Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton (December 11, 1926 – July 25, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter of blues and R&B.
The Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock and Soul described Thornton by saying: "Her booming voice, sometimes 200-pound frame, and exuberant stage manner had audiences stomping their feet and shouting encouragement in R&B theaters from coast to coast from the early 1950s on". Thornton's strong and important vocal style and her confidence on stage made her a huge influence on early blues and rock and roll, even though she rarely received proper credit and compensation for her work.
Thornton was the first to record Leiber and Stoller's "Hound Dog", in 1952, which was written for her. It became Thornton's biggest hit, selling over 500,000 copies and staying seven weeks at number one on the Billboard R&B chart in 1953. According to New York University music professor Maureen Mahon, "the song is seen as an important beginning of rock-and-roll, especially in its use of the guitar as the key instrument".
Thornton's other recordings include her song "Ball and Chain", made famous in the late 1960s by Janis Joplin. Though later recordings of her songs by other artists sold millions of copies, she was denied royalties by not holding the publishing copyrights to her creativity. Thornton died in July 1984 of a heart attack and liver disorders, penniless in a boarding-house in Los Angeles, California. Thornton was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2024 under the Musical Influence category.
Life and career
Early life and self-taught musicianship
Thornton was born on December 11, 1926, the sixth of George and Mattie (née Haynes) Thornton's seven children. While Thornton's birth certificate states that she was born in Ariton, Alabama, in an interview with Arhoolie Records producer Chris Strachwitz, she claimed Montgomery, Alabama, as her birthplace. Thornton's mother fell gravely ill from tuberculosis. Only 13 years of age, Thornton cared for her mother until her death in the Montgomery Tuberculosis Sanatorium in 1939. At the time Thornton was still in the third grade. After losing her mother, she was unable to continue to attend school. Thornton left school and got a job washing and cleaning spittoons in a local tavern.
Thornton's talent was self-taught. She said: "My singing comes from my experience... My own experience. I never had no one teach me nothin'. I never went to school for music or nothin'. I taught myself to sing and to blow harmonica and even to play drums by watchin' other people! I can't read music, but I know what I'm singing! I don't sing like nobody but myself." When Thornton was 8 years old, she taught herself to play the harmonica by watching her older brother, Calliope "Harp" Thornton. Thornton explained her early love of the blues, saying: "My father was a minister. He's a Baptist preacher, and my mother she was very religious. And me, I don't know what I am, I'm -- well, [I] was just born with the blues... I really got the blues, you know, in '39 when I lost my mother, and then I said, 'Well, I don't know what to do'. I said, 'Well, I think I want to sing the blues'. So I said, well, [at] that time, I was listening to Big Maceo, his "Worried Life Blues" and I said 'I think I want to sing that', and I did. That was a beautiful number. Yeah." Thornton described the audition during a 1970 Studs Terkel radio interview, saying: "A show came through in the first of the 1940s and they called it 'Sammy Green's Hot Harlem Revue' as I mentioned earlier. They didn't have a singer, and so I asked him, I said, 'Give me an audition, let me sing'. I said, 'I've been singing all the little talent shows around here'. He said, 'Oh, little 'ole girl, you can't sing'. I said, 'Will you give me a try?' He said, 'Yeah, well, when the show start, say we gonna give a little audition for singers, 'cause I'm looking for a singer'. And so he give auditions. So I was there, he wrote my name down, and several people they sung, and then he said, 'Well, I, I want to see what you can do'. So I got up there, I had an old pair of jeans, one leg rolled up, I got up and I started singing one of Louis Jordan's song called "G.I. Jive", and I sung that song, and I sang this blues by Big Maceo, "Worried Life Blues" and he hired me. Out of 25 people, I was the 26th but then he hired me." Thornton left Green's show in 1948 over a money dispute, about which she said: "I traveled with them for quite a few years, and I went to Houston, Texas in '48. We played there and then we left. As a matter of fact, I quit the show in '48... They owed me a little, quite a bit of money and they wouldn't pay it, and I just got tired."
