Artist: Willie Mae 'Big Mama' Thornton
Author: Jerry Leiber/Mike Stoller
Label: Peacock
Year: 1953
Leiber & Stoller's first big hit, written in 8 minutes flat. Cut in august '52 but remained unissued for copyright reasons. Johnny Otis, who drums on the original and who was about to engage Big Mama Thornton in his revue, added his name along Leiber & Stoller's and Peacock boss Don Robey did the same. The track must have smelled like teen spirit miles across, since it sold 2 million copies before Elvis even heard about it.
Covers:
Roy Brown [as My Hound Dog's In Town]
Tommy Duncan [former singer with Bob Wills]
Rufus Thomas [as Bear Cat (The Answer To Hound Dog); n°3 R&B, the first hit for Sun]
Rosco Gordon [as Juice Head]
Smiley Lewis [as Play Girl]
Jimmie Wilson [as Call Me A Hound Dog]
Frank Motley [as New Hound Dog on Big Town]
Freddie Bell & The Bell Boys [obviously the version Elvis (and his drummer DJ Fontana) knew]
Elvis Presley [n°1 US, R&B and C&W!]
Pee Wee King [produced by Steve Sholes]
Homer & Jethro [parody on Elvis]
John Lennon [Live In New York]
Jeff Beck [in film Honeymoon In Vegas]
Macy Gray [in film Lightning In A Bottle]
Shawn Camp & Billy Burnette [The Bluegrass Elvises]
Elvis with cleaned up lyrics, just as his example Freddie Bell: "Snoopin' round my door" became "cryin' all the time" and "You can wag your tail, but I ain't gonna feed you no more" became "You ain't never caught a rabbit, you ain't no friend of mine".
If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:
Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)