View source for Hound Dog (song)

{{short description|1952 song by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller}}
{{Infobox song
| name       = Hound Dog
| cover      = Big-mama-thornton-hound-dog.jpg
| alt        =
| type       = single
| artist     = [[Big Mama Thornton]]
| B-side     = "Night Mare"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/general_library/archives/blues/lb78t.html |title=The Blues Archive: University of Mississippi Libraries |website=Olemiss.edu |access-date=December 19, 2015}}</ref>
| released   = {{Start date|1953|02}}
| recorded   = August 13, 1952
| studio     = [[Radio Recorders|Radio Recorders Annex]], Los Angeles
| genre      = [[Blues]]
| length     = 2:52
| label      = [[Peacock Records|Peacock]]
| writer     = [[Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller]]
| producer   = [[Johnny Otis]]
| prev_title = Everytime I Think of You
| prev_year  = 1952
| next_title = Cotton Pickin' Blues
| next_year  = 1953
| misc       = {{External music video|header=Official audio|{{YouTube|Vr51BN3m67U|"Hound Dog"}}}} 
}}

"'''Hound Dog'''" is a [[twelve-bar blues]] song written by [[Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller]]. Recorded originally by [[Big Mama Thornton]] on August 13, 1952, in Los Angeles and released by [[Peacock Records]] in late February 1953, "Hound Dog" was Thornton's only hit record, selling over 500,000 copies, spending 14 weeks in the [[R&B chart]]s, including seven weeks at number one. Thornton's recording of "Hound Dog" is listed as one of the [[Rock and Roll Hall of Fame]]'s "500 Songs That Shaped [[Rock and roll|Rock and Roll]]", ranked at 318 in the 2021 iteration of [[Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time|''Rolling Stone''{{'}}s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-songs-of-all-time-1224767/big-mama-thornton-hound-dog-1225020/ |title=The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time |publisher=Rolling Stone |date=2021-09-16 |access-date=2023-06-24}}</ref> and was inducted into the [[Grammy Hall of Fame]] in February 2013.

"Hound Dog" has been recorded more than 250 times. The best-known version is the July 1956 recording by [[Elvis Presley]],<ref>{{ cite news |last=Puri |first=Chhavi |date=28 June 2023 |title=12 best songs of all time that will make you nostalgic |url=https://www.pinkvilla.com/entertainment/hollywood/best-songs-all-time-1168896 |work=[[Pinkvilla]] |access-date=2 August 2023 }}</ref> which ranked number 19 on ''[[Rolling Stone]]''{{'}}s list of the [[Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time|500 Greatest Songs of All Time]] in 2004, but was excluded from the revised list in 2021 in favor of Thornton's version; it is also one of the [[List of best-selling singles|best-selling singles of all time]]. Presley's version, which sold about 10 million copies globally, was his best-selling song and "an emblem of the rock 'n' roll revolution". It was simultaneously number one on the US [[Billboard Hot 100|pop]], [[Hot Country Songs|country]], and R&B charts in 1956, and it topped the pop chart for 11 weeks—a record that stood for 36 years. Presley's 1956 [[RCA Records|RCA]] recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1988, and it is listed as one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll".

"Hound Dog" has been at the center of controversies and several lawsuits, including disputes over authorship, royalties, and [[copyright infringement]] by the many [[answer song]]s released by such artists as [[Rufus Thomas]] and [[Roy Brown (blues musician)|Roy Brown]]. From the 1970s onward, the song has been featured in numerous films.

==Background and composition==
On August 12, 1952, [[Rhythm and blues|R&B]] bandleader [[Johnny Otis]] asked 19-year-old songwriters [[Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller]] to his home to meet [[blues]] singer [[Big Mama Thornton|Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton]].<ref name="mcfarlandbooks.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.mcfarlandbooks.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-7759-3 |title=Big Mama Thornton: The Life and Music|author=Michael Spörke|publisher=Mcfarlandbooks.com |access-date=2015-10-07}}</ref>  Thornton had been signed by "Diamond" [[Don D. Robey|Don Robey]]'s Houston-based [[Peacock Records]] the year before, and after two failed singles, Robey had enlisted Otis to reverse her fortunes.<ref>George Moonoogian, in James M. Salem, ''The Late, Great Johnny Ace and the Transition from R & B to Rock 'n' Roll'' (University of Illinois Press, 2001) p. 80.</ref> After hearing Thornton rehearse several songs, Leiber and Stoller "forged a tune to suit her personality—brusque and badass".<ref name="Crouse">Richard Crouse, ''Who Wrote The Book Of Love?'' (Random House Digital, Inc., 2012).</ref> In an interview in ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' in April 1990, Stoller said: "She was a wonderful blues singer, with a great moaning style. But it was as much her appearance as her blues style that influenced the writing of 'Hound Dog' and the idea that we wanted her to growl it."<ref name="Fricke">David Fricke, [https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/leiber-stoller-rolling-stones-1990-interview-with-the-songwriting-legends-20110822 "Leiber and Stoller: Rolling Stone's 1990 Interview With the Songwriting Legends"], ''Rolling Stone'' (April 19, 1990; reprinted: August 22, 2011).</ref> Leiber recalled: "We saw Big Mama and she knocked me cold. She looked like the biggest, baddest, saltiest chick you would ever see. And she was mean, a 'lady bear,' as they used to call 'em. She must have been 350 pounds, and she had all these scars all over her face"  conveying words which could not be sung. "But how to do it without actually saying it? And how to do it telling a story? I couldn't just have a song full of expletives."<ref name="Crouse" /><ref name="Fricke" /> In 1999, Leiber said, "I was trying to get something like the [[Furry Lewis]] phrase 'Dirty Mother Furya'. I was looking for something closer to that but I couldn't find it, because everything I went for was too coarse and would not have been playable on the air."<ref>Jerry Leiber, in Richard Buskin, ''Insidetracks: a first-hand history of popular music from the world's greatest record producers and engineers'' (Spike, 1999) p. 40.</ref> Using a "black slang expression referring to a man who sought a woman to take care of him",<ref name="Randy MacNutt 1999">Rick Kennedy and Randy MacNutt, ''Little Labels – Big Sound: Small Record Companies and the Rise of American Music'' (Indiana University Press, 1999) p. 74.</ref> the song's opening line, "You ain't nothin' but a hound dog", was a euphemism, said Leiber.<ref name="Fricke" /> The song, a Southern blues lament,<ref>Freya Jarman-Ivens, ''Oh Boy!: Masculinities and Popular Music'' (Routledge, 2007) p. 188.</ref> is "the tale of a woman throwing a [[gigolo]] out of her house and her life":<ref name="Elvis Presley's pedigree chum">Nicholas Barber, [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/elvis-presleys-pedigree-chum-1580017.html "Elvis Presley's pedigree chum"], ''The Independent'' (October 29, 1995).</ref>
{{poemquote|
You ain't nothin' but a hound dog
Quit snoopin' 'round my door
You can wag your tail
But I ain't gonna feed you no more<ref name=pc7 />}}
The song was written for a woman to sing in which she berates "her selfish, exploitative man",<ref name="autogenerated2001">Michael Billig, ''Rock and Roll Jews'' (Syracuse University, 2001):43.</ref> and in it she "expresses a woman's rejection of a man – the metaphorical dog in the title".<ref name="autogenerated1" /> According to Iain Thomas, "'Hound Dog' embodies the Thornton persona she had crafted as a comedienne prior to entering the music business" by parading "the classic puns, extended metaphors, and sexual [[double entendre]]s so popular with the [[bawdy]] genre."<ref name="Ellis-p44">Iain Ellis, ''Rebels Wit Attitude: Subversive Rock Humorists'' (Counterpoint Press, 2008) p. 44.</ref> R&B expert George A. Moonoogian concurs, calling it "a biting and scathing satire in the double-entendre genre" of 1950s rhythm and blues.<ref>Galen Gart and Roy C. Ames, ''Duke/Peacock Records: An Illustrated History with Discography'' (Big Nickel Publications, 1990) p. 54.</ref>

Leiber and Stoller wrote the song "Hound Dog" in 12 to 15 minutes, with Leiber scribbling the lyrics in pencil on ordinary paper and without musical notation in the car on the way to Stoller's apartment.<ref name="Crouse" /><ref name="telegraph1">Dave Gritten, [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/8718381/Jerry-Leiber-tribute.html "Jerry Leiber tribute"], ''The Telegraph'' (August 23, 2011).</ref> Said Leiber, "'Hound Dog' took like twelve minutes. That's not a complicated piece of work. But the rhyme scheme was difficult. Also the [[meter (music)|metric structure]] of the music was not easy."<ref name="Fricke" /> According to Leiber, as soon as they reached the parking lot and Stoller's 1937 [[Plymouth (automobile)|Plymouth]], "I was beating out a rhythm we called the '[[Clogging|buck dance]]' on the roof of the car. We got to Johnny Otis's house and Mike went right to the piano{{nbsp}}… didn't even bother to sit down. He had a cigarette in his mouth that was burning his left eye, and he started to play the song."<ref name="telegraph2">Martin Chilton,[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/8718491/Hound-Dog-10-facts-about-Elvis-Presleys-hit-song.html "Hound Dog: 10 facts about Elvis Presley's hit song"], ''The Telegraph'' (August 23, 2011).</ref>

Leiber and Stoller along with Johnny Otis, also wrote a different version to the "Hound Dog" song structure on behalf of Big Mama Thornton, recorded with an alternative lyric entitled "Tom Cat".

