Big Mama Thorton

Taking another stride, our story moves on to Willie Mae Thornton a. k. a Big Mama Thornton, who would rise to fame after getting signed to Don Robey's record while working at his club.

Here, her interaction with Johnny Ace and the Johnny Otis band would set her up for success despite her rather crude musical personality which she intentionally held on to, making her more of an acquired taste.

In this part of the series, Michael T. Davis, Casey Wood, and Seth West expound on the largely undiscovered blend of musical inspiration from Johnny Ace to Big Mama Thornton down to Elvis Presley, all of which are still linked with Don Robey's decisions, directly or indirectly.

In this episode, we talk about…

● [02:28] What our hosts have been up to; Casey's trip to Wisconsin, Seth's new Solo record, and Michael's annoying T-shirt purchase.

● [09:54] For clarity, the Duke Records being discussed in this podcast is not the same as the one that is a subsidiary of Trojan records founded by Chris Blackwell. Also Johnny Ace here is not the wrestler from the WWE.

● [15:35] How Big Mama Thornton got signed to Peacock Records and her decision to retain her eccentricity which would play a pivotal role in her success.

● [21:55] With difficulty managing her unconventional musical persona, Robey had her join the tour with Johnny Otis' band and Johnny Ace during which she released her 4th Single, a major hit, "Hound Dog".

● [27:20] Discussing musical copyrights in music; in probably one of the first musical copyright court cases, Sun Records had been successfully sued by Robey to gain part of the royalties for "Bear Cat" which was an answer song to Hound Dog.

● [39:40] Intriguingly, after her success, Big Mama Thornton released 8 more singles but none of them could chart.

● [42:00] Why some listeners prefer a single genre compared to others who enjoy multiple genres. This explains how Big Mama Thornton was an inspiration for Elvis Presley, even though her success had been quite fleeting.

Resources

§ Listen to “Hound Dog” by Big Mama Thornton

§ Listen to “Bear Cat” by Rufus Thomas