Big Mama Thornton - The Singles Collection 1951-61 (CD)

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. 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.

Track List:

Disc: 1

1. Partnership Blues
2. I'm All Fed Up
3. No Jody For Me
4. Let Your Tears Fall Baby
5. Mischievous Boogie
6. Every Time I Think Of You
7. Hound Dog
8. Night Mare
9. Cotton Picking Blues
10. They Call Me Big Mama
11. I Ain't No Fool Either
12. The Big Change
13. I Smell A Rat
14. I've Searched The Whole World Over
15. Stop A Hoppin' On Me
16. Story Of My Blues
17. Rock A Bye Baby
18. Walking Blues
19. The Fish
20. Laugh, Laugh, Laugh
21. How Come
22. Tarzan And The Dignified Monkey
23. Just Like A Dog (Barking Up The Wrong Tree)
24. My Man Called Me
25. Don't Talk Back
26. Big Mama's Coming Home
27. You Did Me Wrong
28. Big Mama's Blues