==Big Mama Thornton's version (1952/53)==
Thornton's recording of "Hound Dog" is credited with "helping to spur the evolution of black R&B into [[rock music]]".<ref name="Randy MacNutt 1999"/> [[Brandeis University]] professor [[Stephen J. Whitfield]], in his 2001 book ''In Search of American Jewish Culture'', regards "Hound Dog" as a marker of "the success of race-mixing in music a year before the [[desegregation]] of public schools was mandated" in ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]''.<ref>[[Stephen J. Whitfield]], ''In Search of American Jewish Culture'' (UPNE, 2001) p. 162.</ref> Leiber regarded the original recording by the 350-pound "blues belter" Big Mama Thornton as his favorite version,<ref name="telegraph1" /><ref name="bluesworld1921" /> while Stoller said, "If I had to name my favorite recordings, I'd say they are Big Mama Thornton's 'Hound Dog' and [[Peggy Lee]]'s '[[Is That All There Is?]]'"<ref>{{cite book|last=Simpson|first=Pierette Domenica|title=Alive on the Andrea Doria!: The Greatest Sea Rescue in History|year=2008|publisher=Morgan James Publishing|isbn=978-1600374609|page=161}}</ref>

In 1992, Leiber and Stoller recalled that during the rehearsal, Thornton sang the song as a ballad. Leiber said that this was not the way they planned and sang it for her, with Stoller on piano, as an example of the concept. Thornton agreed to try their recommendation.<ref name="americansongwriter.com">{{Cite web|url=https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-song-hound-dog/|title=Behind the Song: "Hound Dog," by Leiber & Stoller|first=Paul|last=Zollo|date=May 8, 2020|website=Americansongwriter.com|access-date=February 18, 2024}}</ref>

According to Maureen Mahon, a music professor at [[New York University]], Thornton's version is "an important [part of the] beginning of [[Rock and roll|rock-and-roll]], especially in its use of the guitar as the key instrument".<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/blues-singer-big-mama-thornton-had-a-hit-with-hound-dog-then-elvis-came-along/2021/02/23/60c36a04-6764-11eb-8468-21bc48f07fe5_story.html Blues singer ‘Big Mama’ Thornton had a hit with ‘Hound Dog.’ Then Elvis came along]</ref>

===Recording===
Thornton recorded "Hound Dog" at [[Radio Recorders|Radio Recorders Annex]]<ref name="Leiber">{{cite book |last1 = Leiber |first1 = Jerry |first2 = Mike |last2 = Stoller |first3 = David |last3 = Ritz |title = ''Hound Dog: The Leiber and Stoller Autobiography'' |publisher = [[Simon & Schuster]] |edition = 1st |location = New York |year = 2009 |pages = [https://archive.org/details/hounddogleiberan00leib/page/65 65, 111–112] |isbn = 978-1-4165-5938-2 |url = https://archive.org/details/hounddogleiberan00leib/page/65 }}</ref> in Los Angeles on August 13, 1952, the day after its composition. It subsequently became her biggest hit. According to ''Hound Dog: The Leiber and Stoller Autobiography'', Thornton's "Hound Dog" was the first record that Leiber and Stoller produced themselves, taking over from bandleader Johnny Otis. Said Stoller:
{{blockquote|We were worried because the drummer wasn't getting the feel that Johnny had created in rehearsal. "Johnny," Jerry said, "can't you play drums on the record? No one can nail that groove like you." "Who's gonna run the session?" he asked. Silence. "You two?" he asked. "The kids are gonna run a recording session?" "Sure," I said. "The kids wrote it. Let the kids do it."
Johnny smiled and said, 'Why not?'"<ref name="Leiber" />}}

Otis played drums on the recording,<ref>{{cite book |last=Lipsitz |first=George |title=Midnight at the Barrelhouse: The Johnny Otis Story |url=https://archive.org/details/midnightatbarrel00geor |url-access=registration |year=2010 |publisher=[[University of Minnesota Press]] |page=xii}}</ref> replacing Ledard "Kansas City" Bell. As Otis was still signed exclusively to [[Federal Records]], a subsidiary of [[Syd Nathan]]'s [[King Records (United States)|King Records]] as "Kansas City Bill"<ref name="Steve Sullivan 1953">Steve Sullivan, "Hound Dog (1953)" in ''Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings, Volume 1'' (Scarecrow Press, 2013) p. 466.</ref> or perhaps with [[Mercury Records]] at this time,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://home.earthlink.net/~jaymar41/jotis1.html |title=The Once And Always Godfather: Johnny Otis", ''JAMM'' 19 (2001) |access-date=2016-08-18 |archive-date=2017-02-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170204200408/http://home.earthlink.net/~jaymar41/jotis1.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>Larry Beniciewicz, [http://www.bluesworld.com/Otis/Johnny_Otis "Remembering Johnny Otis 1921–2012: Part 1: The Early Years] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130411103405/http://www.bluesworld.com/Otis/Johnny_Otis |date=April 11, 2013 }} (2012)</ref> Otis used the [[pseudonym]] "Kansas City Bill" (after his drummer "Kansas City" Bell) on this record. Therefore, Otis, Louisiana blues guitarist [[Pete "Guitar" Lewis]], and Puerto Rican bass player Mario Delagarde<ref>Craig Morrison, "Rock 'N' Roll", ''The Blues Encyclopedia'', eds. Edward Komara and Peter Lee (Routledge, 2004) p. 839.</ref> (some sources say erroneously it was Albert Winston) are listed as "Kansas City Bill & Orchestra" on the Peacock record labels.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dram.nyu.edu/dram/note.cgi?id=1768 |title=New World NW 261|access-date=February 9, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071028182147/http://dram.nyu.edu/dram/note.cgi?id=1768 |archive-date=October 28, 2007 }}</ref><ref>Johnny Otis, ''Upside Your Head!'' (Wesleyan University Press, 1993):xxi.</ref>

During the rehearsal, Leiber objected to Thornton's vocal approach, as she was [[crooning]] the lyrics rather than [[Belting (music)|belting]] them out.<ref>Wayne Robins, ''A Brief History of Rock, Off the Record'' (Routledge, 2016).</ref> Although intimidated by her size and facial scarring, Leiber protested, to which Thornton responded with an icy glare and told him, {{Double+single}}White boy, don't you be tellin' me how to sing the blues.{{Single+double}}<ref name=":1">Cleothus Hardcastle, [http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/the-backpages-interview-jerry-leiber-and-mike-stoller "The Backpages Interview: Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller"], ''Rock's Backpages'' (June 30, 2001).</ref> After this exchange, Leiber sang the song himself to demonstrate how they wanted it done.<ref name="Ellis-p44" /> After that, according to Stoller's later recollection, Thornton understood the bawdy style they were looking for.<ref name="Leiber" />

Speaking to music writer [[Ralph J. Gleason]], Thornton recalled that she added a few interjections of her own, played around with the rhythm (some of the choruses have thirteen rather than twelve bars), and had the band bark and howl like hound dogs at the end of the song: "I started to sing the words and join in some of my own. All that talkin' and hollerin'—that's my own."<ref>In Jim Windolf, [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/books/review/Windolf-t.html "Stand By Them"], ''The New York Times'' (June 12, 2000).</ref> Thornton interacts constantly in a [[call and response]] fashion during a one-minute long guitar "solo" by Lewis. These verbal interjections, sometimes called "blues talk", are common in blues music.<ref>William R. Ferris, ''Blues from the Delta: The Roots of Jazz'' (Capo Press, 1978) pp. 107–108.</ref><ref>Antoine Hennion, contrib., in ''1789–1989: musique, histoire, démocratie, Vibrations, musiques, médias et sociétés'', Vol. 3 (Editions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme, 1992) p. 773.</ref> Years later Thornton helped launch a controversy over "Hound Dog", claiming to have written it. When questioned further on the matter, Thornton explained that, while the song had been composed by Leiber and Stoller, she had transformed it: "They gave me the words, but I changed it around and did it my way". In his book ''Race, Rock, and Elvis'', Michael T. Bertrand says that Thornton's explanation "ingenuously stresses artist interpretation as the sole yardstick with which to measure authenticity".<ref>Michael T. Bertrand, ''Race, Rock, and Elvis'' (University of Illinois Press, 2005) p. 190.</ref>

