Remembering The Blues Legend Behind Elvis Presley and Janis Joplin’s Greatest Hits

We might commonly associate classic 1950s and 60s cuts like “Hound Dog” and “Ball and Chain” with superstars Elvis Presley and Janis Joplin, respectively, but there was a different blues legend responsible for both of these iconic tracks. Yet, despite her profound influence on rock n’ roll, the originator of these tunes would die penniless in a Los Angeles boarding home three decades after her first big hit.

We revisit the legacy of Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton on the 40th anniversary of her untimely death in 1984.

Before There Was Elvis, There Was Big Mama

Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton was the second-youngest of seven siblings born in Alabama on December 11, 1926. Growing up, Thornton watched female blues legends like Bessie Smith and Memphis Minnie (the latter of whom wrote Led Zeppelin’s future hit track, “When The Levee Breaks”) and eventually began teaching herself how to sing and play harmonica. 

“My singing comes from my experience,” Thornton once said (via Far Out Magazine). “I never had no one teach me nothing; I never went to school for music; I taught myself to sing and to blow harmonica and even to play drums by watching other people. I can’t read music. But I know what I’m singing! I don’t sing like nobody but myself.”

Bessie Smith’s half-sister, Diamond Teeth Mary, heard Thornton singing to herself while working for a garbage company and encouraged the young teenager to audition for a traveling musical revue called Sammy’s Green Hot Harlem Revue. Thornton said the organizers planned to audition 25 potential vocalists. She was the 26th, and the revue ultimately chose Thornton as their singer.

“Big Mama” Thornton’s popularity grew as she continued to perform across the country, wowing audiences and venues alike with her larger-than-life voice and equally sizable frame.

The Blues Legend and Real Meaning Behind Elvis Presley and Janis Joplin’s Hits

In 1952, “Big Mama” Thornton was performing at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem when songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller commissioned her to record “Hound Dog.” Thornton’s version of the song, a female empowerment anthem about leaving a cheating partner, spent seven weeks at the top of the U.S. R&B charts, making it her only hit. She received one $500 check for her studio time.

Elvis Presley recorded his version of the track three years later, removing the references to an unfaithful relationship. His version proved far more palatable to a pre-Civil Rights Act music industry and sold ten million copies. Thornton received no compensation. She once told Rolling Stone, “Didn’t get no money from them at all. Everybody livin’ in a house but me. I’m just livin’” (via Nashville Mediator).

Almost a decade later, Thornton wrote and recorded “Ball and Chain,” but a bad copyright deal caused the blues singer to inadvertently forfeit her rights to future compensation yet again. She eventually began receiving payments for “Ball and Chain” after San Francisco’s Big Brother and the Holding Company, fronted by Janis Joplin, started to cover and later record Thornton’s track. “It’s all right,” Thornton later said of the cover. “It made me money. At least I got paid for it.”

The Godmother of Rock and Roll’s Tragic Ending

Despite being the original voice behind some of the mid-20th century’s greatest hits, Willie Mae Thornton was never able to achieve the same success as artists like Elvis Presley and Janis Joplin. Although she continued to tour across the country, her ongoing alcohol addiction began to overtake her ability to perform. By her late 50s, Thornton was broke, living in a Los Angeles boarding home.

Thornton was found dead in the boarding home on July 25, 1984. The city interred her remains with two other anonymous individuals in a pauper’s grave in Inglewood Park Cemetery. Although her final years proved to be an anti-climactic end for a woman who had helped shape rock and roll as we know it today, the music community has since given her posthumous recognition for her profound impact on modern music. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame plans to induct Thornton on October 19, 2024.

Photo by GBH Archives/YouTube