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A Hound Dog Tale: Big Mama, Elvis, and the Song That Changed Everything
The release of the song “Hound Dog” in 1953 marked a turning point in American popular culture, and throughout its history, the hit ballad bridged divides of race, gender, and generational conflict. Ben Wynne’s A Hound Dog Tale discusses the stars who made this rock ’n’ roll standard famous, from Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton to Elvis Presley, along with an eclectic cast of characters, including singers, songwriters, musicians, record producers and managers, famous television hosts, several lawyers, and even a gangster or two.Wynne’s examination of this American classic reveals how “Hound Dog” reflected the values and issues of 1950s American society, and sheds light on the lesser-known elements of the song’s creation and legacy. A Hound Dog Tale will capture the imagination of anyone who has ever tapped a foot to the growl of a blues riff or the bark of a rock ’n’ roll guitar.
222 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 7, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 7, 2024
I flew through this book - it is that good. Wynne is thorough in his research, and provides the backgrounds and bios of all of the moving parts that came together to watch two white Jewish kids grow up, find themselves enamored with Black music, bump into each other, become a songwriting team, and watch all of the components come together as if by magic to see them write, in about ten minutes' time, the song that would define and launch Elvis Presley's career. The true stars of the show, along with songwriters Lieber and Stoller, are Willie Mae (Big Mama) Thornton and Freddie Bell. The former growled and snarled her way through the first recorded interpretation of the song (look for it on YouTube, it is amazing) in just two takes, and the latter reinterpreted it as a novelty song for his Las Vegas act as Freddie Bell and His Bellboys. It's the Bell version that Elvis latched onto (although after most likely having heard the Big Mama version) and the rest is history.
Wynne is exhaustive in his presentation of the details of the various accounts of how the song gestated, was born, evolved, and exploded, having been covered by around 300 artists since its inception in 1953. This was a lot of fun to read, and a great gift for anyone interested in American (especially African American) music.
Wynne is exhaustive in his presentation of the details of the various accounts of how the song gestated, was born, evolved, and exploded, having been covered by around 300 artists since its inception in 1953. This was a lot of fun to read, and a great gift for anyone interested in American (especially African American) music.
July 1, 2024
While most people would not consider music history much relevant to American History in general, Ben Wynne believes the early days of rock-n- roll are an important part of Americana. Wynne is a professor of History at the University of North Georgia and his new book A HOUND DOG TALE: BIG MAMA, ELVIS, and the SONG THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING verifies his position.
"Hound Dog" is a song written by Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber, a pair of white Jewish songwriters from the Northeast Coast. Since they wrote the song, Wynne appropriately begins the book by covering their life stories in the first chapter.
Michael Stoller grew up in a world of music. As a boy he listened to classical on the radio and interacted with Black kids. As a young man he became fascinated with Black culture as he hung out in pool halls and jazz clubs and learned a lot about Black music. Race was never a problem for him. He took a Black girl to his junior prom, much to the chagrin of his classmates.
After his family moved to Los Angeles, Stoller joined the Vasquez Brothers Band that taught him how to play jazz and Mexican music. By the time he was in college, he was a muti-cultural person.
When he was a student at Los Angeles City College, Stoller met Jerry Leiber.
Jerry Leiber was a Maryland native who was the son of Jewish immigrants from Poland. As a child he loved Polish folk tunes as he learned about music. His mother owned a store near Black neighborhoods. Still a boy he made deliveries to Black homes and interacted with Black kids. Since Leiber was a Jew that many white kids disliked, he knew what it was like being an oppressed minority. It was easy for him to relate to Black music. And he loved it. He took piano and he learned to play booogie-woogie music and the blues. But his uncle would not allow him to play that style on the family piano. So he took up drums.
In the following chapters Wynne introduces us to numerous people that seem to have had little in common beyond the fact they were all involved in the music industry. Some were performers and others were businessmen.
In the latter group we find night club owners and record company executives with a wide range of reputations and traits of unethical behavior. Some were deceitful and shrewd. Others were ruthless and even violent.
It was these types of men that Big Moma Thornton had to gravitate to when the Hound Dog story begins.
It is a bit of a challenge to keep track of all the seemingly unrelated life stories of this many people Wynne has compacted within a few pages but the patient reader is rewarded by discovering how they nicely fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle to make a wonderful story.
Big Moma Thornton was a bull-headed entertainer that was very brash and set in her ways. When Stoller and Leiber sat in at one of her recording sessions, they were amazed at her blues style talent and powerful voice. When Thornton took a break, Leiber and Stoller ran to Stoller's house and quickly wrote a rough draft of "Hound Dog" and returned to the session with the manuscript.
