Born: 3 March 1920, United Kingdom
Died: 26 August 1991
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women creator Allison Tyra’s book Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work.
Elvis Presley was notorious for covering music from African-American artists, including singer Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton. The song Hound Dog was written for Thornton, and her recording was certainly a success, selling 500,000 copies and spending 14 weeks in the R&B charts and seven weeks at number one. Presley’s version became his bestselling song, with 10 million records sold worldwide. Her recording is listed as one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s “500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll,” while Presley’s cover was featured by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as “the most illustrative example of the white appropriation of African-American music.” Thornton’s recording was also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2013—25 years after Presley’s was in 1988.