Song Information

Hound Dog

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"Hound Dog"
Single by Big Mama Thornton
B-side	"Nightmare"
Released	March 1953
Format	78 RPM 10" single
Recorded	August 13, 1952 Los Angeles
Genre	Rhythm and Blues
Length	2:52
Label	Peacock Records
Writer(s)	Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller
Producer	Johnny Otis

"Hound Dog" is a blues song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and originally recorded by Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton in 1952. Her version was #1 on the Billboard rhythm & blues chart for seven weeks. "Hound Dog" was also recorded by 5 country singers in 1953, and over 26 times through 1964. In the mid 1950s, the song was interpreted the song as blues, country, and rock and roll. The 1956 remake by Elvis Presley is the best known version and is the one listed as #19 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. 

Elvis and his band were performing in Las Vegas and saw Freddie Bell and the Bellboys perform their reworking of "Hound Dog' and asked Freddie if could record his own version. He added “Hound Dog” to his live performances as comic relief, sometimes changing the lyrics.  It became popular and became the standard closing song.

Presley was invited to perform on The Milton Berle Show twice. The second time he performed there, in June of 1956, Berle suggested he do the song without his guitar.  As a result, his movements were more exaggerated, an approach that the young women in the audience reacted to with enthusiasm.  The TV audience numbered around 40,000,000 people.  The next day began a thunderstorm of outraged reactions. 

Elvis next appeared on July 1 on national television singing "Hound Dog" on the Steve Allen Show. Allen worked him into the comedy part of the show, having him wear a tuxedo while singing an abbreviated version of Hound Dog to a basset hound wearing a top hat..

The next day Presley recorded "Hound Dog" with "Don't Be Cruel", which was the B-side of the single. He produced the songs himself (as well as most of the RCA recording sessions) for greater control of the outcome. Both sides topped the charts, as well as all three Billboard charts: pop, country & western, and rhythm & blues, the first record in history to do so.

On September 9, Presley performed on the Ed Sullivan Show drawing 60 million viewers.

Presley's first release of "Hound Dog" sold over 4 million copies in the United States. Starting in July 1956, it spent a record eleven weeks at #1, where it stayed until it was replaced by "Love Me Tender," another of his songs.  In 2005 Q magazine listed his version as number 55 in its list of 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.

Other artists that have covered "Hound Dog":

• Billy Starr
• Tommy Duncan
• Eddie Hazelwood
• Jack Turner
• John Entwistle
• Jimi Hendrix 
• Jimi Hendrix & Little Richard
• The Everly Brothers
• Jerry Lee Lewis
• John Lennon (charity concert in New York, 1972)
• Royal Artillery Alanbrooke Band
• Billy "Crash" Craddock
• Johnny Burnette Trio
• Rolling Stones
• Willy DeVille
• Robert Palmer
• Tales of Terror
• Gene Vincent
• Eric Clapton 
• Bernie Marsden, Ian Paice, Neil Murray and Don Airey.
• Jeff Beck & Jed Leiber (instrumental version)
• James Taylor
• In Motion picture soundtracks for American Graffiti, Grease, Forrest Gump, Lilo & Stitch, A Few Good Men, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Chrystal Skull.