Hound Dog, The King and Big Mama

[luisam]

Hound Dog is one of the most traditional rock 'n' roll song and inevitably is associated to the image of Elvis Presley, who recorded it in July 1956. His version is "an emblem of the rock 'n' roll revolution", one of the best-selling singles of all time. With the 10 millions of copies sold, it was his best-selling song and it is ranked No. 19 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It was simultaneously No. 1 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".

Elvis' version 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.

On the other count, Hound Dog has been recorded more than 250 times. Among the people who have recorded and performed version are Jimi Hendrix, The Everly Brothers, John Lennon, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Robert Palmer, James Taylor, Jeff Beck, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Burnette and The Muppets.

It has been at the center of controversies and several lawsuits, including  disputes over authorship, royalties, and copyright infringement by the many answer songs.

For a start, the one by Elvis was not the first and it is not the original!  Hound Dog was recorded originally by Willie Mae "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. Officially it sold over 500,000 copies but looks that the real numbers exceeded the two millions. It figured for 14 weeks in the R&B charts, including seven weeks at #1. 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 is a twelve-bar blues, a Southern blues lament, is the tale of a woman throwing a gigolo out of her house and her life:

You ain't nothing but a hound dog

Been snoopin' round my door

You ain't nothing but a hound dog

Been snoopin' round my door

You can wag your tail

But I ain't gonna feed you no more

You told me you was high class

I could see through that

You told me you was high class

I could see through that

And baby I know

You ain't no real cool cat

You ain't nothing but a hound dog

Been snoopin' round my door

You ain't nothing but a hound dog

Been snoopin' round my door

You can wag your tail

But I ain't gonna feed you no more

You made me feel so blue

You made me weep and moan

You made me feel so blue

You made me weep and moan

'Cause I'm looking for a woman

All your lookin' for is a home

You ain't nothing but a hound dog

Been snoopin' round my door

You ain't nothing but a hound dog

Been snoopin' round my door

You can wag your tail

But I ain't gonna feed you no more

Three years later, by 1956, Elvis Presley was the hottest act in show business, but was currently experiencing his first bit of comeuppance. In April of '56 Elvis committed to a two-week booking in Las Vegas at the Venus room of the new Frontier Hotel, was declared a flop by Las Vegas audiences and critics alike, playing nightly to half-bored adults who failed to fall under his spell.

Being a flop in Las Vegas (or anywhere) is no fun, and after giving a less-than-spectacular show to a less-than-enthused crowd one night, Elvis drifted over to another hotel to take in a show. The group onstage was Freddie Bell and the Bellboys. They gave their own souped-up, rockier version of Big Mama’s "Hound Dog." Elvis broke up when he first heard the funny song with its strange lyrics. Soon, Elvis was coming to see Freddie and his Bellboys every night.

 

About two months later TV host Steve Allen featured the 21-year-old Elvis as the guest star on his television program The Steve Allen Show. Steve was trying to "tame" him and he had poor Elvis singing "Hound Dog" to a bored-looking top-hat-wearing mutt named Sherlock (!!!) while wearing his white tie and tails. No hip-wiggling, no gyrations, Elvis was directed to just stand there and sing the song. Elvis dutifully did what he was told. A lot of people have argued that Allen's well-known dislike of rock and roll lay beneath his mocking treatment of Presley. Allen and others have maintained that the entire incident was perfectly innocent and in keeping with the comedy format of the show. Elvis would later label this performance his most ridiculous ever.

The very next day (July 2, 1956) after The Steve Allen Show, Elvis reported to RCA studios to cut a few sides. Yep, you guessed it, Hound Dog was on the agenda. It took the super-sensitive Elvis 31 takes to get just the right version of Hound Dog on acetate. He chose version 28, declaring: "This is the one.”  
 

 

 

Elvis used his recollection of Freddie Bell and the Bellboys as the template for his "Hound Dog" version; this recording session was also the first in which Elvis acted as the session producer.

Interestingly, he changed the original lyrics, which basically suggests that the singer will no longer reward her "hound dog" visitor with sex, too racy for mainstream audiences. The revised lyrics strip the verse of its sexual innuendo and leave it largely meaningless, but even without the suggestive lyrics, the song carried an edge.

The strange line added by Elvis "You ain't never caught a rabbit and you ain't no friend of mine" was originally performed by Freddie Bell and his Bellboys, but Elvis also did some lyric-switching of his own.

Just let's remember the lyrics as recorded by Elvis:

You ain't nothin' but a hound dog

Cryin' all the time

You ain't nothin' but a hound dog

Cryin' all the time

Well, you ain't never caught a rabbit and you ain't no friend of mine

 

 

 

Well they said you was high-classed

Well, that was just a lie

Yeah they said you was high-classed

Well, that was just a lie

Well, you ain't never caught a rabbit and you ain't no friend of mine

 

 

These two verses are repeated all along the song.

