Today in History—August 13: Big Mama Thornton Records “Hound Dog”

Written by

René Ostberg

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

History

On this day in 1952, Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton—the “biggest, baddest, saltiest chick” in blues music—recorded “Hound Dog.”

True to her reputation, she gave the song everything she had—and changed rock and roll history.

“Hound Dog” had Willie Mae Thornton’s name on it from the get-go. And a ferocious performance with Johnny Otis’s band at Harlem’s Apollo Theater would soon earn her the nickname “Big Mama.”

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Otis had an impeccable eye for talent (one of his other discoveries was R&B great Jackie Wilson). He asked Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, two teenage songwriters, to meet with Thornton. Leiber said, “We saw Big Mama and she knocked me cold.”

That first impression inspired them to write “Hound Dog,” a song about a woman who won’t put up with any more of her man’s cheating and mooching. Thornton didn’t just sing the lyrics, she screamed and growled them. “You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog / quit snoopin’ ’round my door.” As if she knew exactly what kind of man those words were about.

Fun Fact

In 2024 Big Mama Thornton was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

“Hound Dog” was released in 1953 and spent seven weeks at the top of the Billboard R&B chart. Thornton became a star.

Another singer also found success with the song a few years later. You may have heard of him: Elvis Presley. His version, released in 1956, topped the pop, country, and R&B charts and launched the young rocker’s career straight into the stratosphere. (Thornton reportedly wasn’t thrilled about Presley’s success with the song, probably because she wasn’t given much credit for the original.)

But some people think Big Mama grasped the song’s meaning better than Elvis did. As Stoller once said, “She was singing to a man. And he was singing to a dog.”

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