They urged Thornton to growl the song instead of crooning it. Thornton disliked anybody telling her how to sing but she relented and sang the song the way they liked and recorded a version that would take the world by storm.
The song sent Thornton's career into the stratosphere. It also inspired other recording artists to release their own versions to cash in on the song's popularity.
In Thornton's version the speaker is a woman that has had enough of her man's pathetic behavior and tells him he has got to go.
In later versions the speaker is a man who dumps his worthless girl.
There were also a lot of "answer" songs that feature the speaker's mate accusing her of being the downfall of the relationship.
Much to the irritation of Leiber and Stoller, a number of shady businessmen claimed credit for being cowriters of the song just for changing a few of the song's lyrics if anything at all. Some had legal battles with one another as they felt entitled to some of the money the public was paying for the song.
But in 1955 a group called Freddie Bell and the Bellboys recorded their own version that would set the stage for a rendition of the song that would forever be remembered as a monument to rock-n-roll history.
While Thornton's original version of "Hound Dog" was gritty and suggestive, the Bellboys altered the lyrics slightly to make the song more novel. This made the group popular enough to get noticed by a young Mississippi native named Elvis Presley.
Presley had recorded a couple of songs like "Love Me Tender" for Sam Phillips, head of the Memphis company Sun Records. Phillips wanted a White man who could sing like a Black blues artist. He felt Presley would be perfect for a Sun release of "Hound Dog." Elvis recorded the Bellboys' version with Sun in 1956. The release was an instant success.
Presley's businessman Tom Parker arranged for Presley to start making network television appearances. Milton Berle reluctantly allowed Elvis to sing "Hound Dog" on his show. While teenagers loved it many older viewers felt Presley's hip shaking along with D.J. Fontana's rapid-fire drumbeat was too suggestive and way out of hand.
TV producers and talk show hosts walked on eggshells trying to keep their shows' ratings up without letting the singer undermine the family friendly prime time environment.
Steve Allen tried a novel approach when Elvis appeared on his show. When Presley performed the song, Allen urged him to sing to a live basset hound. I have always felt amused by this iconic Elvis scene and believed it was just silly fun.
But I was stunned when I read about the storm of outrage by millions of Elvis fans who demanded to have the "old Elvis back." Ed Sullivan was at first skeptical about having Elvis on his show but had no choice if he wanted to increase the ratings for his show.
This is what Ben Wynne's book is all about. Presley's rendition of "Hound Dog" brought an increasing cultural clash in America into a mighty earthquake that had a lasting effect on our nation's society.
Many conservative Whites felt Elvis was teaching their kids to act like Black people. Big Mama Thornton felt upstaged by Presley's rendition and undermined her chance for fame and success.
Many Blacks give Elvis the credit for merging Black blues style music with rock-a-billy, gospel and
country into a megaculture in America and showing people they had more in common with other cultures than they realized or willing to admit.
Thus Ben Wynne has made a wonderful story about a song written by two young Jewish men and changed the world.
"Hound Dog" is a song written by Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber, a pair of white Jewish songwriters from the Northeast Coast. Since they wrote the song, Wynne appropriately begins the book by covering their life stories in the first chapter.
Michael Stoller grew up in a world of music. As a boy he listened to classical on the radio and interacted with Black kids. As a young man he became fascinated with Black culture as he hung out in pool halls and jazz clubs and learned a lot about Black music. Race was never a problem for him. He took a Black girl to his junior prom, much to the chagrin of his classmates.
After his family moved to Los Angeles, Stoller joined the Vasquez Brothers Band that taught him how to play jazz and Mexican music. By the time he was in college, he was a muti-cultural person.
When he was a student at Los Angeles City College, Stoller met Jerry Leiber.
Jerry Leiber was a Maryland native who was the son of Jewish immigrants from Poland. As a child he loved Polish folk tunes as he learned about music. His mother owned a store near Black neighborhoods. Still a boy he made deliveries to Black homes and interacted with Black kids. Since Leiber was a Jew that many white kids disliked, he knew what it was like being an oppressed minority. It was easy for him to relate to Black music. And he loved it. He took piano and he learned to play booogie-woogie music and the blues. But his uncle would not allow him to play that style on the family piano. So he took up drums.
In the following chapters Wynne introduces us to numerous people that seem to have had little in common beyond the fact they were all involved in the music industry. Some were performers and others were businessmen.
In the latter group we find night club owners and record company executives with a wide range of reputations and traits of unethical behavior. Some were deceitful and shrewd. Others were ruthless and even violent.
It was these types of men that Big Moma Thornton had to gravitate to when the Hound Dog story begins.
