Description
Label Review.
28 tracks. Jasmine.
Our Overview.
‘The Story Of My Blues - The Complete Singles 1951-1961’ from the exceptional Alabama blues queen, Big Mamma Thornton, the lady with a big belter of a voice coupled with a menacing blues growl always delivering her unique sassy blues, gospel and funky R&B songs to the world. This is the first collection to feature the A & B sides of all the singles Big Mama Thornton released between 1951 and 1961. 28 excellent R&B tracks and another superb addition to Jasmine’s ever growing blues and R&B catalogue.
Willie Mae ‘Big Mama’ Thornton only notched one national hit in her lifetime, but it was a true monster, as she was the first artist to record the then little known song written by two Los Angeles based teenagers, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, “Hound Dog”. It held down the top slot on Billboard's R&B charts for seven long weeks in 1953. The song was the only chart record “Big Mama” enjoyed and of course it went on to be recorded by a young lad called Elvis Presley who took the track to No.1 on the pop charts for 11 weeks.
One of seven children, born to a Baptist church minister, she began singing and touring the South with the Georgia Hot Harlem Revue at the age of fourteen. She also played drums and harmonica and signed her first contract in Houston with Peacock Records in 1951.
In the latter part of her career Thornton appeared at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1966 & 1968, and 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. She wrote a total of twenty-two blues releases and her first name "Willa Mae" is often credited as "Willie Mae". Thornton died in Los Angeles in 1984 of heart and liver complications, compounded by years of alcohol abuse. It was the same year that she was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall Of Fame.
Includes fully detailed liner notes.
Track listing:
1. Partnership Blues
2. I’m All Fed Up
3. No Jody For Me
4. Let Your Tears Fall Baby
5. Mischievous Boogie
6. Every Time I Think Of You
7. Hound Dog
8. Night Mare
9. Cotton Picking Blues
10. They Call Me Big Mama
11. I Ain’t No Fool Either
12. The Big Change
13. I’ve Searched The Whole World Over
14. I Smell A Rat
15. Stop A Hoppin’ On Me
16. Story Of My Blues
17. Walking Blues
18. Rock A Bye Baby
19. The Fish
20. Laugh, Laugh, Laugh
21. Tarzan And The Dignified Monkey
22. How Come
23. Just Like A Dog (Barking Up The Wrong Tree)
24. My Man Called Me
25. You Did Me Wrong
26. Big Mama’s Blues
27. Don’t Talk Back
28. Big Mama’s Coming Home