elvis presley, version of Hound dog

As most of us know, Elvis Presley’s, “Hound Dog” was one of his most famous singles, however there are many people that do not know of the original written by Willie Mae, “Big Mamma” Thornton. Why did Elvis have more commercial success with his version? Big Mamma Thornton’s version was released just four years before Elvis’ and was number one for seven weeks. Rather than it being recorded as a pop song, it was a blues/RnB single. The tonality of this version is dramatically telling of the introduction of blues music into the mainstream in the early 50’s. In the same year of her release two major political events changed the history of the U.S and the world. Firstly the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) approved their European army. The organization, which involved Great Britain and the U.S, was constructed to protect the freedom of the North Atlantic community against the Soviet Union during the Cold war. The Cold war was a consequence of the Korean War. The second major event was America’s first use of the Hydrogen bomb in Enewetak, which was ordered to be developed by President Truman only a couple of years before. The cold war effected citizens by putting restrictions on political views, such as communism. Thoughts of communism remained within secret groups as a result could lead to arrest or death. Also the restrictions affected all the arts, as there was lots of censorship, this militant way of life, meant that families at the time were very straight in their decisions and appearance. Only four years after World War two into the early years of the Cold War, the world experienced a dramatic increase in population, 77 million babies were born from 1946-1964 in America alone. This was called “The Baby Boom”. This new generation of babies were the focus of marketing campaigns and business plans. It was around the same year of “Hound dogs” first release, that the colour T.V was created, but many homes didn’t own one. This