Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton's original 1952 recording of "Hound Dog" was a monster hit for its time, especially for a black artist, selling two million copies. A version with slightly reworked lyrics was recorded in 1956 by a respectful young white fellow named Elvis Presley and sold four million copies.
Here's a 1965 video version by Big Mama featuring Buddy Guy on guitar accompaniment:
Here's Elvis on national TV in 1956, with Scotty Moore of course on guitar:
'Mute, the Elvis vid is worth watching, but what it is is the studio version of "Hound Dog" overlaid on a loop-de-loop version of Elvis' second appearance on the Milton Berle show.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the clip deletes the most interesting portion of that appearance -- the slow, bump-'n-grind finale, which generated the most intense and hysterical anti-Presley reacton in the MSM of the time -- because it doesn't correspond to the studio track.
OK Kib', thanks for the catch. I fixed it.
ReplyDelete