of dislocation & graceful unravelling

"The girl groups were possibly the only interesting music happening between the end of the 1950s and the beginnings of rock."

from my History of Rock’n’Roll textbook…

ETA: If anyone wants to make me a Girl Group mix/playlist… ya know… I haven’t really delved into this genre yet. (I mean the Crystals, the Ronettes, the Marvelettes, etc. as opposed to Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Le Tigre et al.)

Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton: “Hound Dog” (1952)

Big Mama Thornton was a blues/R&B singer and professional BAMF.

This is what I learned about her from my music history professor:

She left home at the age of 14 to try to get gigs singing in clubs & vaudeville acts. She taught herself how to play some instruments, like drums and harmonica. Nobody dared mess with her due to her imposing stature (obviously at least six feet tall!) Songwriters Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller (who wrote many of the early rock’n’roll songs, such as “Yakety-Yak” for the Coasters, “Stand By Me” for Ben E. King, and “Under the Boardwalk” for the Drifters) wrote “Hound Dog” for her after seeing her perform. It was #1 on the Billboard Rhythm & Blues charts before Elvis’ version made #1 on the Rock’n’Roll charts. According to my instructor, during the 50s Rhythm & Blues and Rock’n’Roll were pretty similar and shared influences before later branching off into R&B and Rock, and the nomenclature at the time was mainly to segregate the black artists from the white, at least on paper/radio stations/record labels, even though there was a lot of crossover happening between performers as well as audiences. (My professor says he’ll tell us later about his thoughts on how music contributed to desegregation in general.)

Although the recording of “Hound Dog” brought Big Mama fame, she didn’t see a lot of profit, and at least as my professor told us, she later died in poverty. Record companies would typically offer the singer two options: take a payment up front and give up the rights to the song, or keep the rights to the song and get paid a fraction of a cent for each record sale. A large payment up front was tempting to many musicians who were usually broke, and the record companies would frame the proposition in terms of: “at least you’ll get paid something because what if the record doesn’t sell?” But when the record would go and sell a hundred thousand copies, the singers rarely saw royalties.

For my parents’ birthdays last month, I made them mix CDs featuring a selection of Top Hits from their birth-years.

1954
01. The Chordettes: Mr. Sandman
02. Doris Day: Secret Love
03. Kitty Kallen: Little Things Mean a Lot
04. The Crew Cuts: Sh’Boom (Life Could Be a Dream)
05. Rosemary Clooney: Hey There
06. Perry Como: Wanted
07. Eddy Calvert: Oh Mein Papa
08. The Four Aces: Three Coins in a Fountain
09. Rosemary Clooney: This Ole House
10. The Penguins: Earth Angel
11. Bill Haley: Shake, Rattle & Roll
12. Rosemary Clooney: Mambo Italiano
13. Frank Sinatra: Young at Heart
14. The Fontane Sisters: Hearts of Stone
15. The Four Aces: Strangers in Paradise

(download)

1956
01. Elvis Presley: Hound Dog
02. Elvis Presley: Heartbreak Hotel
03. Elvis Presley: Love Me Tender
04. The Platters: The Great Pretender
05. Carl Perkins: Blue Suede Shoes
06. Fats Domino: Blueberry Hill
07. Frankie Lyman: Why Do Fools Fall in Love?
08. Doris Day: Whatever Will Be Will Be (Que Sera Sera)
09. Bill Doggett: Honky Tonk (Parts 1 & 2)
10. Little Richard: Long Tall Sally
11. Gene Vincent: Be-Bop-a-Lula
12. Dean Martin: Memories Are Made of This
13. Chuck Berry: Roll Over Beethoven
14. Nelson Riddle: Lisbon Antigua
15. Louis Armstrong: Mack The Knife

(download)