Thornton recorded two takes of the song, and the second take was released.<ref name="Crouse" /><ref name="Fink-p175">Robert Fink, [http://www.johnhalle.com/bard.classes/bcs.II/elvis.everywhere.pdf "Elvis Everywhere: Musicology and Popular Music Studies at the Twilight of the Canon"]. ''American Music'' 16:2 (University of Illinois Press, Summer 1998) p. 175.</ref> [[Habanera (music)|Habanera]] and [[Mambo (music)|mambo]] elements can be found in this recording.<ref name=":0">Roy Brewer, "The Use of Habanera Rhythm in Rockabilly Music", ''American Music'' 17:3 (September 1999) p. 316.</ref> Puerto Rican bass player Mario Delagarde is credited with adding "a [[jazz]]-based rhythm".<ref name="Steve Sullivan 1953" /> Influenced by African-American musical cultures,<ref name="Anne Dhu McLucas 2011">[[Anne Dhu McLucas]], ''The Musical Ear: Oral Tradition in the USA'' (Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2011) p. 58.</ref> its "sounds range from the gravelly beginning of several phrases, to her spoken and howled interpolations, and the ending with dog sounds from the band."<ref name="Anne Dhu McLucas 2011" /> According to musicologist Robert Fink, Thornton's delivery has flexible phrasing making use of micro-inflections and [[syncopation]]s. Each has a focal accent which is never repeated.<ref>Robert Fink, [http://www.johnhalle.com/bard.classes/bcs.II/elvis.everywhere.pdf "Elvis Everywhere: Musicology and Popular Music Studies at the Twilight of the Canon"]. ''American Music'' 16:2 (University of Illinois Press, Summer 1998) p. 173.</ref> According to Maureen Mahon:
{{blockquote|Thornton's "Hound Dog" differed from most of the rhythm and blues records of the era in its spare arrangement. There are none of the honking saxophone solos or pounding piano flourishes that marked the R&B sound. Instead, supported by guitar, bass and drums, her resonant vocals dominate the foreground, conveying her haughty relief at being through with a trifling man. Thornton maintains a confident attitude, bringing the blues tradition of outspoken women into the R&B context and helping to set the style for rock and roll by putting sexuality and play with gender expectations in the foreground.<ref name="Mahon">Maureen Mahon, [http://rockhall.com/story-of-rock/features/all-featured/7734_willie-mae-big-mama-thornton-story-hound-dog/ "Mama's Voice: The Lasting Influence of Willie Mae 'Big Mama' Thornton"].</ref>}}

On September 9, 1952, the copyright application for "Hound Dog" was lodged. On the application the words and music are attributed to Thornton and recording executive [[Don Robey]], with the copyright claimants listed as: "Murphy L. Robey (W) & Willie Mae Thornton (A)." It was renewed subsequently on May 13, 1980, with the same details.<ref>[http://www.copyrightencyclopedia.com/they-call-me-big-mama-lyrics-and-music-by-don-deadric-robey/#ixzz11KjBKmKd Array: RE0000059284 / 1980-05-13 EU0000287247 / 1952-09-09 Title: Hound dog. Words & music: Don Deadric Robey & Willie Mae Thornton. Variant title: Hound dog. Copyright Claimant: Murphy L. Robey (W) & Willie Mae Thornton (A). See ''Copyright Encyclopedia''] Musical work Registration Number / Date: RE0000048383 / 1980-01-11 EU0000287247 / 1952-09-09. Type of Work: Musical work Registration Number / Date: RE0000048383 / 1980-01-11 EU0000287247 / 1952-09-09 Title: Hound dog. Words & music: Don D. Robey & Willie Mae Thornton. Variant title: Hound dog. Copyright Claimant: Mrs. Murphy L. Robey (E) See: [http://www.popsike.com/CLASSIC-WILLIE-MAE-BIG-MAMA-THORNTON-78-HOUND-DOG/120646307690.html popsike.com]</ref>

===Release and reception===
In late February 1953, "Hound Dog" was released by Peacock (Peacock 1612),<ref name="Crouse" /><ref name="Fink-p175" /> with the song credited erroneously on the label to Leiber-{{Sic|nolink=y|Stroller}}-Otis.<ref name="theelvisforum">{{cite web|url=http://www.theelvisforum.com/hound-dog-original-version-t3214.html |title=Theelvisforum.com |website=Theelvisforum.com |access-date=2015-12-19}}</ref>  Thornton recalled later that she learned her record was in circulation while she was on her way to a performance with the Johnny Otis Orchestra during this tour in Dayton, Ohio. "I was going to the theater and I just turned the radio on in the car and the man said, 'Here's a record that's going nationwide: 'Hound Dog' by Willie Mae Thornton.' I said, 'That's me!' [laughs] I hadn't heard the record in so long. So when we get to the theater they was blasting it. You could hear it from the theater, from the loudspeaker. They were just playing 'Hound Dog' all over the theater. So I goes up in the operating room, I say, 'Do you mind playing that again?' 'Cause I hadn't heard the record in so long I forgot the words myself. So I stood there while he was playing it, listening to it. So that evening I sang it on the show, and everybody went for it. 'Hound Dog' just took off like a jet."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.mcfarlandbooks.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-7759-3|title=Big Mama Thornton: The Life and Music. McFarland Inc.|access-date=1 May 2021}}</ref>

On March 7, 1953, "Hound Dog" was advertised in ''[[Billboard magazine|Billboard]]'', and reviewed positively on March 14, 1953, as a new record to watch, described as "a wild and exciting [[rhumba]] blues" with "infectious backing that rocks all the way".<ref>''Billboard'' (March 14, 1953):32.</ref> According to [[Johnny Ace]] biographer James M. Salem, "The rawness of the sound combined with the overt sexuality of the lyric made 'Hound Dog' an immediate smash hit in urban black America from late March to the middle of July 1953."<ref name=Salem83>James M. Salem, ''The Late Great Johnny Ace and the Transition from R&B to Rock 'N' Roll'' (University of Illinois Press, 2001) p. 83.</ref> "Hound Dog" took off immediately and looked like a national hit record. [[Rufus Thomas]] quickly recorded an answer song called "Bear Cat" on [[Sun Records|Sun]] 181. Thornton's record was such a big seller that Peacock Records had three new pressing plants running full-time to try and keep up with demand.<ref name="home.earthlink.net">{{Cite web |url=http://home.earthlink.net/~jaymar41/bigmama.html |title="They Call Her Big Mama – Willie Mae Thornton" ''JAMM'' 23 (2001) |access-date=2007-02-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604133031/http://home.earthlink.net/~jaymar41/bigmama.html |archive-date=2011-06-04 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Debuting in the charts on March 28, 1953,<ref name="Steve Sullivan 1953"/> it spent fourteen weeks on the ''Billboard'' [[Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs|Rhythm and Blues charts]],<ref>Arnold Shaw, ''Honkers and Shouters: The Golden Years of Rhythm and Blues'' (Macmillan, 1978):482.</ref> seven of them at number one.<ref>Michael T. Bertrand, ''Race, Rock, and Elvis'' (University of Illinois Press, 2000) p. 190.</ref> By April 30, 1953, ''[[Cash Box]]'' magazine listed the song as "the nation's top-selling blues record", and it topped the charts in New York, Chicago, New Orleans, San Francisco, Newark, Memphis, Dallas, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Los Angeles.<ref>"'Hound Dog' Top-Selling Blues Record", ''Jet'' (April 30, 1953) p. 61.</ref> "By mid summer, it is obvious that "Hound Dog" will be the biggest seller in the history of Peacock Records."<ref name="home.earthlink.net"/> The song was named as the Best Rhythm and Blues song of 1953 by ''Cash Box'' magazine,<ref name="Crouse" /> and was ranked number three on ''Billboard''{{'}}s Best Selling Rhythm & Blues Chart for 1953.<ref>"Best Selling Rhythm & Blues Records 1949–1953", ''The Billboard'' (April 24, 1954):16.</ref>

Don Robey estimated that Thornton's version of "Hound Dog" sold between 500,000 and 750,000 copies, and would have sold more had its sales not been diluted by an abundance of cover versions and "[[answer song]]s".<ref name=Salem83 /> The success of "Hound Dog" secured Peacock Record's place as a major independent label.<ref>Timothy J. O'Brien,[http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/aasc/9780195167795.e.0958?rskey=AZ2JKW&result=10&q=field%20sales%20manager "Peacock Records"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119223303/http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/aasc/9780195167795.e.0958?rskey=AZ2JKW&result=10&q=field%20sales%20manager |date=2018-11-19 }}, in ''Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present: From the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-first Century'', ed. Paul Finkelman (NY: Oxford University Press, 2009).</ref> However, despite its success, neither the composers nor artist were compensated well for their efforts. According to Stoller, "Big Mama's 'Hound Dog' went to number one, sold a million copies, and did nothing for our bank statements. We were getting screwed."<ref name="Leiber" />{{rp|67}} After suing Robey, "We were given an advance check for $1,200," said Stoller, "but the check bounced."<ref name="Leiber" /> As a result, Leiber and Stoller started their own label, [[Spark Records]],<ref>"Jerry Leiber", ''Billboard'' (December 17, 2011):137.</ref><ref>John Broven, ''Record Makers and Breakers: Voices of the Independent Rock 'n' Roll Pioneers'' (University of Illinois Press, 2009) p. 233.</ref> and publishing company, Quintet Music.<ref name="Leiber" /> Those ventures were successful, but Leiber and Stoller would only earn substantial royalties from "Hound Dog" when it was covered by [[Elvis Presley]] ([[RCA Records|RCA]] 6604) in July 1956.<ref name="bluesworld1921">{{Cite web|url=http://www.bluesworld.com/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130411103405/http://www.bluesworld.com/Otis/Johnny_Otis|url-status=dead|title=BLUES WORLD|archive-date=11 April 2013|website=Bluesworld.com|access-date=1 May 2021}}</ref> Similarly, Thornton stated: "That song sold over two million records. I got one check for $500 and never saw another."<ref>Willie Mae Thornton, in "Heart Attack Claims 'Big Mama' Thornton, 57", ''Jet'' (August 13, 1984):63.</ref><ref>George Lipsitz, ''Midnight at the Barrelhouse: The Johnny Otis Story'' (University of Minnesota Press, 2010) p. xiv.</ref> In 1984, she told ''Rolling Stone'', "Didn't get no money from them at all. Everybody livin' in a house but me. I'm just livin."<ref>''Rolling Stone'' (September 13, 1984):43.</ref>

