Every Friday around 11 a.m. Central, it’s time for Classic Americana on Radio Heartland. We pull a special track from the archives or from deep in the shelves to spotlight a particular artist or song.

A self-taught singer inspired by the music of blues artists Bessie Smith and Memphis Minnie, Willie Mae Thornton began performing professionally at age 14, touring the country as part of Sammy Green’s Hot Harlem Revue. By the late 1940s, Thornton had left that touring company only to be signed by Houston-based record label Peacock Records in 1950. Thornton’s ground-shaking performance at Harlem’s landmark Apollo Theater in 1952 caused the audience to go wild, and it inspired the stage manager to give Thornton the nickname “Big Mama,” a name that stuck with her for the rest of her life.

Around that same time, Big Mama Thornton’s sound captured the blues-loving ears of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who composed a song just for her: “Hound Dog.” Thornton’s rendition of the song oozes with double meaning and contempt for a lover who treated her wrong — bearing Thornton’s signature of injecting her songs with deep emotion and palpable feeling. The song proved a big hit, spending 14 weeks in the R&B charts, half of that time at No. 1. We’ll feature the song as our Classic Americana pick this week.

Elvis Presley would later record the song and make an even bigger hit of it, even though its original meaning was stripped away in his version and became exactly what it says on the label: a song about a dog. Thornton herself received very little money as a result of Elvis making the song a massive hit.

Nevertheless, Big Mama Thornton enjoyed touring and performing as part of the American blues and folk revival of the 1950s and ‘60s, including tours of Europe where she was especially well received. A song that Big Mama Thornton wrote in the early 1960s, “Ball and Chain,” got the attention of Janis Joplin’s backing band, Big Brother and the Holding Company. They, along with Joplin, asked Thornton for permission to perform and to record a cover of the song, which Thornton granted. The song became a big hit for Joplin, and thankfully, produced royalties for Thornton.

Besides Elvis Presley and Janis Joplin, Big Mama Thornton’s sound influenced many other artists to come, including Robert Plant, Ann Wilson, Pat Benatar, Axl Rose, Kurt Cobain, Jack White, and Brittany Howard. For her profound influence in the shaping of rock and roll vocals, Big Mama Thornton, who died in 1984 at age 57, was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2024.

External Links

Big Mama Thornton – Black Music Project

Big Mama Thornton – Rock and Roll Hall of Fame