Four years before Elvis whined about "crying all the time" in 1956, Big Mama Thornton recorded the original Hound Dog. The original lyrics were a mite more to the point. Rather than denying friendship, she was telling her man that he could wag his tail all he wanted but he was done poppin' in for dinner, so to speak.
To be fair, it wasn't Elvis or his handlers that changed the lyrics for the song. Between the two recordings Freddie Bell and the Bellboys came along and made the song more suitable for a male vocalist. That was the version Elvis Presley covered a year later.
But the point is that Big Mama Thornton came first and made Hound Dog a hit. And yet so few people know what I think was the best version of the song. I hope you'll give it a listen )and let me know what you think).
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