Hound Dog, a twelve-bar blues by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, was first recorded by Willie Mae Thornton on August 13, 1952 in Los Angeles. I, whose birthday was on August 15, would have been turning three at the time, and have no recollection of it at all. But it is the version that I sing on the Vimeo below.
You ain’t nothing but a hound dog
Snoopin round my door
You ain’t nothing but a hound dog
Snoopin round my door
You can wag your tail
But I ain’t gonna feed you anymore
You told me you were high-class
But I could see through that
Yes, you told me you were high-class
But I could see through that
And daddy, I know
You ain’t no real cool cat
You ain’t nothing but a hound dog
Snoopin round my door
You ain’t nothing but a hound dog
Snoopin round my door
You can wag your tail
But I ain’t gonna feed you anymore
You made me feel so blue
You made me weep and moan
You made me feel so blue
You made me weep and moan
You aren’t looking for a lover
All you’re looking is for a home
…
Hound Dog was Big Mama Thornton’s only hit. It sold over 500,000 copies and remained fourteen weeks on the R&B charts including seven weeks at Number One. Elvis Presley’s Hound Dog sold about ten million copies when it was released in 1956. Big Mama Thornton in her version is singing to a lover, and Presley in his is actually singing to a dog. I was seven and remember the Presley version because it, like the air I breathed, was everywhere. It was his best selling song too. Elvis was young and sexy shaking his hips, and the fact that the song was actually sung to a dog must have appealed to children across America; it certainly appealed to me. And of course there were all those girls, the screaming teens. In 1953, Big Mama Thornton was an out lesbian who played the harmonica and dressed like a man. The country was ready for Presley in 1956, but even in 1967 when I began to hear about Big Mama and finally heard her sing—I was amazed, and still am—she never was popular, though on the Tree of Rock and Roll she is not an ornament on a branch, she is the branch itself. Her spirit remains influential.
This photo above with Big Mama Thornton was taken by Jim Marshall in Chicago in 1966 with Muddy Waters (guitar), Sammy Lawhorn (guitar), James Cotton (harmonica), Otis Spann (piano), Luther Johnson (bass guitar), and Francis Clay (drums). They were recording one of the greatest recordings ever made up to this very day, Big Mama Thornton with the Muddy Waters Blues Band. Muddy and his crew were a brave bunch of men who knew what they were doing. And they did it, too. Muddy, thank you, thank you, thank you. Here are a few of the songs from that recording. You can find them all on Youtube.
I’m Feeling All Right This Morning
Sometimes I Have A Heartache
Black Rat
Life Goes On Just The Same
Live, Rock Me Baby, 1971
Hound Dog with Buddy Guy