Harmonica Fats (born Harvey Blackston, September 8, 1927 – January 3, 2000) was an American blues harmonica player who was active in the 1950s through to the 1990s. Fats first achieved success with his cover version of the Hank Ballard song “Tore Up” in 1962, which established him as an in-demand session and touring musician. He is also remembered for his collaboration with blues guitarist Bernie Pearl, a partnership that resulted in four albums.

Born in McDade, Louisiana, a small community 40 miles from Shreveport, Blackston, the eldest of 13 children, was raised on a cotton farm by his grandparents. Blackston casually played harmonica since he was four years-old, and credited Sonny Terry as the foremost influence on his style of playing. Bored with the farming lifestyle, in 1946 Blackston relocated to Los Angeles where he lived with his father, and worked for a manufacturing company. After an automobile accident in 1954 temporarily left him jobless, Blackston began avidly practicing his harp skills; recalling how he knew “a guy by the name of Cleveland Weller that plays guitar and he invited me out to his house to play on a Saturday night with him. So I went out there. He gave me a mike and an amplifier and I started blowing through that mike and amplifier and I would hear all my mistakes, and so then I went down town next day bought me a amplifier and a mike and so I went and practised for four months”.