Big Mama Thornton

**Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton** (November 12, 1926, Montgomery, Alabama – July 25, 1984 in Los Angeles, California) was an American blues singer, harp player and songwriter.

Thornton was the first who recorded "Hound Dog" by Leiber and Stoller. Another song which is often covered is "Ball ´n Chain". It is included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame list of the "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll".  It is one of her best-known songs because of being performed and recorded by Janis Joplin.

## Career

She was born in Montgomery, Alabama. She got her musical education in a Baptist church, where her father was a minister and her mother a choir singer. At the age of 14 she joined Sammy Green's Georgia-based Hot Harlem Revue and toured the south. She was also a self-taught drummer and harmonica player. She often played each instrument onstage.

Thornton settled in Houston in 1948. In 1951, she signed a recording contract with Peacock Records. For this label, she recorded "Hound Dog" which became #1 in the Rhythm and Blues charts. Then she toured with Junior Parker and Esther Phillips. At the end of the 1950s, her career faded. She relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where she mostly played local blues clubs.

In 1966 she recorded _Big Mama Thornton With The Muddy Waters Blues Band_ featuring Muddy Waters (guitar), Sammy Lawhorn (guitar), James Cotton (harmonica), Otis Spann (piano), Luther Johnson (bass guitar), and Francis Clay (drums). Her _Ball 'n' Chain_ album in 1968 with Lightnin' Hopkins (guitar) and Larry Williams (vocals), included the songs "Hound Dog", "Wade in the Water", "Little Red Rooster", "Ball 'n' Chain", "Money Taker", and "Prison Blues".

One of Thornton's last albums was _Jail_ (1975) for Vanguard Records.The album was recorded in the mid-1970s at two prisons. She became the leader of a blues ensemble. Thornton performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1966 and 1968, and at the San Francisco Blues Festival in 1979. In 1965 she performed with the American Folk Blues Festival package in Europe where she recorded her album _Big Mama Thornton in Europe_ and followed it up the next year in San Francisco with _Big Mama Thornton with the Chicago Blues Band_. Both albums came out on the Arhoolie label. Thornton continued to record for Vanguard, Mercury, and other small labels in the 1970s and to work the blues festival circuit until her death in 1984. She was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1984.

Thornton died of a heart attack in Los Angeles on 25 July 1984 at the age of 57.

## Selected discography

- 1965  _Big Mama Thornton in Europe_  Arhoolie
- 1967  _Big Mama the Queen at Monterey_  MCA
- 1968  _She's Back_
- 1969  _Stronger Than Dirt_
- 1970  _Maybe_  Roulette Records
- 1970  _The Way It Is_  Mercury
- 1973  _Saved_  Pentagram Records
- 1975  _Jail_  Vanguard
- 1975  _Sassy Mama!_
- 1978  _Mama's Pride_  Vanguard

## Infobox (musical artist)

- **name**: Big Mama Thornton
- **image**: Blues is a woman Reitz (Big Mama Thornton).jpg
- **background**: solo_singer
- **birth name**: Willie Mae Thornton
- **birth place**: Montgomery, Alabama
- **origin**: Ariton, Alabama, United States
- **death place**: Los Angeles, California
- **instrument**: Drum kit, drums, harmonica
- **genre**: Rhythm and blues, Texas blues
- **occupation**: Singing, Singer, songwriter
- **years active**: 1947–1984
- **label**: Peacock Records, Peacock, Arhoolie Records, Arhoolie, Mercury Records, Mercury, Pentagram, Backbeat, Vanguard Records, Vanguard, Ace Records (UK)
- **associated acts**: Muddy Waters Blues Band, Lightnin' Hopkins, John Lee Hooker