MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES
Hound Dog may have been Big Mama Thornton’s only significant hit but its status as a seminal record in the history of emerging rock’n’roll remains undimmed. Thornton sold more than half a million copies of the Leiber and Stoller-penned classic, which was laid down at Los Angeles’ Radio Recorders Annex studio in the summer of 1952. It’s a song that has been covered more than 250 times, with the July 1956 version by Elvis leading the way. Presley’s chart-topping incarnation has now sold an astonishing 10 million copies worldwide but Thornton’s original is equally as visceral. In a 1990 interview for Rolling Stone magazine, Mike Stoller explained: “[Thornton] was a wonderful blues singer, with a great moaning style. But it was as much her appearance as her blues style that influenced the writing of Hound Dog and the idea that we wanted her to growl it.” Stoller’s partner Jerry Leiber has claimed the pair wrote the song in as little as 12 minutes – it’s doubtful either could have predicted it would still be regarded as one of the central benchmarks of rock’n’roll 70 years later.
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