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.