===Re-releases===
By July 1956, "the rock 'n roll age was upon the world, and as the new sensation Elvis Presley recorded "Hound Dog" to international acclaim, Peacock re-released Thornton's original"<ref name="home.earthlink.net"/> by August 18, 1956, backing it with "Rock-a-Bye Baby" (Peacock 5–1612),<ref name="Billboard 18 Aug 1956:70">''Billboard'' (18 Aug 1956):70</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/Willie-Mae-Big-Mama-Thornton-Hound-Dog-Rock-A-Bye-Baby/release/5210046|title=Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton* - Hound Dog / Rock A Bye Baby|website=Discogs|date=3 October 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.45cat.com/record/51612us|title=Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton - Hound Dog|website=45cat.com}}</ref> but it failed to chart. In Australia and New Zealand, Prestige Records (founded in Auckland by 17 year-old [[Phil Warren (promoter)|Phil Warren]] and Bruce Henderson)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.audioculture.co.nz/people/phil-warren|title=Phil Warren - AudioCulture|website=Audioculture.co.nz}}</ref> released the same record on licence in 1956 (Prestige PSP-1004), but the composition is credited to Robey-Thornton-Leiber-Stoller.<ref name="45cat.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.45cat.com/record/psp1004|title="Big Mama" Thornton - Hound Dog|website=45cat.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.audioculture.co.nz/labels/prestige|title=Prestige - AudioCulture|website=Audioculture.co.nz}}</ref>  By early 1957 "Willie Mae Thornton is seen as one who is out of the rock / [[Pop music|pop]] mainstream and so her affiliation with Peacock Records ends{{nbsp}}... Thornton continues to make personal appearances and is always remembered for her original version of "Hound Dog" which gets a spate of airplay during the summer of 1958 which leads to another re-release of the original."<ref name="home.earthlink.net"/>  On October 7, 1965, Thornton's live performance of "Hound Dog" with [[Eddie Boyd]] and [[Buddy Guy]] at [[American Folk Blues Festival]] '65 in [[Hamburg, Germany]], was recorded and released subsequently by [[Fontana Records]] on an album ''American Folk Blues Festival '65'' (Fontana 681 529 TL) with other artists.<ref name="home.earthlink.net"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/Various-American-Folk-Blues-Festival-65/release/3826359|title=American Folk Blues Festival '65 (Vinyl)|access-date=1 May 2021|website=Discogs.com|date=1965 }}</ref>

===Awards and Accolades===
In February 2013, Thornton's recording of "Hound Dog" was inducted into [[Grammy Hall of Fame Award|Grammy Hall of Fame]].<ref>[https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/paul-mccartney-bob-dylan-recordings-added-to-grammy-hall-of-fame-20121121 "Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan Recordings Added to Grammy Hall of Fame"], ''Rolling Stone'' (November 21, 2012)</ref> It has also received the following accolades:
* #36 ''Rolling Stone'' "Fifty Essential Recordings from the Fifties" (1990)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/rstone.html#5050 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060211024228/http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/rstone.html#5050 |url-status=usurped |archive-date=February 11, 2006 |title=Rocklist.net Rolling Stone Lists – Main Page |website=Rocklistmusic.co.uk |date=2002-10-17 |access-date=2015-12-19}}</ref>
* Thornton's recording of "Hound Dog" is listed as one of the [[Rock and Roll Hall of Fame]]'s "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll"<ref name="rockhall.com">{{cite web|url=http://rockhall.com/exhibits/one-hit-wonders-songs-that-shaped-rock-and-roll/ |title=Experience The Music: One Hit Wonders and The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll &#124; The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum |website=Rockhall.com |date=2013-04-15 |access-date=2015-12-19}}</ref>
* In 2017, Thornton's recording of "Hound Dog" was selected for preservation in the [[National Recording Registry]] by the [[Library of Congress]] as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.loc.gov/item/prn-17-029/ | title=National Recording Registry Picks Are "Over the Rainbow" | work=Library of Congress | date=March 29, 2016 | access-date=March 29, 2016}}</ref>
* The original version was ranked No. 318 on the 2021 edition of "Top 500 Songs of All Time" by ''Rolling Stone'' Magazine.<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=2021-09-15 |title=The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-songs-of-all-time-1224767/ |access-date=2022-07-02 |magazine=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}}</ref>

===Responses (1953–1955)===
====Cover versions====
Thornton's "Hound Dog" was so popular that it spawned at least ten cover versions of the original before Elvis Presley recorded it in July 1956.<ref name="Mahon" /> One of the earliest covers of Thornton's original was that of [[Little Esther]], who recorded an R&B cover on March 11, 1953 (b/w "Sweet Lips") on [[Federal Records]] (Federal 12126) that was released by April. While Federal's trade ads touted this release as the greatest record ever made by Little Esther,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://home.earthlink.net/~jaymar41/Lesther.html |title=esther |website=Home.earthlink.net |date=1951-01-05 |access-date=2015-12-19 |archive-date=2016-03-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307082216/http://home.earthlink.net/~jaymar41/Lesther.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> in its review on April 11, 1953, ''Billboard'' opined: "It fails to build the same excitement of the original."<ref>"Rhythm & Blues Record Reviews", ''The Billboard'' (April 11, 1953):41.</ref>

Within a month of the release of Thornton's "Hound Dog", the following six country cover versions of the song—all credited erroneously to Leiber-Stoller (or {{Sic|nolink=y|Stroller}})-Otis—were released on several different labels by white artists:<ref name="autogenerated1" />
* Jack Turner & his Granger County Gang (RCA 20–5267; 47–5267)<ref>[http://rcs-discography.com/rcs/pics/d04/4326&type=ls]{{dead link|date=December 2017|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> (actually [[Henry D. Haynes]] on vocals, with his [[Homer and Jethro]] partner [[Kenneth C. Burns]] on mandolin, with [[Chet Atkins]] on [[lead guitar]], Charles Green on bass, and [[Jerry Byrd]] on [[steel guitar]]),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/Jack-Turner-And-His-Granger-County-Gang-Hound-Dog-I-Couldnt-Keep-From-Crying/release/2074773|title=Jack Turner And His Granger County Gang - Hound Dog / I Couldn't Keep From Crying|website=Discogs|date=April 1953 }}</ref> recorded a [[rockabilly]] [[boogie]] or [[hillbilly]] [[Country music|country-western]] version<ref name="theelvisforum" /><ref>''The Billboard'' (April 11, 1953):31.</ref><ref name="The Billboard 1953">''The Billboard'' (April 11, 1953) page 18.</ref> on March 20, 1953, in New York City. After the success of [[Patti Page]]'s version of the [[Bob Merrill]]-penned "[[(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?]]", as Homer and Jethro they recorded a parody version, "(How Much Is) That Hound Dog in the Window" (RCA Victor 47–5280) in March that went to number two on the US [[Hot Country Songs|Country charts]], and number 17 on the ''Billboard'' national charts.<ref>Scott Childers, ''Chicago's WLS Radio'' (Arcadia Publishing, 2008) p. 47.</ref><ref>Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris Woodstra, and Stephen Thomas Erlewine, eds., ''All Music Guide to Country: The Definitive Guide to Country Music'', 2nd ed. (Backbeat Books, 2003) p. 357.</ref><ref>B. Lee Cooper and Wayne S. Haney, ''Response Recordings: An Answer Song Discography, 1950–1990'' (Scarecrow Press, 1990) p. 38.</ref> ''Billboard'' noted: "By coincidence or intent, the use of 'hound dog' also recognizes the top r&b record of the moment."<ref name="Ennis-p193">Philip H. Ennis,''The Seventh Stream: The Emergence of Rocknroll in American Popular Music'' (Wesleyan University Press, 1992) p. 193.</ref> After Elvis Presley released his version of "Hound Dog" in 1956, by early November Homer & Jethro released a parody version, "Houn' Dawg" (RCA Victor 6706).<ref>''Billboard'' (10 November 1956):124.</ref>
* Billy Starr ([[Imperial Records|Imperial]] 8186)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://rcs-discography.com/rcs/show_pic.php?key=4028&type=ls|title=RCS Label Shot for Imperial (Calif.) 8186|website=Rcs-discography.com|access-date=30 July 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hillbilly-music.com/dj/story/index.php?id=11847|title=hillbilly-music.com - Billy Starr|last=Hillbilly-Music.com|website=Hillbilly-music.com}}</ref> This version is described as "a [[juke joint]]-honed blend of country and pre-rockabilly raunch".<ref name="allmusic 2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/song/hound-dog-mt0002281075|title=Hound Dog - Big Mama Thornton &#124; Song Info &#124; AllMusic|access-date=1 May 2021|website=[[AllMusic]]}}</ref>
* Eddie Hazelwood (Intro 6069)<ref>[http://rcs-discography.com/rcs/pics/d01/1939&type=ls]{{dead link|date=December 2017|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref><ref name="theelvisforum" /> His version "[[two-step (dance move)|two-steps]] in [[Honky tonk#Music|honky-tonk]] style."<ref name="autogenerated1"/>
* Former Hollywood child actress and 1946 National Yodeling champion [[Betsy Gay]] (Intro 6070) recorded a hillbilly version with [[Joe Maphis]] and [[Merle Travis]] at [[Radio Recorders]] studio in Los Angeles on March 18, 1953.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://rcs-discography.com/rcs/search.php?type=labpk&key=597|title=RCS Search Results|website=Rcs-discography.com|access-date=1 May 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://rcs-discography.com/rcs/ss/01/ss1611.mp3sample |title=Rockin' Country Style |access-date=2013-07-07 |archive-date=2013-07-07 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130707155135/http://rcs-discography.com/rcs/ss/01/ss1611.mp3sample |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Betsy Gay">{{cite web|url=http://www.hillbilly-music.com/artists/story/index.php?id=12984|title=Betsy Gay|website=Hillbilly-music.com}}</ref> ''Billboard'' described her recording: "She sings it well, shouting out the lyrics with occasional excitement, tho without the power the tune needs."<ref>"Record Reviews", ''The Billboard'' (April 11, 1953):43.</ref>
* Former [[Bob Wills|Texas Playboy band]] [[Western swing]] vocalist [[Tommy Duncan]] and the Miller Bros. (Intro 6071)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://rcs-discography.com/rcs/show_pic.php?key=1281&type=ls|title=RCS Label Shot for Intro (Calif.) 6071|website=Rcs-discography.com|access-date=30 July 2018}}</ref> Duncan's version is described as "a smoother, jazzy reading featuring fine guitar and piano contributions".<ref name="Nazareth-p157">Peter Nazareth,[http://www.africanlit.org/publications/jala/Vol1No2/nazareth.pdf "Nineteen Fifty-Five": Alice, Elvis And The Black Matrix"]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} ''Journal of the African Literature Association'' 1:2 (Summer/Fall 2007) p. 157.</ref>
*Cleve Jackson (Jackson Cleveland Toombs) & His Hound Dogs ([[Herald Records|Herald]] 6000),<ref>[http://rcs-discography.com/rcs/pics/d05/5267&type=ls]{{dead link|date=December 2017|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref>

