Willa Mae ("Big Mama") Thornton was an American Blues and R&B singer. She was the original singer to record the hit song "Hound Dog" in 1953. The song was #1 on the Billboard R&B charts for seven weeks. Three years later, Elvis Presley recorded the Rock 'n' roll version of the song, the single hitting number one on the pop, country and blues chart, coupled with "Don't Be Cruel", for an astonishing 11 weeks. Wikipedia
The definitive Wikipedia entry for Big Mama Thornton. Wikipedia is the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mama_Thornton
