ALABAMA HERITAGE
  • Magazine
    • Current and Back Issues >
      • Back Issues 141-150 >
        • Issue 147, Winter 2023
        • Issue 146, Fall 2022
        • Issue 145, Summer 2022
        • Issue 144, Spring 2022
        • Issue 143, Winter 2022
        • Issue 142, Fall 2021
        • Issue 141, Summer 2021
      • Back Issues 131-140 >
        • Issue 140, Spring 2021
        • Issue 139, Winter 2021
        • Issue 138, Fall 2020
        • Issue 137, Summer 2020
        • Issue 136, Spring 2020
        • Issue 135, Winter 2020
        • Issue 134, Fall 2019
        • Issue 133, Summer 2019
        • Issue 132 Spring 2019
        • Issue 131, Winter 2019
      • Back Issues 121-130 >
        • Issue 130, Fall 2018
        • Issue 129, Summer 2018
        • Issue 128, Spring 2018
        • Issue 127, Winter 2018
        • Issue 126, Fall 2017
        • Issue 125 Summer 2017
        • Issue 124, Spring 2017
        • Issue 123, Winter 2017
        • Issue 122, Fall 2016
        • Issue 121, Summer 2016
      • Back Issues 111-120 >
        • Issue 120, Spring 2016
        • Issue 119, Winter 2016
        • Issue 118, Fall 2015
        • Issue 117, Summer 2015
        • Issue 116, Spring 2015
        • Issue 115, Winter 2015
        • Issue 114, Fall 2014
        • Issue 113, Summer 2014
        • Issue 112, Spring 2014
        • Issue 111, Winter 2014
      • Back Issues 101-110 >
        • Issue 110, Fall 2013
        • Issue 109, Summer 2013
        • Issue 108, Spring 2013
        • Issue 107, Winter 2013
        • Issue 106, Fall 2012
        • Issue 105, Summer 2012
        • Issue 104, Spring 2012
        • Issue 103, Winter 2012
        • Issue 102, Fall 2011
        • Issue 101, Summer 2011
      • Back Issues 91-100 >
        • Issue 100, Spring 2011
        • Issue 99, Winter 2011
        • Issue 98, Fall 2010
        • Issue 97, Summer 2010
        • Issue 96, Spring 2010
        • Issue 95, Winter 2010
        • Issue 94, Fall 2009
        • Issue 93, Summer 2009
        • Issue 92, Spring 2009
        • Issue 91, Winter 2009
      • Back Issues 81-90 >
        • Issue 90, Fall 2008
        • Issue 89, Summer 2008
        • Issue 88, Spring 2008
        • Issue 87, Winter 2008
        • Issue 86, Fall 2007
        • Issue 85, Summer 2007
        • Issue 84, Spring 2007
        • Issue 83, Winter 2007
        • Issue 82, Fall 2006
        • Issue 81, Summer 2006
      • Back Issues 71-80 >
        • Issue 80, Spring 2006
        • Issue 79, Winter 2006
        • Issue 78, Fall 2005
        • Issue 77, Summer 2005
        • Issue 76, Spring 2005
        • Issue 75, Winter 2005
        • Issue 74, Fall 2004
        • Issue 73, Summer 2004
        • Issue 72, Spring 2004
        • Issue 71, Winter 2004
      • Back Issues 61-70 >
        • Issue 70, Fall 2003
        • Issue 69, Summer 2003
        • Issue 68, Spring 2003
        • Issue 67, Winter 2003
        • Issue 66, Fall 2002
        • Issue 65, Summer 2002
        • Issue 64, Spring 2002
        • Issue 63, Winter 2002
        • Issue 62, Fall 2001
        • Issue 61, Summer 2001
      • Back Issues 51-60 >
        • Issue 60, Spring 2001
        • Issue 59, Winter 2001
        • Issue 58, Fall 2000
        • Issue 57, Summer 2000
        • Issue 56, Spring 2000
        • Issue 55, Winter 2000
        • Issue 54, Fall 1999
        • Issue 53, Summer 1999
        • Issue 52, Spring 1999
        • Issue 51, Winter 1999
      • Back Issues 41-50 >
        • Issue 50, Fall 1998
        • Issue 49, Summer 1998
        • Issue 48, Spring 1998
        • Issue 47, Winter 1998
        • Issue 46, Fall 1997
        • Issue 45, Summer 1997
        • Issue 44, Spring 1997
        • Issue 43, Winter 1997
        • Issue 42, Fall 1996
        • Issue 41, Summer 1996
      • Back Issues 31-40 >
        • Issue 40, Spring 1996
        • Issue 39, Winter 1996
        • Issue 38, Fall 1995
        • Issue 37, Summer 1995
        • Issue 36, Spring 1995
        • Issue 35, Winter 1995
        • Issue 34, Fall 1994
        • Issue 33, Summer 1994
        • Issue 32, Spring 1994
        • Issue 31, Winter 1994
      • Back Issues 21-30 >
        • Issue 30, Fall 1993
        • Issue 29, Summer 1993
        • Issue 28, Spring 1993
        • Issue 27, Winter 1993
        • Issue 26, Fall 1992
        • Issue 25, Summer 1992
        • Issue 24, Spring 1992
        • Issue 23, Winter 1992
        • Issue 22, Fall 1991
        • Issue 21, Summer 1991
      • Back Issues 11-20 >
        • Issue 20, Spring 1991
        • Issue 19, Winter 1991
        • Issue 18, Fall 1990
        • Issue 17, Summer 1990
        • Issue 16, Spring 1990
        • Issue 15, Winter 1990
        • Issue 14, Fall 1989
        • Issue 13, Summer 1989
        • Issue 12, Spring 1989
        • Issue 11, Winter 1989
      • Back Issues 1-10 >
        • Issue 10, Fall 1988
        • Issue 9, Summer 1988
        • Issue 8, Spring 1988
        • Issue 7, Winter 1988
        • Issue 6, Fall 1987
        • Issue 5, Summer 1987
        • Issue 4, Spring 1987
        • Issue 3, Winter 1987
        • Issue 2, Fall 1986
        • Issue 1, Summer 1986
    • Digital Features
    • Links of Interest
    • Bonus Materials >
      • Adventures in Genealogy
      • Alabama Heritage Blog
      • Alabama Territory
      • Becoming Alabama >
        • Creek War Era
        • Civil War Era
        • Civil Rights Movement
      • From the Vault
      • History in Ruins
      • Places in Peril
      • Recipes
  • Online Store
    • Customer Service
  • About Us
    • Awards
    • Meet Our Team
    • News
    • Writer's Guidelines and Submissions
  • Search
  • Donate
Published by The University of Alabama,
The University of Alabama at Birmingham,
and the Alabama Department of Archives and History