On February 24, 1954, [[Cozy Cole|The Cozy Cole All Stars]] recorded an instrumental version, "Hound Dog Special" (MGM 11794), a "{{Sic|nolink=y|spend off|expected=spin-off}} of Willie Mae Thornton's" version.<ref name="Instrumentals">{{cite web|url=http://www.history-of-rock.com/instrumentals.htm |title=Instrumental Groups |website=History-of-rock.com |access-date=2015-12-19}}</ref>

Bass player Al Rex, who joined [[Bill Haley & His Comets|Bill Haley and His Comets]] in the fall of 1955,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thegardnerfamily.org/haley/discography/recordings.html|title=Bill Haley Recordings|publisher=Thegardnerfamily.org|access-date=2011-06-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205001942/http://thegardnerfamily.org/haley/discography/recordings.html|archive-date=2012-02-05|url-status=dead}}</ref> told of performing the song when given the spotlight at live performances. "I used to do 'Hound Dog.' Haley would get mad at me if I'd do that. This was even before Presley did it. Haley didn't like those guys from Philadelphia that wrote the song."<ref>Bill Haley: The Daddy of Rock and Roll. John Swenson. 1982. Stein and Day. p. 64. {{ISBN|0-8128-2909-3}}</ref> As Leiber and Stoller were not from Philadelphia (and Haley recorded other Leiber and Stoller songs), Haley was probably referring to Freddie Bell and Bernie Lowe, of Philadelphia's Teen Records.

In later years Big Mama Thornton's version was covered by such artists as [[Rod Piazza|the Dirty Blues Band]] on their 1968 album ''Dirty Blues Band''; [[Etta James]]; [[Robert Palmer (singer)|Robert Palmer]]; and [[Macy Gray]].

====Answers and Parodies====
By the end of 1953, at least six "answer songs" that responded to 'Big Mama' Thornton's original version of "Hound Dog" were released.<ref name="autogenerated1" /><ref name=Salem83 /> According to Peacock's Don Robey, these songs were "bastardizations" of the original and reduced its sales potential.<ref name=Salem84>James M. Salem, ''The Late Great Johnny Ace and the Transition from R&B to Rock 'N' Roll'' (University of Illinois Press, 2001) p. 84.</ref>

====="Bear Cat" (1953)=====
The first and most popular answer song to "Hound Dog" was "Bear Cat (The Answer To Hound Dog)" (Sun 101), recorded at [[Sun Studio]]s at 706 Union Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee on March 8, 1953,<ref name="Robey">{{cite web |url=http://www.706unionavenue.nl/64258507 |title=1953 Sun Sessions |language=nl |website=706unionavenue.nl |access-date=2015-12-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222131416/http://www.706unionavenue.nl/64258507 |archive-date=2015-12-22 |url-status=dead }}</ref> just two weeks after Thornton's original version was released,<ref name="Martin Hawkins 2011">[[Colin Escott]] and Martin Hawkins, ''Good Rockin' Tonight: Sun Records and the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll'' (Open Road Media, 2011).</ref> and even before a review of "Hound Dog" had been published in ''Billboard''.<ref name="ReferenceB">''The Billboard'' (April 18, 1953).</ref> "Bear Cat" had new lyrics written by Sun Records founder [[Sam Phillips]],<ref name="autogenerated2001" /> in which he altered the gender of the singer, who bemoaned that his woman was a "bear cat", a [[Jazz Age]] slang term for "a hot-blooded or fiery girl".<ref name="David Mahony 2003">David Mahony, ''Excel Preliminary English'' (Pascal Press, 2003) p. 177.</ref><ref name="Peter Gammond 1989">Peter Clayton and Peter Gammond, ''The Guinness Jazz Companion'' (Guinness Books, 1989) p. 24.</ref> According to Phillips' biographer [[Peter Guralnick]]: 
:Sam was knocked out by Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog" the first time he heard it. Performed with ripsaw gusto by the singer{{nbsp}}... and modified by a delicate [[Latin music|Latin]]-flavored "rhumba-[[boogie]]" beat, the record struck a communal chord somewhere between low comedy and bedrock truth. It totally tickled Sam on both levels. "I said, my God, it's so true. You ain't nothing but a hound dog. You ain't met your responsibilities. You didn't go to work like you [should]." And it gave him an immediate idea for a follow-up – from the ''man's'' point of view{{nbsp}}... "Bear Cat", "[i]n the time-honored tradition of answer songs, was a virtual carbon copy of "Hound Dog" with lyrics, chord progressions, and rhythmic structure all patterned directly on the original.<ref name="Peter Guralnick 2015">Peter Guralnick, ''Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock 'n' Roll'' (Hachette UK, 2015).</ref>

Looking for a suitable man to record this song, Phillips selected part-time local [[WDIA]] disk jockey Rufus Thomas, who adopted the nickname, "Rufus 'Hound Dog' Thomas" for this recording. "With his gruff [[Louis Armstrong]]-influenced voice, quick wit, and eye-popping antics, he was the perfect candidate to reply to the harsh accusations Big Mama Thornton had thrown out in her song, this time leveling them at a 'bossy woman'".<ref name="Peter Guralnick 2015"/> Despite his reluctance to record the song and his reservations about the band assembled by Phillips, Thomas "threw himself into the song with the same brash charm that he brought to all his performances, complete with yowls, growls, and fervent imprecations".<ref name="Peter Guralnick 2015"/> The record's spare electric guitar work by [[Memphis blues]]man [[Joe Hill Louis]] was greatly influenced by that of Pete Lewis on the original.<ref name="Robey"/> According to James M. Salem:
{{blockquote|[I]nstead of barking and howling there is meowing and hissing in the background. In true answer form, the gender of the participants was reversed. This time the protagonist is male, directly challenging the worthless female of the original song—correcting her previous insults and re-directing them at her. "You know what you said about me woman?" says the man in open confrontation. "Well{{nbsp}}… You ain't nothin' but a bear cat, scratchin' at my door." All the irony and sarcasm of the original is captured in the answer, even the sexuality: "You can purr, pretty kitty, but I ain't gonna rub you no more."<ref name=Salem84/>}}

While "the result was peppier than Big Mama's version, with a more straight-ahead beat{{nbsp}}... [Phillips] was under no illusions about surpassing the original": "Hell, we didn't come close to being as good as Big Mama. She could have done that song a cappella and convinced me that, by God, you ain't nothing but a damned hound dog!"<ref name="Peter Guralnick 2015"/> Thomas was dissatisfied with the result, especially [[Joe Hill Louis]]'s country-style blues guitar playing. In 1978, Robert Palmer wrote: "Even today, Rufus takes perverse delight in pointing out the wrong notes in Louis's solo."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.teachrock.org/resources/article/the-sun-king-sam-phillips/|title=Robert Palmer, "The Sun King: Sam Phillips" (December 1978)|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160822151514/http://www.teachrock.org/resources/article/the-sun-king-sam-phillips/|archive-date=2016-08-22}}</ref>

