If Willie Mae Big Mama Thornton was still with us, she would have been celebrating her 88th birthday today. Willie Mae was an rhythm and blues singer and songwriter and was the first to record Leiber and Stollers Hound Dog in 1952. It became her biggest hit. It spent seven weeks at number one on the Billboard R&B charts in 1953 and sold almost two million copies. However, her success was overshadowed three years later, when Elvis Presley recorded his more popular rendition of Hound Dog. In 1961, she recorded a song she wrote called Ball n Chain. Her record company decided not to release it then. Big Mama eventually settled in San Francisco and found work at local Blues clubs. During that time, many of the local Bay Area musician caught her show. One of them was Janis Joplin. Janis was still developing / maturing in her style and when you listen to this recording of Ball n Chain you will see that it helped shape Janis. Happy Birthday Willie Mae. RIP. What a voice.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 12:42:44 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015