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Big Mama Thornton

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Willie Mae Thornton, known as Big Mama Thornton, was born in 1926 in Ariton, Alabama. She taught herself to sing, drum and play the harmonica, and from about the age of fourteen she toured with Sammy Green's Hot Harlem Revue. She is important because she was the first to record Hound Dog, years before Elvis Presley, and because her raw way of singing became the model for Janis Joplin.

Music and breakthrough

In 1950 Thornton signed with Peacock Records, a label from Houston. In 1952 she joined Johnny Otis's rhythm and blues revue. That year the young songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller wrote Hound Dog for her: a raw blues in which a woman shows a man the door. Otis played drums on the recording. In 1953 the song spent seven weeks at number 1 on the Billboard R&B chart, and according to the label boss Don Robey it sold between 500,000 and 750,000 copies. Thornton herself said that she received a single royalty cheque for it, for 500 dollars.

Influence

In 1956 Elvis Presley recorded Hound Dog, faster and with different words. His version is estimated to have sold about ten million copies. The money went to the writers and the publisher, not to the singer who had recorded it first. Thornton also wrote songs herself, including Ball and Chain. Janis Joplin made it famous with Big Brother and the Holding Company, at the Monterey Pop Festival of 1967 and on the album Cheap Thrills (1968). Thornton died in 1984 in Los Angeles. That same year she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.

Listening

Listening tip. Hound Dog (1953): notice how Thornton growls and mocks the words more than she sings them, over a slow, dragging rhythm. Then compare the tempo with the fast version by Elvis Presley from 1956.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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Mentioned in other articles

Sources

  1. Wikipedia (en): Big Mama Thornton
  2. Wikipedia (en): Hound Dog (song
  3. Wikipedia (en): Ball 'n' Chain (Big Mama Thornton song
Categories: ArtistsRhythm and blues