Within two weeks, "Bear Cat" (Sun 181) was in stores, prompting ''Billboard'' to describe it on March 28 as "the fastest answer song to hit the market".<ref name="Robey"/> It became both Thomas' and Sun Records' first hit,<ref name="Rob Bowman 1997">Rob Bowman ''Soulsville, U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records'' (Music Sales Group, 1997) p. 9.</ref> More than 5,000 copies were ordered in the first days by distributors, and by mid-April it had charted nationally, eventually reaching number three on the R&B charts.<ref name="autogenerated2001" /> However, as Phillips claimed a writing credit for the song,<ref name="John Broven 2009">John Broven, ''Record Makers and Breakers: Voices of the Independent Rock 'n' Roll Pioneers'' (University of Illinois Press, 2009) pp. 152–153.</ref> a copyright-infringement suit ensued that nearly bankrupted Phillips' record label.<ref name="Galen Gart 1954">Galen Gart, ed., ''First Pressings: The History of Rhythm & Blues, Vol. 4''(1954) p. 41.</ref><ref name="Jet 2002">"Blues Legend Rufus Thomas Succumbs at 84", ''Jet'' (January 7, 2002) p. 16</ref><ref name="The Sun Records Label Story">{{cite web|url=http://www.bsnpubs.com/tennessee/sunstory.html |title=The Sun Records Label Story |website=Bsnpubs.com |access-date=2015-12-19}}</ref><ref name="Answers 1953">"Answer to the 'Answers'",''The Billboard'' (April 4, 1953) p. 18.</ref>

=====Other Answer Records=====
In the months after the release of "Hound Dog" and "Bear Cat", a spate of answer records followed:
* On March 18, Blues shouter Roy Brown recorded "Mr. Hound Dog's in Town" for King Records (45–4627).<ref name="Walter Bruyninckx 1977">Walter Bruyninckx, comp., ''60 Years of Recorded Jazz 1917–1977, Volume 2'' (W. Bruyninckx) p. B-899.</ref><ref name="Nick Tosches 1991">Nick Tosches, ''Unsung Heroes of Rock 'n' Roll: The Birth of Rock 'n' Roll in the Wild Years Before Elvis'', rev. ed (Harmony Books, 1991) p. 209.</ref><ref name="Marion">J.C. Marion,[http://home.earthlink.net/~v1tiger/roybrown2.html "Good Rockin' Roy Brown : part two"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305074405/http://home.earthlink.net/~v1tiger/roybrown2.html |date=2016-03-05 }} ''Jamm Up'' 41 (2006).</ref> While it had the same melody and many of the same lyrics as the original, Brown is credited as the sole writer.<ref name="Congress. Copyright Office 1954">Library of Congress. Copyright Office, ''Catalog of Copyright Entries: Musical Compositions'' (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1954) p. 37.</ref> Despite the threat of legal action,<ref name="Marion"/> Brown's "Mr. Hound Dog's in Town" was still being advertised in ''Billboard'' on June 6, 1953.<ref name="ReferenceC">"Ladder of Best Sellers From King and Federal Records", ''The Billboard'' (June 6, 1953):32.</ref>
* Vocalist Charlie Gore and guitarist Louis Innis recorded "(You Ain't Nothin' But a Female) Hound Dog" (King 45–1212) for King Records on March 22.<ref name="William R. Daniels 1985">Michel Ruppli and William R. Daniels, ''The King Labels: A Discography, Volume 1''(Greenwood Press, 1985) p. 68.</ref><ref name="countrydiscography.blogspot.com">{{cite web|url=https://countrydiscography.blogspot.com/2009/03/louis-innis.html |title=Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies: Louis Innis |website=Countrydiscography.blogspot.com |date=2009-03-19 |access-date=2015-12-19}}</ref> This song was credited to Innis, Lois Mann (a pseudonym of King Records owner [[Syd Nathan]], the latter his wife's maiden name),<ref name="Jeff Wallenfeldt 2013">Jeff Wallenfeldt, ed., ''The Birth of Rock and Roll: Music in the 1950s Through The 1960s'' (The Rosen Publishing Group, 2013) p. 162.</ref> and Johnny Otis.<ref name="Congress. Copyright Office 1953">Library of Congress. Copyright Office., ''Catalog of Copyright Entries, 3D Ser Vol 7 Pt 5A'', (U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1953) p. 180.</ref>
* At the request of [[Leonard Chess]], Blues guitarist [[John Brim]] wrote an answer song called "Rattlesnake" for [[Chess Records]]' [[Checker Records|Checker subsidiary]].<ref name="autogenerated1" /> In March 1953, Brim and His Gary Kings recorded "Rattlesnake" (Checker 769) at [[Universal Recording Corporation|Universal Recording]] in Chicago.<ref>Tony Glover, Scott Dirks, and Ward Gaines, ''Blues with a Feeling: The Little Walter Story''(Routledge, 2012) p. 99.</ref> "Rattlesnake" and "It Was a Dream" were backed by [[Little Walter]] on [[Richter-tuned harmonica|blues harp]]; [[Willie Dixon]] on string bass; [[Fred Below]] on drums; and [[The Aces (blues band)|Louis and Dave Myers]] on guitar.<ref name="allmusic" /><ref name="campber.people.clemson.edu">{{Cite web|url=http://campber.people.clemson.edu/chess2.html|title=The Chess Label Part II (1953-1955)|website=Campber.people.clemson.edu|access-date=1 May 2021}}</ref> However, when Don Robey threatened an injunction against Sun Records for the similar "Bear Cat",<ref>Justin O'Brien, "Brim, John", ''The Blues Encyclopedia'', eds. Edward Komara and Peter Lee (Routledge, 2004) p. 148.</ref> Leonard and [[Phil Chess]], decided not to release "Rattlesnake" at that time.<ref name="campber.people.clemson.edu"/> In 1969 these songs were released officially on ''Whose Muddy Shoes'' (1969: Chess LP 1537) with songs by both Brim and [[Elmore James]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/Elmore-James-John-Brim-Whose-Muddy-Shoes/release/6773778|title=Elmore James - John Brim - Whose Muddy Shoes|website=Discogs|date=1969 }}</ref> and the backing musicians credited as "his Stompers".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wirz.de/music/brimfrm.htm|title=Illustrated Grace & John Brim discography|website=Wirz.de}}</ref> 
* [[Jake Porter]]'s Combo Records released "Real Gone Hound Dog" (Combo 25), "an obscure 'answer' record to 'Hound Dog'",<ref name="Review">[http://www.answers.com/topic/central-rocks-the-central-ave-scene-1951-58-vol-2 "Review"], ''AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Albums: Central Rocks: The Central Ave Scene 1951–58, Vol. 2''.</ref> by [[Chuck Higgins]] and His Mellotones' with a vocal by Higgins' brother "[[Daddy Cleanhead]]". The composition was credited to Higgins and Porter (as V. Haven).<ref name="globaldog">{{cite web|url=http://www.globaldogproductions.info/c/combo.html |title=45 discography for Combo Records |website=Globaldogproductions.info |access-date=2015-12-19}}</ref>
* "Call Me a Hound Dog", written by [[Bob Geddins]], in which the hound dog states his case, was recorded by Blues singer [[Jimmy Wilson (blues musician)|Jimmy Wilson]] (as Jimmie Wilson) and His All Stars (with Hal "King" Solomon on piano) and released by Geddins' Big Town Records in May 1953 (Big Town Records 103).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wirz.de/music/wilsjfrm.htm|title=Illustrated Jimmy Wilson discography|website=Wirz.de}}</ref><ref>"Rhythm & Blues Record Reviews", ''The Billboard'' (May 23, 1953) page 162.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.home.earthlink.net/~jaymar41/labels-3a.html |title=Labels-3a |website=www.home.earthlink.net |access-date=17 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030106180353/http://www.home.earthlink.net/~jaymar41/labels-3a.html |archive-date=6 January 2003 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The review in the May 23 edition of ''Billboard'' describes this song as "the latest, and possibly the last in the long line of answers to 'Hound Dog', featuring Jimmy Wilson singing the tune okay style. Ork backs him in a blues manner but they could have added a stronger beat."<ref>Rhythm & Blues Record Reviews", ''Billboard'' (23 May 1953):162.</ref> 
* Former ''[[Our Gang]]'' child actor [[Eugene Jackson]] and actress [[Juanita Moore]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://selfstyledsiren.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/in-memoriam-juanita-moore-1914-2014.html|title=Self-Styled Siren: In Memoriam: Juanita Moore, 1914-2014|date=4 January 2014|website=Selfstyledsiren.blogspot.com}}</ref> (backed by the Eugene Jackson Trio and All Stars) also recorded "You Call Me a Hound Dog" about this time which was released on [[John Dolphin (music producer)|John Dolphin]]'s [[Recorded In Hollywood]] label (421A).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.globaldogproductions.info/h/hollywood.html|title=45 Discography for Hollywood Records|first=Global Dog|last=Productions|website=Globaldogproductions.info}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://home.earthlink.net/~jaymar41/RIH.html |title="Recorded In Hollywood / Hollywood Records – An R & B Split Personality" ''JAMMUP'' 8' (2001) |access-date=2016-08-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160606034535/http://home.earthlink.net/~jaymar41/RIH.html |archive-date=2016-06-06 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-oct-28-me-62611-story.html|title=Eugene Jackson, 84; Child Actor Starred in 'Our Gang'|date=28 October 2001|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|access-date=1 May 2021}}</ref><ref>Eugene W. Jackson II with Gwendolyn Sides St. Julian, ''Eugene "Pineapple" Jackson: His Own Story'' (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, c1999).</ref> 
* "New Hound Dog" (Big Town 116) by [[Frank Motley|Frank "Dual Trumpeter" Motley]] and His Motley Crew, with vocals provided by [[Curley Bridges]]<ref name="Bill Munson 2004">Bill Munson, "Bridges, Curley", ''The Blues Encyclopedia'', eds. Edward Komara and Peter Lee (Routledge, 2004) p. 147.</ref> was recorded in October 1954<ref name="autogenerated1" /> for Big Town Records, a subsidiary of [[4 Star Records]], owned by Bob Geddins.<ref>Robert Eagle, "Big Town", ''The Blues Encyclopedia'', eds. Edward Komara and Peter Lee (Routledge, 2004) p. 81.</ref>  Motley is credited as the sole composer, and "King" Herbert Whitaker plays tenor saxophone.<ref name="Bill Munson 2004"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.globaldogproductions.info/b/big-town.html|title=45 discography for Big Town Records|first=Global Dog|last=Productions|website=Globaldogproductions.info}}</ref> This song is described as "the first rocking rearrangement of 'Hound Dog'".<ref name="Bill Munson 2004"/> It was re-released in Canada in 1956 by [[Quality Records]] (Quality K1544).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.globaldogproductions.info/q/quality-ca-k-series.html|title=Singles Discography for Quality Records - CA - K series|first=Global Dog|last=Productions|website=Globaldogproductions.info}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/Frank-Dual-Trumpet-Motley-And-His-Crew-New-Hound-Dog/release/8806061|title=Frank (Dual Trumpet) Motley And His Crew* - New Hound Dog|website=Discogs|year=1956 }}</ref>

