Watch: The original ‘Hound Dog’ performance, years before Elvis Presley claimed it as his song
A video from 1952 shows that African-American singer, Big Mama Thornton recorded the hit song years before Elvis Presley.
The late Elvis Presley has often come under fire for his appropriation relationship to the music of various African American musician, particularly jazz artistes. The video above shows Big Mama Thornton singing Hound Dog in her quintessential bluesy tones in 1952, but when Elvis performed her song in 1956, he and his estate made profits in a way her estate still has not.
The video has left many wondering, when African American musicians – and women in particular – whose music has been appropriated will start getting their dues.