On August 13, 1952, Big Mama Thornton recorded "Hound Dog."

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Fri Aug 13, 2021: On this day, August 13, 1952, Big Mama Thornton recorded "Hound Dog."

Hat tip, This Day in Rock

Hound Dog (song)



Single by Big Mama Thornton

Released: February 1953
Recorded: August 13, 1952
Studio: Radio Recorders Annex, Los Angeles

"Hound Dog" is a twelve-bar blues song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Recorded originally by Big Mama Thornton on August 13, 1952, in Los Angeles and released by Peacock Records in late February 1953, "Hound Dog" was Thornton's only hit record, selling over 500,000 copies, spending 14 weeks in the R&B charts, including seven weeks at number one. Thornton's recording of "Hound Dog" is listed as one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll", and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in February 2013.

"Hound Dog" has been recorded more than 250 times. The best-known version is the July 1956 recording by Elvis Presley, which is ranked number 19 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time; it is also one of the best-selling singles of all time. Presley's version, which sold about 10 million copies globally, was his best-selling song and "an emblem of the rock 'n' roll revolution". It was simultaneously number one on the US pop, country, and R&B charts in 1956, and it topped the pop chart for 11 weeks — a record that stood for 36 years. Presley's 1956 RCA recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1988, and it is listed as one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll".

"Hound Dog" has been at the center of controversies and several lawsuits, including disputes over authorship, royalties, and copyright infringement by the many answer songs released by such artists as Rufus Thomas and Roy Brown. From the 1970s onward, the song has been featured in numerous films, including Grease, Forrest Gump, Lilo & Stitch, A Few Good Men, Hounddog, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and Nowhere Boy.

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BIG MAMA THORNTON - Live YOU AIN'T NOTHING BUT A HOUND DOG
359,336 views • Feb 6, 2011

yxyoic
29.2K subscribers

Rare Live Performance from Big Mama Thornton. She was the first to sing Hound Dog. The song made her a star but she didn't make any money off of it.

Rocknation replied:

Video unavailable? Don't let just one monkey stop the show.

[Docreed2003]

1. The Rufus Thomas lawsuit is what ultimately would land Elvis Presley at RCA

Rufus Thomas recorded an "answer song" to "Hound Dog" called "Bear Cat" at a little recording studio in Memphis known as Sun Records. That lawsuit would see Sam Phillips in a heap of debt which would force him to release his hottest commodity at the time, a young 20 yo Elvis Presley. It was a move that allowed the studio to stay open and would lead to recordings by artists like Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and on and on. Meanwhile, Elvis would record "Hound Dog" himself the next year.

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