When the dust settled, the publishing for "Hound Dog" (in all variations) remained with Lion, and writing credit with Leiber and Stoller. In April, 1954, ''Billboard''{{'}}s Rolontz summed up the events thusly: "The year 1953 saw an important precedent set in regard to answer tunes{{nbsp}}… since the 'Hound Dog' decision, few record firms have attempted to 'answer' smash hits by other companies by using same tune with different lyrics."<ref name="Robey"/><ref name="Rolontz 23">{{cite news|last=Rolontz|first=Bob|title=Rhythm and Blue Notes|newspaper=The Billboard|date=24 April 1954|page=23}}</ref>

===="Rip offs"====
Two records were released that were neither cover versions of nor answers to Thornton's release, yet used a similar melody without any attribution to Leiber and Stoller. The first was [[Smiley Lewis]]'s "Play Girl", credited to [[Dave Bartholomew|D. Bartholomew]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://songwritershalloffame.org/index.php/songs/detailed/C108/P281/ |title=Dave Bartholomew Detailed Song List |publisher=Songwriters Hall of Fame |access-date=2015-12-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222091923/http://songwritershalloffame.org/index.php/songs/detailed/C108/P281/ |archive-date=2015-12-22 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and released by the Imperial Records label (Imperial 45–5234) by the end of March 1953.<ref name="globaldogproductions.info">{{cite web|url=http://www.globaldogproductions.info/i/imperial-5000-series.html |title=45 Discography for Imperial Records 5000 series |website=Globaldogproductions.info |access-date=2015-12-19}}</ref><ref>''The Billboard'' (March 28, 1953):42.</ref> Described as a "stomping uptempo boogie rocker",<ref>''Blues Unlimited, Volumes 128–132'' (BU Publications Limited, 1978) p. 46.</ref> it began: "You ain't nothin' but a Play Girl / Staying out all night long".<ref>{{YouTube|ZeHqubwtGLA|"Smiley Lewis – Play Girl"}}</ref> In April 1955,<ref>Colin Larkin, "Jesse 'Tiny" Kennedy", ''The Virgin Encyclopedia of The Blues'' (Virgin Books, 1998) p. 207.</ref> [[Drag queen|female impersonator]] Jesse "Big 'Tiny'" Kennedy recorded "Country Boy" accompanied by His Orchestra that was released by RCA's [[Groove Records]] (Groove 4G-0106) by May 21.<ref>"Reviews of New R&B Records", ''The Billboard'' (May 21, 1955):67.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.queermusicheritage.us/oct2007s.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130523120101/http://www.queermusicheritage.us/oct2007s.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-05-23|title=October 2007 Script - Queer Blues|date=23 May 2013|access-date=1 May 2021}}</ref> While credited solely to Kennedy, this song has a similar melody to "Hound Dog":<ref>{{YouTube|gzV_Vpnrd5g|"Big Tiny Kennedy – Country Boy"}}</ref> "'Country Boy' has a deceptively slouching flip on the 'Hound Dog' motif – this time with Tiny proclaiming proudly that he 'ain't nothing but a country boy'".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.piccadillyrecords.com/products/BigTinyKennedy-CountryBoyStrangeKindOfFeeling-JukeboxJamSeries-79869.html |title=/ from |publisher=Piccadilly Records |access-date=2015-12-19}}</ref>

In the early 1970s, Robert Loers, owner of Dutch label Redita Records, found a song with the same melody as "Hound Dog" called "(You Ain't Nuttin' But a) Juicehead" on an anonymous [[Acetate disc|acetate]] at [[Select-O-Hits|Select-o-Hits]], the Memphis distributorship owned by Sam Phillips' brother, Tom, where Sun artifacts were stored.
{{blockquote|When ''Juice Head'' first appeared on a Redita Records LP [in 1974], it was credited to [[Rosco Gordon]]. But it's not Rosco. It simply is not him. Really. Even Rosco confirmed that. It might not even be a Memphis Recording Service demo. Just substitute the words "Hound Dog" for "Juice Head" and what have you got? Of course the inspiration for this song came from Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog" or perhaps even from Rufus Thomas' "Bear Cat". But the song's other parent is [[Eddie Vinson]]'s slowed down "Juicehead Blues" which harks to the previous decade…If indeed this originated from Sam Phillips' studio, it was nothing that Phillips needed to touch because it was another lawsuit waiting to happen."<ref>[http://www.706unionavenue.nl/64258507 "The discredited LP ''Keep On Rocking'' Redita 131"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130213140543/http://www.706unionavenue.nl/64258507 |date=2013-02-13 }}
On Various Artists ''"706 Blues": A Collection of Rare Memphis Blues'' (Netherlands, 1974: Redita LP-111) and ''Keep On Rolling'' (Netherlands 1988: Redita 131).</ref>}}

Philip H. Ennis sees "Two Hound Dogs", which was recorded on May 10, 1955, by Bill Haley & His Comets ([[Decca Records|Decca]] 29552),<ref>Otto Fuchs,''Bill Haley: Father of Rock 'n' Roll'' (Wagner Verlag sucht Autoren) p. 350.</ref> as a response to Thornton's recording.<ref>Philip H. Ennis, ''The Seventh Stream: The Emergence of Rocknroll in American Popular Music'' (Wesleyan University Press, 1992) p. 194.</ref> While not an answer record in the traditional sense, the lyric characterized "Rhythm" and "Blues" as the titular "Two Hound Dogs", an apparent testament to the stature of "Hound Dog".

==Freddie Bell and the Bellboys' versions (1955–1956)==
{{Infobox song
| name       = Hound Dog
| cover      = Hound Dog by Freddie Bell and the Bellboys (US 45RPM vinyl).png
| alt        =
| type       = single
| artist     = [[Freddie Bell and the Bellboys]]
| B-side     = "Move Me Baby'<ref name="rockabillyhall1">{{cite web |url=http://www.rockabillyhall.com/BillBlack1.html |title=RAB Hall of Fame: Bill Black |publisher=Rockabillyhall.com |access-date=2011-06-05 |archive-date=2012-02-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204054658/http://www.rockabillyhall.com/BillBlack1.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
| released   = {{Start date|1955}}
| recorded   = Philadelphia, 1955
| genre      = [[Rock and roll]]
| length     = {{Duration|2:45}}
| label      = Teen
| writer     = [[Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller]]
}}
By 1955 Philadelphia-based Teen Records co-founder [[Bernie Lowe]] suspected that "Hound Dog" could potentially have greater appeal, but knew it had to be sanitized for mainstream acceptance, and so asked popular Las Vegas lounge act [[Freddie Bell]] of [[Freddie Bell and the Bellboys]], who had been performing songs with "tongue-in-cheek" humour as the band in residence at The Silver Queen Bar and Cocktail Lounge at [[The Sands Hotel and Casino]] soon after its opening in December 1952,<ref>Mike Weatherford, Cult Vegas: The Weirdest! the Wildest! the Swingin'est Town on Earth! (Huntington Press, 2001) p. 59.</ref><ref>Ace Collins, ''Untold Gold: The Stories Behind Elvis's #1 Hits'' (Chicago Review Press, 2005) p. 27.</ref><ref name="auto">James P. Kraft, ''Vegas at Odds: Labor Conflict in a Leisure Economy, 1960–1985'' (JHU Press, 2010) p. 72.</ref> to rewrite the lyrics for their first release on his label.

