Alabama native ‘Big Mama’ Thornton to be honored in her hometown
Big Mama Thornton's powerful performances ensured that she closed shows. (Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images)
The not-yet-legendary songwriting duo of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller wrote “Hound Dog” in August 1952 with a powerful, charismatic singer in mind. It wasn’t Elvis Presley, who later spun gold records – and gold – from several of their songs, including “Hound Dog.”
The then-19-year-old songwriting duo actually penned the song for Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton, a blues singer from the tiny south Alabama town of Ariton. Thornton turned “Hound Dog,” released in February 1953, into an R&B hit that sold 2 million copies – three years before Presley sang his version.
Thornton, who died in 1984, will be honored Oct. 22 in her hometown with the renaming of a street to Big Mama Thornton Circle. The event kicks off at 11 a.m.
Thornton was born in Ariton, in Dale County, on Dec. 11, 1926. A short presentation highlighting Thornton’s career, plus brief comments and a meet-and-greet will take place at the Ariton Baptist Church, 157 Atlantic Road.
The street where traditional blues artist J.W. Warren lived in Ariton is also being renamed Oct. 22. J.W. Warren Alley is near Big Mama Thornton Circle. Warren died in 2003. The dedication will include a sign hanging. The public is invited.
A pivotal meeting
Gil Anthony, a blues historian who hosts the syndicated “Blues Power” radio show, has been instrumental in working to give Thornton and other blues artists the recognition they deserve. In a 2021 interview with Alabama NewsCenter, Anthony talked about the pivotal 1952 meeting where R&B bandleader Johnny Otis introduced Thornton to Lieber and Stoller.
“Johnny invited them over to his studio where they were rehearsing … and wanted Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller to hear this lady, and they were just astounded by her,” said Anthony, who lives in Dothan. “So, they wrote ‘Hound Dog’ especially for Big Mama Thornton. It took them 15 minutes to write the song.”
Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton was a large personality in Alabama and blues music from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.
Lieber and Stoller reminisced about Thornton in an interview published in Rolling Stone magazine in April 1990.
“We saw Big Mama and she knocked me cold,” Leiber said. “She looked like the biggest, baddest, saltiest chick you would ever see.”
Stoller added: “She was a wonderful blues singer, with a great moaning style. But it was as much her appearance as her blues style that influenced the writing of ‘Hound Dog’ and the idea that we wanted her to growl it.”
“Hound Dog” became Thornton’s biggest hit, topping the R&B chart for seven straight weeks, according to Billboard. Three years later, it became Presley’s best-selling song – it was No. 1 on the U.S. pop, country and R&B charts at the same time and sold 10 million copies. Thornton also wrote “Ball and Chain,” which Janis Joplin made famous and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame included among the “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.”
A self-taught musician
Thornton was exposed to music in the church, the daughter of a Baptist minister and his wife who sang in the church choir. She was a self-taught musician with little formal education because she missed so much school while taking care of her terminally ill mother.
After her mother died when Thornton was a young teenager, she took a job cleaning a local saloon, according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama, and soon began substituting for its regular singer. There are conflicting accounts about how she drew the attention of Atlanta music promoter Sammy Green, but in 1941 she joined his Hot Harlem Revue and sang and danced across the South, setting in motion a career that would make her a blues legend.
Thornton was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in Memphis in 1984 shortly after her death, and the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 2020. She died in Los Angeles and is buried with two other people in a paupers grave. Anthony has been working with others to bring Thornton’s remains to Ariton.
Anthony maintains that Thornton ”did not get her due,” noting the lateness of her induction into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.
He said Thornton paved the way for female singers by changing conventions, such as women not receiving top billing at shows.
“Her legacy is really being a trailblazer for women,” he said. “She’s the one who closed shows. They learned you didn’t bring anybody on after Big Mama Thornton.”
