The Singles Collection 1951-61

Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton was an rhythm and blues and blues singer and songwriter, who is best-known for recording the original 1953 version of the legendary song “Hound Dog”, which Elvis Presley famously covered to have a big early career hit. Born in Alabama in 1925, she learnt to sing in church but became a disciple of Bessie Smith and Memphis Minnie, moving in 1948 to Houston, Texas, a buzzing centre of jump blues, where she built a reputation as a powerful performer and signed a contract with Don Robey’s Peacock Records in 1951. Working with Johnny Otis and the emerging young songwriting and producing duo of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, she recorded their song “Hound Dog”, and it provided her with her sole career hot, topping the US R&B charts, and becoming a landmark record. This 27-track CD comprises all her releases during the first decade of her career, initially for the Peacock label and then for the small Irma and Bay-Tone labels after she moved to San Francisco in the late ‘50s. She later became a popular performer during the ‘60s blues boom and made several albums. She was a powerful extrovert expressive perfomer, and this collection, representing her output from a key era of her career, underlines the distinctive nature of her talent as a blues stylist.