When Hound Dog was finally released as B-side of Don’t Be Cruel in July of 1956, it lived up to all the hype and soon both sides of the single were topping the charts.

Jerry Leiber did not like Elvis Presley‘s cover of Hound Dog. He wrote in the duo’s 2009 autobiography: “The song isn’t about a dog, it’s about a man, a freeloading gigolo. Elvis just played with the song; Big Mama nailed it.” Leiber goes on to concede that sales of 7 million records took the sting out of the changes.

The funny point is that the lines sung by Elvis don't even appear in the original version recorded by Willie Mae "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. Officially, it sold over 500,000 copies but looks that the real numbers exceeded the two millions. It figured for 14 weeks in the R&B charts, including seven weeks at #1. 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. 

Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton (December 11, 1926 – July 25, 1984) was an American rhythm-and-blues singer and songwriter. Thornton's performances were characterized by her deep, powerful voice and strong sense of self. She was given her nickname, "Big Mama," by Frank Schiffman, the manager of Harlem's Apollo Theater, because of her strong voice, size, and personality. Big Mama stated that she was louder than any microphone and didn’t want a microphone to ever be as loud as she was. Alice Echols, the author of a biography of Janis Joplin, said that Thornton could sing in a "pretty voice" but did not want to. Her style was heavily influenced by gospel music, which she grew up listening to at the home of a preacher, though her genre could be described as blues.

Thornton was famous for her transgressive gender expression. She often dressed as a man in her performances, wearing work shirts and slacks. She did not care about the opinions of others and "was openly gay and performed risque songs unabashedly." Improvisation was a notable part of her performance. She often entered call-and-response exchanges with her band, inserting confident and subversive remarks. Her vocal sound and style of delivery are key parts of her style and are recognizable in Presley's and Joplin's work

On August 12, 1952, R&B bandleader Johnny Otis asked 19-year-old songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller to his home to meet blues singer Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton. She had been signed by Don Robey's Houston-based Peacock Records the year before, and after two failed singles, they were trying to reverse her fortunes. After hearing Thornton rehearse several songs, Leiber and Stoller forged a tune to suit her personality: brusque and badass. In an interview in Rolling Stone in April 1990, Stoller said: "She 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."

'Hound Dog' embodies the Big Mama persona she had crafted as a comedienne prior to entering the music business by parading the classic puns, extended metaphors, and sexual double meanings so popular with the bawdy genre.

Leiber and Stoller wrote the song "Hound Dog" in 12 to 15 minutes, with Leiber scribbling the lyrics in pencil on ordinary paper and without musical notation in the car on the way to Stoller's apartment. Said Leiber, "'Hound Dog' took like twelve minutes. That's not a complicated piece of work. But the rhyme scheme was difficult. Also the metric structure of the music was not easy." According to Leiber, as soon as they reached the parking lot and Stoller's 1937 Plymouth, "I was beating out a rhythm we called the 'buck dance' on the roof of the car. We got to Johnny Otis's house and Mike went right to the piano…didn't even bother to sit down. He had a cigarette in his mouth that was burning his left eye, and he started to play the song."

Leiber and Stoller along with Johnny Otis, also wrote a different version to the "Hound Dog" song structure on behalf of Big Mama Thornton, recorded with an alternative lyric entitled "Tom Cat".

Thornton recorded "Hound Dog" in Los Angeles on August 13, 1952, the day after its composition. It subsequently became her biggest hit. According to Hound Dog: The Leiber and Stoller Autobiography, Thornton's "Hound Dog" was the first record that Leiber and Stoller produced themselves. The band behind the recording was "Kansas City Bill & Orchestra" with drummer Johnny Otis using the pseudonym "Kansas City Bill", guitarist Pete "Guitar" Lewis, and Puerto Rican bass player Mario Delagarde

Recalled Leiber: "We took the song back to Big Mama and she snatched the paper out of my hand and said, 'Is this my big hit?' And I said, 'I hope so.' Next thing I know, she starts crooning 'Hound Dog' like Frank Sinatra. And I'm looking at her, and I'm a little intimidated by the razor scars on her face, and she's about 280-320 pounds, and I said, 'It don't go that way.' And she looked at me like looks could kill and said — and this was when I found out I was white — 'White boy, don't you be tellin' me how to sing the blues.'"

After this "testy exchange", Leiber sang the song himself to demonstrate how they wanted it done.

Said Stoller: "Big Mama heard how Jerry was singing the thing. She heard the rough-and-tough of the song and, just as important, the implicit sexual humor. In short, she got it."

