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"Ben Wynne's "A Hound Dog Tale" is a detailed history of the rock-and-roll standard "Hound Dog." Citing its original release and reception as a turning point in American popular culture, he reveals how the song reflected American society through issues of race, gender, and generational conflict. The story is compelling. Two white Jewish teenagers from New York and Baltimore who fantasized about being Black wrote "Hound Dog." They gave it to Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton, a three-hundred-pound African American female blues belter from Alabama who was as talented as she was intimidating. "Big Mama" made the song a hit in the Black entertainment marketplace. After that, a white Las Vegas lounge singer from Philadelphia rewrote many of the lyrics and recorded an updated version. Not long afterward, an aspiring white Mississippi singer and guitar player named Elvis Presley recorded that version of the song and turned "Hound Dog" (and himself) into a global phenomenon. As Wynne points out, "Hound Dog" crossed the color line repeatedly: Black and white artists who grew up in a rigidly segregated society performed and recorded it. His history of the song includes treatments of the artists who recorded its most well-known versions-"Big Mama" Thornton and Elvis-along with the comings and goings of many others involved in the tune's story. The cast of characters is large and eclectic, including singers, songwriters, and musicians from the worlds of R&B, rock-and-roll, and country music, both honest and unscrupulous record producers and managers, famous television hosts, a couple of lawyers, and even a gangster or two. "Hound Dog" ties all these people together against dramatically changing times during the 1950s. "A Hound Dog Tale" is sure to be of interest to historians who study American cultural history, the 1950s, R&B, and rock-and-roll, or the role of race in American popular music. In addition, R&B, blues, and rock-and-roll music enthusiasts in the United States and abroad will be interested, as will many of the countless fans of Elvis Presley"--
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Ben Wynne is professor of history at the University of North Georgia and author of
In Tune: Charley Patton, Jimmie Rodgers, and the Roots of American Music.