"Big Mama" Thornton & "Hound Dog"

8/26/2022

 
Known for her voice,
Willie Mae Thornton, also known as "Big Mama" was the first artist to record "Hound Dog" in 1952. Elvis Presley and Janis Jopin also made the song a household name. [Photo/Alabama Heritage Archives]
Elvis Presley may have made "Hound Dog" a household name, but the origins of the song are rooted deep in Alabama.
​
​
"Hound Dog" belonged originally to a rhythm and blues singer, named Willie Mae Thornton, who, at the time of Elvis's recording, was making her living on what Black entertainers called "The Chitlin' Circuit." She had a big voice and suitably imperious manners, all of which had given rise to a nickname that had quickly supplanted her given name. On her rendition of "Hound Dog," released as a 78 rpm record, she was billed as "Big Mama" Thornton. 

"Big Mama's" version of "Hound Dog," recorded for Peacock Records on a hot August day in 1952 in Los Angeles, was the crowning achievement in the career of a singer who left her mark on rock and blues history.  "Hound Dog" quickly climbed to No. 1 on the 1953 all-Black rhythm and blues charts and became a 500,000-plus seller. It also became by far the biggest success in Willie Mae Thornton's career.
"Big Mama" Thornton performed with Johnny Otis throughout much of her career. [Photo/Johnny Otis]
Thornton was born on December 11, 1926, in the rural outskirts of Montgomery, Alabama. Sources also indicated an unincorporated town called Ariton, Dale County. It was an unlikely place for a major female blues singer to emerge. As an Alabama blueswoman, Willie Mae Thornton was almost alone. Only one female singer from the state before her had attained even a degree of success. Thornton's father was a minister and her mother a church singer. One of several children, Willie Mae took an interest in music at an early age. What her first musical influences were, we may never know. Undoubtedly, she took an interest in the deeply emotional music performed by her mother and others in her father's church--but even in Montgomery it was impossible to escape the impact of recorded Black music in the late 1920s and early 1930s. In interviews late in her life, Thornton listed as early influences two of the finest southern blues artists: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey from Columbus, Georgia, and Rainey's brilliant protegee from Chattanooga, Tennessee, Bessie Smith. 

"Big Mama" started making records for Peacock in 1951. The first recordings were noisy, brash affairs--but seasoned with Big Mama's down-home voice, and an occasional dose of worldly humor in the lyrics. Some of the titles included "Cotton Picking Blues," "All Fed Up," and "Mischievous Boogie"; later, "Big Mama" recorded songs that reflected more of her personality: "I Smell a Rat," and "I Ain't No Fool, Either." These were mainly local sellers. Recorded with an eight-piece combo of horns and rhythm, they helped keep her name in circulation. 

A recording session for Peacock in Los Angeles on August 13, 1952, however, seemed tailor-made for “Big Mama's” talents. The backing group, stripped of the horns, was boiled down to a tough, gritty rhythm section, sparked by the sizzling guitar of Pete Lewis. “Big Mama”, fresh from performing, was, as they say, in voice. And she had a song she could sink her teeth into. It was "Hound Dog," the product of a team of white writers, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. 

