Thornton, Big Mama

byname of Willie Mae Thornton

(born Dec. 11, 1926, Montgomery, Ala., U.S.—died July 25, 1984, Los Angeles, Calif.) American singer and songwriter who performed in the tradition of classic blues singers such as Bessie Smith and Memphis Minnie. Her work inspired imitation by Elvis Presley and Janis Joplin, who recorded popular cover versions of Thornton's “Hound Dog” and “Ball and Chain,” respectively.

The daughter of a minister, Thornton was introduced to church music at an early age. A skilled singer and dancer and a self-taught drummer and harmonica player, she toured the American South as a member of Sammy Green's Hot Harlem Revue during the 1940s. Settling in Houston, Texas, in 1948, she came under the influence of blues greats Lightnin' Hopkins, Lowell Fulson, Junior Parker, and Clarence (“Gatemouth”) Brown. In the early 1950s she began performing with bandleader Johnny Otis, with whom she recorded many songs for Peacock Records, including the Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller composition “Hound Dog,” a number one rhythm-and-blues hit for Thornton in 1953 and an even bigger pop hit in 1956 for Presley, whose rock-and-roll version owed much to Thornton's original.

As interest in blues declined, Thornton ceased recording but continued to perform in the San Francisco Bay area, where she came to the attention of Joplin, whose late 1960s version of the Thornton-written “Ball and Chain” revived interest in the blues singer called “Big Mama” because of her girth and larger-than-life voice and stage presence.