Big Mama Thornton
|
|
Missing image
Bigmamathornton.jpg
Bigmamathornton.jpg
Big Mama Thornton album cover
Willie Mae ("Big Mama") Thornton (December 11, 1926 - July 25, 1984) was an American blues singer.
Her one hit was Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller's "Hound Dog," which she recorded in 1953 with the Johnny Otis band. Big Mama Thornton always claimed to have written the song herself (a claim which may actually hold some validity), and her lively rendition of it held the #1 spot in the Billboard rhythm and blues charts for seven weeks. Elvis Presley's smoother and bowdlerized version was a major pop hit in 1956. Her name gained wider prominence as her song Ball and Chain was covered by Janis Joplin in her own unique intense style, making it a regular number in her repertoire.de:Big Mama Thornton fr:Big Mama Thornton