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Big Mama Thornton, born on December 11, 1926, in Ariton, Alabama, was a pioneering American blues singer and songwriter. She gained fame as the first artist to record "Hound Dog," achieving a Number 1 hit on the Billboard R&B chart in 1953, with sales reaching two million copies. That same year, she released "They Call Me Big Mama," which solidified her nickname in the realms of funky gospel and R&B music. Thornton also wrote and recorded "Ball And Chain," a song that later garnered attention from Janis Joplin in the late 1960s. The daughter of a Baptist church minister and one of seven children, Thornton began her musical journey at the age of fourteen, touring the South with the Georgia Hot Harlem Revue. In addition to singing, she played drums and harmonica, signing her first contract with Peacock Records in Houston in 1951. In the later years of her career, Thornton performed at notable events such as the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1966 and 1968, as well as the San Francisco Blues Festival in 1979. In 1966, she recorded the album "Big Mama Thornton With The Chicago Blues Band" on the Arhoolie label and wrote a total of twenty-two blues releases. Thornton passed away on July 25, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, due to heart and liver complications exacerbated by years of alcohol abuse. That same

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