1950s: recording career and "Hound Dog"
Thornton moved to Houston and started singing at the Eldorado Ballroom for fifty dollars a night. In 1950, Thornton recorded her first record, "All Right Baby" and "Bad Luck Got My Man", released on Houston's E&W Recording Studio record label and credited to the "Harlem All Stars". Thornton was credited as songwriter on both songs. Thornton moved to the Bronze Peacock Dinner Club which was owned by impresario and record producer Don Robey. In 1950 she signed a five-year recording contract with Robey's Peacock Records. Her first Peacock record "No Jody For Me / Let Your Tears Fall Baby" was a local hit in the Houston area, but did not catch on nationally. Thornton needed additional income to live, so she started shining shoes to get by. to gain experience and exposure. The deal included recording the artists in Los Angeles and giving the recordings to Robey for distribution. Thornton was one of the artists Otis selected.
During the revue's appearance at Harlem's Apollo Theatre in December 1952, Thornton did not have a hit single of her own to sing. She sang a version of the Billy Ward and his Dominoes hit "Have Mercy Baby". The audience went wild for Thornton and would not stop until the stage manager brought the curtain down in order to move the show on. Thornton said: "...that's where they made their mistake. They put me on first. I wasn't out there to put no one off stage. I was out there to get known and I did!... They had to put the curtain down. That's when they put my name in lights. Mr. Frank Shiffman, the manager came back stage hollerin' to Johnny Otis... 'You said you had a star and you got a star. You got to put her on to close the show!" with Leiber demonstrating the song in the vocal style they had envisioned; Stoller said: "We wanted her to growl it." Thornton said: "Don't tell me how to sing no song", but relented. Thornton realized her record was being broadcast while traveling to a performance in Dayton, Ohio. "I was going to the theater and I just turned the radio on in the car and the man said, 'Here's a record that's going nationwide: "Hound Dog" by Willie Mae Thornton'. I said, That's me! I hadn't heard the record in so long. So when we get to the theater they was blasting it. You could hear it from the theater, from the loudspeaker. They were just playing "Hound Dog" all over the theater. So I goes up in the operating room, I say, 'Do you mind playing that again?'... 'Cause I hadn't heard the record in so long I forgot the words myself. So I stood there while he was playing it, listening to it. So that evening I sang it on the show, and everybody went for it." Even though "Hound Dog" became a big hit, Thornton did not receive the acknowledgement or monetary compensation she deserved for her original record. Although the record made Thornton a star, she reportedly saw little of the profits. Thornton never received full credit for recording the original version of the song. She claimed she received just one royalty check for $500 from her version that spent seven weeks as number one on the 1953 Billboard R&B chart. Rolling Stone quoted her as having said: "Didn't get no money from them at all. Everybody livin' in a house but me. I'm just livin'." Thornton's success with "Hound Dog" was overshadowed three years later when Elvis Presley recorded a hit version of the song. Presley's version sold ten million copies, so today few people know that "Hound Dog" began as Thornton's "anthem of black Women's power".
Thornton continued with Johnny Otis's band between 1951 and 1954. The 30 recordings she made for the Peacock label during that time are considered "remarkable for the vocal presence and total cohesiveness". Thornton performed in R&B package tours with Junior Parker and Esther Phillips and continued to record for Peacock until 1957. Thornton did not have another hit record.
Johnny Ace's death
While performing Christmas Day 1954 at the City Auditorium in Houston, Texas, Thornton tried to intervene as fellow Duke and Peacock record performer Johnny Ace was playing with a new .32 cal. revolver in the backstage dressing room during that evening's show. In an official deposition taken at 12:40 am the next morning, Thornton said: "I looked over at Johnny and noticed he had a pistol in his hand. It was a pistol that he bought somewhere in Florida. It was a .32 cal. revolver. Johnny was pointing this pistol at Mary Carter and Joe Hamilton. He was kind of waving it around. I asked Johnny to let me see the gun. He gave it to me and when I turned the chamber a .32 cal. bullet fell out in my hand. Johnny told me to put it back in where it wouldn't fall out. I put it back and gave it to him. I told him not to snap it at nobody". Ace did not heed Thornton's advice. "After he got the pistol back, Johnny pointed the pistol at Mary Carter and pulled the trigger. It snapped... I told Johnny again not to snap the pistol at anybody. Johnny then put the pistol to Olivia's head and pulled the trigger. It snapped. Johnny said 'I'll show you that it won't shoot'. He held the pistol up and looked at it first and then put it to his head. I started toward the door and I heard the pistol go off. I turned around and saw Johnny falling to the floor. I saw that he was shot and I run on stage and told the people in the band about it. I stayed there until the officers arrived."