Later, in an interview, Thornton said: "They were just a couple of kids, and they had this song written on the back of a paper bag." Thornton claims that she added a few interjections of her own, played around with the rhythm (some of the choruses have thirteen rather than twelve bars), and had the band bark and howl like hound dogs at the end of the song: "I started to sing the words and join in some of my own. All that talkin' and hollerin'— that's my own." Thornton interacts constantly in a call and response fashion during a one-minute long guitar "solo" by Lewis. Her vocals include lines such as: "Aw, listen to that ole hound dog howl…OOOOoooow", "Now wag your tail", and "Aw, get it, get it, get it". This "blues talk", is a common practice in blues music

On September 9, 1952 the copyright application for "Hound Dog" was lodged. On the application the words & music are attributed to Don Deadric Robey & Willie Mae Thornton, with the copyright claimants listed as: "Murphy L. Robey (W) & Willie Mae Thornton (A)." It was renewed subsequently on May 13, 1980 with the same details.

On March 7, 1953, "Hound Dog" was advertised in Billboard and reviewed positively as a new record to watch. They described as "a wild and exciting rhumba blues" with "infectious backing that rocks all the way". It spent fourteen weeks on the Billboard Rhythm and Blues charts, seven of them at number one. It was listed "the nation's top-selling blues record". The song was named as the Best Rhythm and Blues song of 1953 by Cash Box Magazine, and was ranked #3 on Billboard's Best Selling Rhythm & Blues Chart for 1953.

Don Robey estimated that Thornton's version of "Hound Dog" sold between 500,000 and 750,000 copies, and would have sold more had its sales not been diluted by an abundance of cover versions and "answer songs".

 

However, despite its success, neither the composers nor artist were compensated at all for their efforts. According to Stoller, "Big Mama's 'Hound Dog' went to #1, sold a million copies, and did nothing for our bank statements. We were getting screwed."

After suing Robey, "We were given an advance check for $1,200," said Stoller, "but the check bounced."

As a result, Leiber and Stoller started their own label, Spark Records, and publishing company, Quintet Music. Those ventures were successful, but Leiber and Stoller would only earn substantial royalties from "Hound Dog" when it was covered by Elvis Presley in July 1956.

Similarly, Thornton stated: "That song sold over two million records. I got one check for $500 and never saw another." In 1984, she told Rolling Stone, "Didn't get no money from them at all. Everybody livin' in a house but me. I'm just livin."

Her success was overshadowed three years later, when Elvis Presley recorded his more popular rendition of "Hound Dog". Similarly, Thornton's Ball 'n' Chain (written in 1961 but not released until 1968) had a bigger impact when performed and recorded by Janis Joplin from 1967.

After Elvis Presley recorded "Hound Dog" to international acclaim, Peacock Records re-released Willa Mae Thornton's original" by August 18, 1956, but it failed to chart. In Australia and New Zealand, it was released in 1956, but the composition is credited to Robey-Thornton-Leiber-Stoller.

By early 1957, Willie Mae Thornton was seen as one who is out of the rock / pop mainstream and so her affiliation with Peacock Records ended...

As her career began to fade in the late 1950s and early 1960s, she left Houston and relocated to the San Francisco Bay area, playing clubs in San Francisco and L.A. and recording for a succession of labels. In 1965, she toured with the American Folk Blues Festival in Europe, where her success was notable. Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company's performance of "Ball 'n' Chain" at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and the release of the song on their number one album Cheap Thrills renewed interest in Thornton's career.

Thornton was found dead at age 57 by medical personnel in a Los Angeles boarding house on July 25, 1984. She died of heart and liver disorders due to her longstanding alcohol abuse. She had lost 255 pounds (116 kg) in a short time as a result of illness, her weight dropping from 350 to 95 pounds.

As for Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, "Hound Dog" was one of their earliest hits. The team was productive well into the 1980s, but their greatest success occurred in the 1950s and 1960s. They wrote hits for Elvis Presley including "Love Me", "Jailhouse Rock", "Loving You", "Don't", and "King Creole"; they authored songs like "Kansas City" and “Is That All There Is”; they also collaborated with other writers on such songs as "On Broadway", written with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil; "Stand By Me", written with Ben E. King; "Young Blood", written with Doc Pomus; and "Spanish Harlem", with Phil Spector.

The pair also became known for songs that use colorful, humorous language and teen vernacular. In "Poison Ivy" they wrote "she's pretty as a daisy but look out man she's crazy . . . You'll be scratchin' like a hound the minute you start to mess around." In "Along Came Jones" the pair tapped into every kid's Saturday morning memories: "I plopped down in my easy chair and turned on Channel 2, a bad gunslinger called Salty Sam was chasin' poor Sweet Sue." And in one of their most famous songs recorded by the Coasters, kids were simply warned "Yakety Yak, don't talk back."   

Leiber and Stoller wrote "Hound Dog" before they had settled into this "teen-talk" niche, but they were already demonstrating their interest in using plain, colorful speech in their lyrics. The team was clearly influenced by the blues, which had always drawn upon the vernacular in voicing the trials of common people. In this regard, Leiber and Stoller demonstrate further the connection between R&B and rock and roll.

In all, Leiber and Stoller wrote or co-wrote over 70 chart hits. They were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1985 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.