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Big Mama Thornton

American blues singer (Willie Mae Thornton; 1926–1984)

Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton was an American singer and songwriter of blues and R&B.

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Big Mama Thornton

what: one person
from: Ariton
born: 1926
until: 1984
on the air here: 1 song

File card: Big Mama Thornton

real name: Willie Mae Thornton

labels: Peacock Records

genres: blues

plays: percussion instrument, harmonica, voice

Facts from Wikidata and Discogs, free to use.

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Early life and self-taught musicianship

Thornton was born on December 11, 1926, the sixth of George and Mattie (née Haynes) Thornton's seven children. While Thornton's birth certificate states that she was born in Ariton, Alabama, in an interview with Arhoolie Records producer Chris Strachwitz, she claimed Montgomery, Alabama, as her birthplace. She was introduced to music in a Baptist church, where her father was a minister and her mother a singer. Thornton said: "I used to go to church a lot, but I didn't do too much singing in church." She was later introduced to gospel music by the church and this heavily influenced her artistic side. Thornton's mother fell gravely ill from tuberculosis. Only 13 years of age, Thornton cared for her mother until her death in the Montgomery...

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1940s: career beginnings

Thornton's talent was discovered in 1940 when she was 14 years old. Diamond Teeth Mary, the half-sister of one of her early idols Bessie Smith, encouraged her to enter a talent contest after having heard Thornton singing while working a side-job on a garbage truck. Thornton described the audition during a 1970 Studs Terkel radio interview, saying: "A show came through in the first of the 1940s and they called it 'Sammy Green's Hot Harlem Revue' as I mentioned earlier. They didn't have a singer, and so I asked him, I said, 'Give me an audition, let me sing'. I said, 'I've been singing all the little talent shows around here'. He said, 'Oh, little 'ole girl, you can't sing'. I said, 'Will you give me a try?' He said, 'Yeah, well, when the...

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1950s: recording career and "Hound Dog"

Thornton moved to Houston and started singing at the Eldorado Ballroom for fifty dollars a night. In 1950, Thornton recorded her first record, "All Right Baby" and "Bad Luck Got My Man", released on Houston's E&W Recording Studio record label and credited to the "Harlem All Stars". Thornton was credited as songwriter on both songs. Thornton moved to the Bronze Peacock Dinner Club, which was owned by impresario and record producer Don Robey. In 1950 she signed a five-year recording contract with Robey's Peacock Records. Her first Peacock record "No Jody For Me / Let Your Tears Fall Baby" was a local hit in the Houston area but did not catch on nationally. Thornton needed additional income to live, so she started shining shoes to get by. In...

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1970s and 1980s: later career

Thornton's work offers had become fewer and smaller, but things changed for good in 1972 when she was asked to rejoin the American Folk Blues Festival tour. She thought of Europe as a good place for herself and, with the lack of engagements in the United States, she agreed happily. The tour, beginning on March 2, 1972, took Thornton to Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Sweden, where it ended on March 27 in Stockholm. With her on the bill were Eddie Boyd, Big Joe Williams, Robert Pete Williams, T-Bone Walker, Paul Lenart, Hartley Severns, Edward Taylor, and Vinton Johnson. As in 1965, they garnered recognition and respect from other musicians who wanted to see them.

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Born 11th December 1926, Ariton, Alabama, USA Died 25th July 1984, Los Angeles, California, USA Thornton was the first artist to record "Hound Dog" (Peacock 1612), with which she had a Number 1 hit in the Billboard R&B chart in 1953 selling two million copies,. Later the same year she released "They Call Me Big Mama" (Peacock 1621). This release helped immortalize her nickname in the world of funky gospel and R&B music. She also wrote and recorded "Ball And Chain", which gained Janis Joplin attention in the late 1960s. 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. Thornton died in Los Angeles in 1984 of heart and liver complications, compounded by years of alcohol abuse. Also known as: "Big Mama Thornton" & Group, "Big Mama" Thornton, 'Big Mama' Thornton, B. M. Thornton, B.M. Thornton From Discogs (free to use). Their entry