Big Mama Thornton

Big Mama Thornton was an Alabama-born blues and R&B singer who began her professional career in the 1940s. She recorded "Hound Dog" in 1952, written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, which topped the R&B charts for seven weeks and sold nearly two million copies. Elvis Presley's 1956 cover of the song became more famous, but Thornton's original established her as a powerful vocalist in blues and rock and roll history.