It is a bit of a challenge to keep track of all the seemingly unrelated life stories of this many people Wynne has compacted within a few pages but the patient reader is rewarded by discovering how they nicely fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle to make a wonderful story.
Big Moma Thornton was a bull-headed entertainer that was very brash and set in her ways. When Stoller and Leiber sat in at one of her recording sessions, they were amazed at her blues style talent and powerful voice. When Thornton took a break, Leiber and Stoller ran to Stoller's house and quickly wrote a rough draft of "Hound Dog" and returned to the session with the manuscript.
They urged Thornton to growl the song instead of crooning it. Thornton disliked anybody telling her how to sing but she relented and sang the song the way they liked and recorded a version that would take the world by storm.
The song sent Thornton's career into the stratosphere. It also inspired other recording artists to release their own versions to cash in on the song's popularity.
In Thornton's version the speaker is a woman that has had enough of her man's pathetic behavior and tells him he has got to go.
In later versions the speaker is a man who dumps his worthless girl.
There were also a lot of "answer" songs that feature the speaker's mate accusing her of being the downfall of the relationship.
Much to the irritation of Leiber and Stoller, a number of shady businessmen claimed credit for being cowriters of the song just for changing a few of the song's lyrics if anything at all. Some had legal battles with one another as they felt entitled to some of the money the public was paying for the song.
But in 1955 a group called Freddie Bell and the Bellboys recorded their own version that would set the stage for a rendition of the song that would forever be remembered as a monument to rock-n-roll history.
While Thornton's original version of "Hound Dog" was gritty and suggestive, the Bellboys altered the lyrics slightly to make the song more novel. This made the group popular enough to get noticed by a young Mississippi native named Elvis Presley.
Presley had recorded a couple of songs like "Love Me Tender" for Sam Phillips, head of the Memphis company Sun Records. Phillips wanted a White man who could sing like a Black blues artist. He felt Presley would be perfect for a Sun release of "Hound Dog." Elvis recorded the Bellboys' version with Sun in 1956. The release was an instant success.
Presley's businessman Tom Parker arranged for Presley to start making network television appearances. Milton Berle reluctantly allowed Elvis to sing "Hound Dog" on his show. While teenagers loved it many older viewers felt Presley's hip shaking along with D.J. Fontana's rapid-fire drumbeat was too suggestive and way out of hand.
TV producers and talk show hosts walked on eggshells trying to keep their shows' ratings up without letting the singer undermine the family friendly prime time environment.
Steve Allen tried a novel approach when Elvis appeared on his show. When Presley performed the song, Allen urged him to sing to a live basset hound. I have always felt amused by this iconic Elvis scene and believed it was just silly fun.
But I was stunned when I read about the storm of outrage by millions of Elvis fans who demanded to have the "old Elvis back." Ed Sullivan was at first skeptical about having Elvis on his show but had no choice if he wanted to increase the ratings for his show.
This is what Ben Wynne's book is all about. Presley's rendition of "Hound Dog" brought an increasing cultural clash in America into a mighty earthquake that had a lasting effect on our nation's society.
Many conservative Whites felt Elvis was teaching their kids to act like Black people. Big Mama Thornton felt upstaged by Presley's rendition and undermined her chance for fame and success.
Many Blacks give Elvis the credit for merging Black blues style music with rock-a-billy, gospel and
country into a megaculture in America and showing people they had more in common with other cultures than they realized or willing to admit.
Thus Ben Wynne has made a wonderful story about a song written by two young Jewish men and changed the world.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 15, 2024
Closer to 3.5.
This is a good book, and if you are a fan of early Rock n Roll, the music business, and Elvis, then I would recommend this book. However, I wish there was a little more meet in the bones, especially regarding Willie Mae Thorton. However, this is good book that touches upon all the actors and offers some insight into the music business, race relations, and culture.
This is a good book, and if you are a fan of early Rock n Roll, the music business, and Elvis, then I would recommend this book. However, I wish there was a little more meet in the bones, especially regarding Willie Mae Thorton. However, this is good book that touches upon all the actors and offers some insight into the music business, race relations, and culture.
January 13, 2025
I read "A Hound Dog Tale: Big Mama, Elvis, and the Song That Changed Everything" by Ben Wynne on January 8, 2025, and it wasn't a Kindle edition, but a hardback at the Winona, Miss., library. This is really a neat journey to take! I do recommend this one! Wow.
April 24, 2025
Reworking of a well-known story with some useful portraits of the cast of characters beyond Elvis, Big Mama and Lieber and Stoller. Wynne raises issues of interracial musical dynamics, but doesn't risk any deep engagements.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews