Big Mama Thornton, a blues singer who deserves more recognition

A blues shouter with forebears Memphis Minnie, Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, Montgomery, Alabama’s Willie Mac Thornton, born 1926, changed the course of music history with two songs, 1952’s Hound Dog, and Ball And Chain, released in 1968. The first, written by Leiber and Stoller with help from Johnny Otis, laid the foundations for rock’n’roll, rewarding Thornton with her sole US R&B Number 1 - it was, of course, covered by Elvis to even greater success. The second helped architect US blues rock when adopted by Janis Joplin and the Big Brother Holding Company.

Despite this, Thornton remains cruelly underrated, although she was inducted into the Blues Hall Of Fame in 1984, the same year she died from complications from alcohol abuse.

A huge physical presence with a fiery temper and strong will, Big Mama, dubbed thus by Frank Schiffman, the manager of Harlem’s Apollo Theater, dressed in men’s clothing at a time when female singers were expected to wear sequined gowns.

It was her huge voice, though, that demanded attention - although her blues harp and drumming skills were exceptional, too. Shaped in her local Baptist church, then from the age of 14 in promoter Sammy Green’s Hot Harlem Revue and at 22 in Houston’s Eldorado Club, her voice was as proud and lion-like as any of her male peers. Don Robey captured her tremendous roar first. Signed to his Peacock label from 1951-57, she issued a series of classics; 1951 ’s debut Partnership Blues with trumpeter Joe Scott’s band, Hound Dog in 1952,1954’s I Smell A Rat.

After stints on local labels, she hooked up with Arhoolie for two albums, the first In Europe which saw her backed by Buddy Guy and Fred McDowell, the second with Muddy Waters’ Blues Band. Tenures at Mercury (1969’s Stronger Than Dirt, 1970’s The Way It Is), Pentagram (1971’s Saved, her only gospel album) and Vanguard were equally fruitful.