Pat Blythe …and The Blues Continue – Big Mama Thornton

Who pops into your mind when you hear the song title “Hound Dog”? How about “Ball and Chain”? Big Mama Thornton? Probably not. However, “Hound Dog” was her biggest hit, selling more than two million copies when it was first released in 1953. “Hound Dog”reached number one on the R&B charts and made Thornton a star. However, her total compensation was the paltry sum of $500. Elvis Presley recorded it three years later and with it (for Presley) came fame and great financial reward. After meeting Big Mama, Janis Joplin recorded “Ball and Chain”  with her band Big Brother and Holding Company, but it was Joplin’s famous performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 that made this song a hit (note Cass Elliot’s face in the crowd) with “bluesaphobes” everywhere, reintroducing the genre to a brand new audience and rekindling interest in Big Mama herself.

Doug Thompson: COVERING UP! VINYL RECORD COVERS CLASSICS!

I love album covers!  Not the shrunken down versions they use on CDs, I mean those gloriously creative (mostly) 12” vinyl record album covers.  I was looking through my vinyl record collection the other day and marvelled at some of the amazing designs of some of the covers.  Now, before we start delving into some classic album covers as well as a few personal favourites, a little history is in order, but don’t panic – there will not be a quiz later.