1960s: "Ball and Chain" and continued success
As her career began to fade in the late 1950s and early 1960s, While living in the Bay Area, Thornton recorded for a succession of labels, including Irma, Bay-Tone, Carolyn, Sotoplay, Kent and the Berkeley-based Arhoolie Records.
In 1961 Thornton wrote another signature song, "Ball And Chain". The song relates the feelings of a woman who has been mistreated by her partner.This caused Thornton to once again miss out on the publishing royalties when her song was recorded by another artist and became a hit. During her later efforts to secure the royalties from the song, Thornton described how she had written the song 9 years before she recorded it, saying: "I was singing that way before I recorded it."
After hearing Thornton perform the song at the Both/And Club on Divisadero Street in San Francisco, Big Brother and the Holding Company's vocalist Janis Joplin and guitarist James Gurley approached her and asked permission to cover "Ball And Chain". Subsequently, the band released their version of the song on their album Cheap Thrills in August 1968. The album remained at the top spot of the Billboard Hot 200 charts for two months. Joplin's interpretation of the song renewed interest in Thornton, boosting her career. With the success of Big Brother's Cheap Thrills album, Arhoolie Records released Thornton's recording of "Ball And Chain" as a way to capitalize on the success of Joplin's cover. where she was "celebrated by adoring fans". Her success was notable "because very few female blues singers at that time had ever enjoyed success across the Atlantic". While in London on October 20, she recorded her first album for Arhoolie, Big Mama Thornton – In Europe. Music producer Chris Strachwitz said in the album's liner notes: "Willie Mae 'Big Mama' Thornton is in my opinion the greatest female blues singer of this and any other decade." In 1966, Thornton recorded her second album for Arhoolie, Big Mama Thornton and the Chicago Blues Band with the Muddy Waters Blues Band including Muddy Waters (guitar), Sammy Lawhorn (guitar), James Cotton (harmonica), Otis Spann (piano), Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson (bass guitar), and Francis Clay (drums). Thornton performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1966 and 1968. Her last album for Arhoolie, Ball And Chain, a special compilation/anthology, was released in 1968. It was made up of 5 tracks by Lightnin' Hopkins, 3 tracks by Larry Williams, plus Thornton's recordings of her composition "Ball And Chain" and the standard "Wade in the Water" added on. A small combo, including her frequent guitarist Edward "Bee" Houston, provided backup for the latter two songs.
By 1969, Thornton had signed with Mercury Records, which released her most successful album, Stronger Than Dirt, which reached number 198 in the Billboard Top 200 record chart. Next, Thornton signed a contract with Pentagram Records and finally fulfilled one of her biggest dreams. A blues woman and the daughter of a preacher, Thornton loved the blues and what she called the "good singing" of gospel artists like the Dixie Hummingbirds and Mahalia Jackson. She had always wanted to record a gospel record, and did so with the album Saved (PE 10005). The album includes the gospel classics "Oh, Happy Day", "Down By The Riverside", "Glory, Glory Hallelujah", "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands", "Lord Save Me", "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", "One More River", and "Go Down Moses". Thornton took part in the Tribal Stomp at Monterey Fairgrounds, the Third Annual Sacramento Blues Festival, and the Los Angeles Bicentennial Blues with B.B. King and Muddy Waters. She was a guest on an ABC-TV special hosted by actor Hal Holbrook and was joined by Aretha Franklin and toured through the club scene. She was also part of the award-winning PBS television special Three Generations of the blues with Sippie Wallace and Jeannie Cheatham. on July 25, 1984. She died of heart and liver disorders due to her longstanding alcohol abuse. She had lost in a short time as a result of illness, her weight dropping from .
Style
Thornton's performances were characterized by her deep, powerful voice and strong sense of self. She was given her nickname, "Big Mama," by Frank Schiffman, the manager of Harlem's Apollo Theater, because of her strong voice, size, and personality. Thornton stated that she was louder than any microphone and did not want a microphone to ever be as loud as she was. Her voice was often depicted as fresh, eloquent, and resonant, founded on the gospel music she was exposed to as a child in Alabama. Thornton was quoted in a 1980 article in The New York Times: "when I was comin' up, listening to Bessie Smith and all, they sung from their heart and soul and expressed themselves. That's why when I do a song by Jimmy Reed or somebody, I have my own way of singing it. Because I don't want to be Jimmy Reed, I want to be me. I like to put myself into whatever I'm doin' so I can feel it."