Invigorated by her hot backup band, “Big Mama” gave the song a superb reading, laced with humor and irony. She sang the lyrics--"You ain't nothing but an ole hound dog, Quit snoopin' round my door"--as if she had her hands on her hips; she even threw in a few mocking howls for good measure. Far too raw for white ears attuned to the fluffy pop of the early 1950s hit parade, the record was a smash in the Black communities, where it rang hard and true. 

"Hound Dog" was “Big Mama” Thornton's only chart hit. It entered the Black playlists in March of 1953 and remained there for fourteen weeks, soaring to No. 1. For “Big Mama”, "Hound Dog" is reported to have sold more than 500,000 copies, taking the fire-engine red Peacock label into Black houses from coast to coast.  

Though nothing again came near the success of "Hound Dog" for “Big Mama”, the record carried her as a performer for the next few years. In March 1953, she began touring in a three-star package with Junior Parker and Johnny Ace. 

“Big Mama's” fortunes suffered no such dramatic reversal, but she was headed on her own downhill course. Fame had hovered close when Elvis, dipping into the musical reservoir of Black sounds he had heard as a teenager, resurrected "Hound Dog" for his 1956 recording. Elvis's version, epitomized by his goofy performance on the Steve Allen Show, became a goofy piece of musical nonsense sung to a real dog. It worked as rock and roll, but its hard rhythm and blues background was lost, as was Willie Mae Thornton's shot at the white record charts. 

Looking on from the sidelines, “Big Mama” was not amused. "That song sold over two million records," she said. "I got one check for $500 and I never saw another." It was the start of a long slide for “Big Mama”, who was to have only a brief return encounter with fame. 

She toured with Gatemouth Brown in 1956 and settled down in the Bay Area the next year, where she worked a variety of clubs and tried without success to duplicate her 1952 hit. But music was changing. Big mamas with raw country voices and raucous ways were on the way out; smooth-sounding pop-ish balladeers and high-voiced girl singers were on the way in. It was a bad time for the blues. Though a small, hard-core audience for “Big Mama's” music existed--it would continue to exist through thick and thin.  

Later on, musical icon Janis Joplin saw Thornton perform; in fact, Joplin studied “Big Mama's” live performances in Venice and San Francisco, and she seldom hesitated to give credit to her inspiration to writers who were thoughtful enough to ask. As a further bow, Joplin performed her version of a composition by “Big Mama”, "Ball and Chain," on Big Brother's smash 1968 "Cheap Thrills" record. Ironically, the song came to be identified strongly with Joplin, though the royalties it brought “Big Mama” were not inconsiderable. 

By the early 1980s, Willie Mae Thornton had slipped into relative obscurity. On July 25, 1984, she passed away, the victim of heart and liver trouble. She was fifty-seven.  
​
“Big Mama” Thornton, the singing preacher's daughter from Montgomery, never sang to a hound dog. She did things her way. Her voice may have failed, her body may have faded away, but she died with her immense pride intact. "I always kept a smile on my face," she said in a telling interview late in her career. "They didn't know what was going through my mind. Didn't have nothing to eat. They didn't know. Didn't have nowhere to stay. They didn't know." 

This feature was previously published in Issue 6, Fall 1987. Due to Issue 6 being out of print, an excerpt of this story is provided for free.​


Comments are closed.

    From the Vault

    Read complete classic articles and departments featured in Alabama Heritage magazine in the past 35 years of publishing. You'll find in-depth features along with quirky and fun departments that cover the people, places, and events that make our state great!

    Read More From the Vault

    Archives

    January 2023
    August 2022
    June 2022
    February 2022
    June 2021
    May 2021
    July 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    April 2015
    July 2014
    April 2014
    October 2013
    October 2012
    July 2012
    October 2009

    Categories

    All
    African Americans
    Agriculture
    Alabama
    Archeaology
    Architecture
    Avondale
    Avondale Zoo
    Birmingham
    Business
    Cathedral Caverns
    Civil War
    Constitution
    Cuba
    Episcopal Church
    Food
    Guntersville
    Hollywood
    Hunting
    Murder
    Mystery
    National Guard
    Native American
    Nursing
    Photography
    Poarch Creek Indians
    Politics
    Preservation
    Quilts
    Religion
    Revolutionary War
    Sand Mountain
    Whiskey
    Women
    WWI
    WWII

    RSS Feed

Online Store
​Customer Service
Meet Our Team
Board of Directors
Corporate Sponsors
News
Join Our Email List

Employment
UA Disclaimer
UA Privacy Policy ​
​Website comments or questions?  

Email ah.online@ua.edu
Published by The University of Alabama, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the Alabama Department of Archives and History
​Alabama Heritage
Box 870342
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487
Local: (205) 348-7467
Toll-Free: (877) 925-2323
Fax: (205) 348-7473

alabama.heritage@ua.edu