Latest Release
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- 23 APR 2024
- 6 Songs
- Vanguard Visionaries: Big Mama Thornton · 1968
- Big Mama Thornton With the Muddy Waters Blues Band - 1966 · 1966
- Hard Times · 1990
- Precious & Rare: Big Mama Thornton · 2008
- Hard Times · 1990
- Big Mama Thornton With the Muddy Waters Blues Band - 1966 · 1966
- In Europe · 1965
- Big Mama's Blues · 2010
- Rhapsody in Blues, Vol. 2 · 2005
- Roots of Rock & Roll · 2024
Essential Albums
- 2005
Artist Playlists
- An unsung icon with a fierce growl and gospel-inspired delivery.
Singles & EPs
- 2014
About Big Mama Thornton
Big Mama Thornton was a vibrant rhythm & blues shouter whose trademark growl was a major influence on generations of R&B and rock artists. While she never crossed over to the pop charts, two of her signature songs would become well known to rock fans -- she recorded "Hound Dog" four years before Elvis Presley had a hit with the tune, and she wrote "Ball & Chain," which Janis Joplin performed on Big Brother & the Holding Company's 1968 album Cheap Thrills. Thornton recorded well into the '70s and performed into the '80s, delivering her impassioned version of the blues -- gritty but swinging, and perfect for a rowdy Saturday night -- into the last years of her life. Her superb early singles are collected on the 1992 set Hound Dog: The Peacock Recordings, and 1966's In Europe is drawn from recordings of the American Folk Blues Festival tour of 1965.
- HOMETOWN
- Ariton, AL, United States
- BORN
- 11 de diciembre de 1926
- GENRE
- Blues