Scholars such as Maureen Mahon have praised Thornton for subverting traditional roles of Black or African-American women.
Scholar Tyina Steptoe has written that Thornton's gender nonconformity helped to establish rock 'n' roll as a rebellious form of music. She says that Thornton should be understood as queer. Music historian Evelyn McDonnell remarked "If you go back and look at Bessie Smith, Big Mama Thornton — they were not publicly identifying themselves as queer, necessarily, but clearly signaling in their lyrics and dressing in suits".
Legacy
During her career, Thornton was nominated for Blues Music Awards six times.
Thornton subsequently received greater recognition for her popular songs, but she is still under appreciated for her influence on the blues, rock and roll and soul music.
In 2004, the nonprofit Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls, named for Thornton, was founded to offer a musical education to girls from ages eight to 18. The movie and soundtrack were both critical and commercial hits, giving greater public attention to Thornton.
In 2024, Thornton was selected for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the musical influence category.
Accolades
- 1953: "Hound Dog" (Single), Peacock Records, Best Rhythm and Blues song, Cash Box magazine
- 1979: San Francisco Blues Festival Award
- 1984: Inductee, Blues Hall of Fame, Blues Foundation, Memphis, Tennessee
- 2006: Classic of Blues Recording - Single or Album Track, "Hound Dog" (Single), Peacock Records, Blues Hall of Fame, Blues Foundation, Memphis, Tennessee
- 2013: GRAMMY Hall Of Fame Award, "Hound Dog" (Single), Peacock Records (1953)
- 2017: Inductee, National Recording Registry, "Hound Dog" (Single), Peacock Records, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
- 2020: Inductee, Alabama Music Hall of Fame, Tuscumbia, Alabama
- 2024: Inductee, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Musical influence category, Cleveland, Ohio
Discography
Studio albums
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+List of studio albums, with selected chart positions
! scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width:11em;"| Title
! scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width:18em;"| Details
! scope="col" colspan="1"| Peak chart positions
|-
! scope="col" style="width:2.5em; font-size:85%;"| US<br/>
|-
! scope="row"| In Europe
|
- Released: June 1966
- Label: Arhoolie 1028
| —
|-
! scope="row"| Big Mama Thornton and the Chicago Blues Band
|
- Released: May 1967
- Label: Arhoolie 1032
| —
|-
! scope="row"| Stronger Than Dirt
|
- Released: August 1969
- Label: Mercury
| 198
|-
! scope="row"| Saved
|
- Released: 1971
- Label: Pentagram
| —
|-
! scope="row"| Sassy Mama!
|
- Released: 1975
- Label: Vanguard
| —
|-
| colspan="14" style="font-size:85%"| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.
|}
Live albums
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+List of live albums, with selected details
! scope="col" style="width:11em;"| Title
! scope="col" style="width:18em;"| Details
|-
! scope="row"| The Way It Is
|
- Released: December 1969
- Label: Mercury
|-
! scope="row"| The Blues... "A Real Summit Meeting" (Recorded Live at Newport in New York)
|
- Released: 1973
- Label: Buddah
|-
! scope="row"| Jail
|
- Released: 1975
- Label: Vanguard
|-
! scope="row"| Live at Newport<br/>
|
- Released: 1982
- Label: Intermedia
|-
! scope="row"| The Rising Sun Collection <small>[reissued as Sassy Mama: Live at the Rising Sun Celebrity Jazz Club]</small>
|
- Released: 1994
- Label: Just a Memory/Justin Time
|-
|}
Compilation albums
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+List of compilation albums, with selected details
! scope="col" style="width:11em;"| Title
! scope="col" style="width:18em;"| Details
|-
! scope="row"| Ball And Chain <br/>
|
- Released: 1968
- Label: Arhoolie 1039
|-
! scope="row"| She's Back
