Hound Dog : Rolling Stone

Written by: Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller
Produced by: Steve Sholes
Released: July '56 on RCA
Charts: 28 weeks
Top spot: No. 1

"Hound Dog" was the B side of Elvis Presley's third RCA single. It was also the song in which he told the world: Like it or not, rock & roll is here to stay. With snarling vocal authority, precision rockabilly jump and slashing lead guitar by Scotty Moore, Presley transformed the song's blues changes and put-down rhyme into a declaration of independence from one generation to its cold, rigid elders. "I don't care what they say," he told a reporter days before the session, defending his music and body language. "It ain't nasty." "Hound Dog" -- perfected in thirty-one takes on July 2nd, 1956, at RCA Studios in New York -- was written in 1952 by white teenagers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller for Big Mama Thornton. Presley added Thornton's R&B hit to his stage act in the spring of 1956, in an arrangement he heard in Las Vegas by Freddie Bell and the Bellboys. The chorus, Leiber noted in 1987, was just code for "You ain't nothin' but a motherfucker."

Appears on: Elvis 30 #1 Hits (RCA)

Next: Let It Be

Back to RS 500 Albums!
Back to RS 500 Songs!

Also See: