ve heard Fontana’s drumming on nearly 500 Elvis Presley recordings, including such standouts as “Hound Dog”, “All Shook Up”, and “Can’t Help Falling in Love”.
In addition to the 13 years he spent as the King’s drummer, Fontana also played with Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Carl Perkins, Melba Montgomery, and more.
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About DJ Fontana
Born March 15, 1931, in Shreveport, Louisiana, Dominc Joseph “DJ” Fontana got his start playing pop and jazz tunes in cocktail lounges when he was just 15 years old.
“I’d get off about 3 in the morning, which made it hard at school the next day,” he said in a 1985 interview.
Fontana first met Elvis Presley while he was a staff drummer for the Louisiana Hayride country music radio show.
“I knew Elvis was different by his clothes and his actions on stage,” Fontana recalled. “I said, ‘The boy’s got something. What it is, I don’t know.’”
After working the show with Presley, guitarist Scotty Moore, and bassist Bill Black, Fontana joined the other three men as part of a band assembled by Sun Records founder Sam Phillips.
Known as the Blue Moon Boys, the quartet recorded nearly 500 songs together. They spent the rest of the 1950s touring extensively, including appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show.
“We knew we were getting bigger crowds, but we didn’t know exactly how big he was,” Fontana reflected. “I don’t think he knew, because we were always going from one town to the next. We didn’t have the chance to hear any critics, although we knew the security had gotten tight. But we really didn’t know that he had become so famous. We didn’t pay attention to it, because we were there every day. We were all still traveling in a car, and it wasn’t any big deal to us.”
Even after the Blue Moon Boys split in 1958, Fontana continued playing and recording with Moore and Presley throughout the 1960s. In 1968—his final year with Elvis—he performed on the famous NBC TV special, often referred to as Elvis’ Comeback Special.
[RELATED: The Soft and Cuddly Story Behind “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear” by Elvis Presley]
In 2009, DJ Fontana was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the “sidemen” category.
Featured image by Charles Paul Harris/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images