|
- Released: 1970
- Label: Back Beat
|-
! scope="row"| Mama's Pride
|
- Released: 1978
- Label: Vanguard
|-
! scope="row"| Quit Snoopin' Round My Door
|
- Released: 1986
- Label: Ace
|-
! scope="row"| Ball 'n' Chain <br/>
|
- Released: 1989
- Label: Arhoolie
|-
! scope="row"| You Ole Houn' Dawg
|
- Released: 1989
- Label: Ace
|-
! scope="row"| The Original Hound Dog
|
- Released: 1990
- Label: Ace
|-
! scope="row"| They Call Me Big Mama
|
- Released: 1991
- Label: MCA
|-
! scope="row"| Hound Dog: The Peacock Recordings
|
- Released: 1992
- Label: MCA
|-
! scope="row"| The Big Change
|
- Released: 1996
- Label: Altaya
|-
! scope="row"| Hound Dog: The Essential Collection
|
- Released: 1999
- Label: Spectrum Music
|-
! scope="row"| The Complete Vanguard Recordings
|
- Released: April 18, 2000
- Label: Vanguard
|-
! scope="row"| The Chronological Big Mama Thornton 1950–1953
|
- Released: 2004
- Label: Classics (Blues & Rhythm series)
|-
! scope="row"| A Proper Introduction to Big Mama Thornton: They Called Me Big Mama
|
- Released: 2005
- Label: Proper
|-
! scope="row"| Blues
|
- Released: 2006
- Label: Disky
|-
! scope="row"| Vanguard Visionaries
|
- Released: 2007
- Label: Vanguard
|-
! scope="row"| The Complete 1950–1961
|
- Released: 2013
- Label: Le Chant du Monde
|-
! scope="row"| Rock-A-Bye-Baby (The 1950–1961 Recordings)
|
- Released: 2014
- Label: Hoodoo
|-
! scope="row"| The Essential Recordings
|
- Released: March 31, 2017
- Label: Primo
|-
! scope="row"| The Story of My Blues: The Complete Singles A's & B's 1951–1961
|
- Released: July 12, 2019
- Label: Jasmine
|-
! scope="row"| The Very Best of Big Mama Thornton
|
- Released: October 2019
- Label: Not Now Music
|-
! scope="row"| The Singles Collection 1950–1961
|
- Released: June 19, 2020
- Label: Acrobat
|-
! scope="row"| The Best of Big Mama Thornton 1951–1958
|
- Released: July 14, 2023
- Label: Acrobat
|-
|}
Singles
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+ List of singles, with selected chart positions
! scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width:16em;"| Title
! scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width:1em;"| Year
! scope="col" colspan="1"| Peak chart positions
! scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width:9em;"| Album
|-
! scope="col" style="width:2.5em; font-size:90%;"| US R&B<br/>
|-
! scope="row"| "Partnership Blues"
| rowspan="2"| 1951
| —
| rowspan="17"
|-
! scope="row"| "No Jody for Me"
| —
|-
! scope="row"| "Every Time I Think of You"
| 1952
| —
|-
! scope="row"| "Hound Dog"
| rowspan="3"| 1953
| 1
|-
! scope="row"| "They Call Me Big Mama"
| —
|-
! scope="row"| "I Ain't No Fool Either"
| —
|-
! scope="row"| "I Smell a Rat"
| rowspan="3"| 1954
| —
|-
! scope="row"| "Stop Hoppin' on Me"
| —
|-
! scope="row"| "Rock a Bye Baby"
| —
|-
! scope="row"| "The Fish"
| rowspan="2"| 1955
| —
|-
! scope="row"| "Tarzan and the Dignified Monkey"<br/>
| —
|-
! scope="row"| "Just Like a Dog (Barking Up the Wrong Tree)"
| 1957
| —
|-
! scope="row"| "Don't Talk Back"
| 1958
| —
|-
! scope="row"| "You Did Me Wrong"
| 1961
| —
|-
! scope="row"| "Mercy"
| 1963
| —
|-
! scope="row"| "Tom Cat"
| 1964
| —
|-
! scope="row"| "Before Day (Big Mama's Blues)"
| 1965
| —
|-
! scope="row"| "Swing It on Home"
| rowspan="2"| 1966
| —
| In Europe
|-
! scope="row"| "Because It's Love"
| —
| rowspan="3"
|-
! scope="row"| "Their Ain't Nothing You Can Do, Part 1"
| rowspan="2"| 1967
| —
|-
! scope="row"| "Don't Do Me This Way"
| —
|-
! scope="row"| "Ball and Chain, Part 1"
| 1968
| —
| Ball and Chain
|-
! scope="row"| "Let's Go Get Stoned"
| 1969
| —
| Stronger Than Dirt
|-
| colspan="14" style="font-size:85%"| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.
|}
See also
- List of blues musicians
References
Bibliography
- Spörke, Michael (2014). Big Mama Thornton: The Life and Music. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. .