Bell removed innuendoes like "You can wag your tail but I ain't gonna feed you no more" and replaced them with sanitized lyrics, changing a racy song about a disappointing lover into a song that was literally about a dog.<ref name="autogenerated1" /> Musically, he gave the song a rock and roll rhythm.<ref name="shmoop">{{cite web|date=2004-12-09|title=Hound Dog Meaning|url=http://www.shmoop.com/elvis-hound-dog/meaning.html|access-date=2015-12-19|website=Shmoop.com|archive-date=2015-12-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222144143/http://www.shmoop.com/elvis-hound-dog/meaning.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Jerry Leiber, the original lyricist, found these changes irritating, saying that the rewritten words made "no sense".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story.aspx?storyid=78132abf-0ac9-4405-a56e-fd3d896c8b8d|title=MENAFN|website=Menafn.com|access-date=2019-02-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180731031634/https://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story.aspx?storyid=78132abf-0ac9-4405-a56e-fd3d896c8b8d|archive-date=2018-07-31|url-status=dead}}</ref> Described as "one of their trademark [[Parody|spoofs]]", the Bellboys version became a staple of their Las Vegas act.<ref name="Miller-p135">Jim Miller, ''Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock and Roll, 1947–1977'' (Simon & Schuster, 1999) p. 135.</ref><ref>Colin Larkin, ''The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Volume 1'', 2nd ed. (Guinness Pub., 1995) p. 345.</ref><ref name="Rock 1999">''All Roots Lead to Rock: Legends of Early Rock 'n' Roll: a Bear Family Reader'', ed. Colin Escott (Schirmer Books, 1999) p. 75.</ref><ref name="Robert Fink 2002">Robert Fink, "Elvis Everywhere: Musicology and Popular Music Studies at the Twilight of the Canon", in Roger Beebe, Denise Fulbrook, Ben Saunders, ed., ''Rock Over the Edge: Transformations in Popular Music Culture'' (Duke University Press, 2002) p. 97.</ref>

In early 1955 this version of "Hound Dog" became the first record released on Teen Records (TEEN 101),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.globaldogproductions.info/t/teen.html|title=45 Discography for Teen Records|publisher=Global Dog Productions}}</ref> "a subsidiary of the equally obscure Sound Records",<ref>Colin Escott, ''All Roots Lead to Rock: Legends of Early Rock 'n' Roll: A Bear Family Reader'' (Schirmer Books, 1999) p. 74.</ref> that was owned by Lowe; jazz impresario Nat Segal, who owned Downbeat, the first integrated nightclub in Philadelphia;<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mycitypaper.com/Arts/Last-Call-at-the-Downbeat-shines-a-spotlight-on-a-jazz-legendrsquos-forgotten-Philly-connection/|title='Last Call at the Downbeat' shines a spotlight on a jazz legend's forgotten Philly connection|website=Mycitypaper.com|access-date=1 May 2021}}</ref> and partially by ''[[American Bandstand]]'''s creator and first host [[Bob Horn (broadcaster)|Bob Horn]].<ref>Charlie Gracie & John A. Jackson, ''Rock & Roll's Hidden Giant: The Story of Rock Pioneer Charlie Gracie'' (Alfred Music, 2014) pp. 54, 68.</ref> Their version of "Hound Dog", which includes "arf arf" dog sounds made by the band throughout the song, also included the "most overused rhythmic pattern" of the 1950s, the three-beat Latin bass riff pioneered by [[Dave Bartholomew]]<ref>Rick Coleman, ''Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock 'n' Roll'' (Da Capo Press, 2007) pp. 6, 73, 126.</ref> that was also used in Rufus Thomas' "Bear Cat", a 1953 answer song to Thornton's original recording, and subsequently in Presley's 1956 recording.<ref>Rick Coleman, ''Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock 'n' Roll'' (Da Capo Press, 2007) p. 317.</ref>  In June 1984 music researcher and historian George A. Moonoogian also "found a stylistic similarity" between Frank "Dual Trumpeter" Motley & His Crew's 1954 number "New Hound Dog" (Big Town 116) and Bell's 1955 Teen Records release of "Hound Dog".<ref>Steve Sullivan, "Hound Dog (1956)-Elvis Presely" in ''Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings, Volume 1'' (Screcrow Press, 2013) p. 542, n.168.</ref><ref>See George A. Moonoogian and Roger Meedem, "Ain't Nothin' But a Hound Dog" in  ''Whiskey, Women, And ...'' 14 (June 1984) pp. 4–10.</ref>  On the single's label, authorship is credited to {{Sic|nolink=y|Leibler}} and Stoller.<ref name="theelvisforum" /> No credit is given to Bell or anyone else for the revised lyrics. Their recording of "Hound Dog" was a local hit in the Philadelphia area, and received "lots of radio play on the east coast, and Bell found himself with a regional hit,<ref name="Rock 1999"/> that included Philadelphia, Cleveland, and New York. Despite "Hound Dog" spending 16 weeks at number one on the pre-[[Dick Clark]] ''Bandstand'',<ref>Mike Weatherford, ''Cult Vegas: The Weirdest! the Wildest! the Swingin'est Town on Earth!'' (Huntington Press, 2001) p. 59.</ref>  it attracted no national attention.<ref name="Miller-p135" /> However, the regional popularity of this release, along with the group's showmanship, yielded a tour; an appearance in the seminal pioneer Rock and Roll musical film ''[[Rock Around the Clock (film)|Rock Around the Clock]]'' in January 1956;<ref name="Frankie Brent">{{cite web|url=http://www.rockabillyeurope.com/references/messages/frankie_brent.htm |title=Frankie Brent |publisher=Rockabillyeurope.com |access-date=2011-06-05}}</ref> and eventually a recording contract with [[Mercury Records]]' [[Wing Records]] subsidiary by February 1956.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jazzdisco.org/mercury-records/discography-1956/|title=Mercury Records Discography: 1956|first=Jazz Discography|last=Project|website=Jazzdisco.org}}</ref>

In May 1956 (two months before Presley recorded his version), Bell and the Bell Boys recorded a more up ''tempo'' version of the song for Mercury that was over 20 seconds shorter, and that also omitted the comedic "arf arf" dog sounds of their 1955 Teen Records version. However, Mercury did not release this new version until after the success of Presley's version. Initially released in France in late 1956 on an [[Extended play|EP]] ''Rock 'n' Roll'' (Barclay 14159), it was released subsequently in 1957 in Australia (July 1957: Mercury Records 45152), Sweden (''Rock'n'Roll Vol. 2''; Mercury EP-1-3502), and Norway (Mercury EP MN5). As the legal dispute about its composition had not been resolved, authorship of the Mercury Records version is attributed to Leiber-Stoller-Otis. Mercury finally released Freddie Bell and the Bellboys' new version of "Hound Dog" in the USA on their debut album ''Rock & Roll ... All Flavors'' (Mercury MG 20289) in January 1958,<ref>''Billboard'' (6 January 1958):13.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bsnpubs.com/mercury/mercury/04-popmain-20200/05mercury-20200-20399.html|title=Mercury Album Discography, Part 5|website=Bsnpubs.com}}</ref> but now crediting Leiber & Stoller only. Both the 1955 Teen Records (2:45) and the 1956 Mercury Records (2:22) versions of "Hound Dog" are included in the 1996 compilation album ''Rockin' Is Our Business ''(Germany: [[Bear Family Records]] BCD 15901).

==Elvis Presley's version (1956)==
{{Infobox song
| name          = Hound Dog
| cover         = HoundCruel.jpg
| alt           = 
| border        = yes
| caption       = 1956 RCA Victor single picture sleeve
| type          = single
| artist        = [[Elvis Presley]]
| A-side        = [[Don't Be Cruel]]
| released      = {{Start date|1956|07|13}}
| recorded      = July 2, 1956
| studio        = [[RCA Studios New York#24th St|RCA Victor]], [[New York City]]
| genre         = [[Rockabilly]]
| length        = {{Duration|2:15}}
| label         = [[RCA Victor]]
| writer        = [[Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller]]
| producer      = Elvis Presley (uncredited), [[Stephen H. Sholes]]
| prev_title    = [[I Want You, I Need You, I Love You]]
| prev_year     = 1956
| next_title    = [[Love Me Tender (song)|Love Me Tender]]
| next_year     = 1956
| misc          = {{External music video|{{YouTube|-eHJ12Vhpyc|"Hound Dog" (audio)}}}}<!-- This is a Vevo video, which is allowed under Wikipedia policies. -->
}}

Elvis Presley and his band first encountered "Hound Dog" at the [[Sands Casino]] in [[Las Vegas]], [[Nevada]] in 1956.<ref name=":3">Scotty Moore (with James L. Dickerson), ''Scotty and Elvis: Aboard the Mystery Train'' (Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2013) p. 111.</ref><ref name=":4">{{cite web|title=Interview with D.J. Fontana|url=http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/interview_djfontana.shtml|access-date=2011-06-05|publisher=Elvis.com.au}}</ref> Presley had been booked from April 23 through May 6, 1956 to appear at the Venus Room of the [[New Frontier Hotel and Casino]] as an "extra added attraction", third on the bill to the [[Freddy Martin|Freddy Martin Orchestra]] and comedian [[Shecky Greene]].

It was his first appearance in Las Vegas.<ref>
Lee Cotten, ''All shook up: Elvis day-by-day, 1954–1977'' (Pierian Press, 1985) p. 77.</ref> However, "because of audience dissatisfaction, low attendance, and unsavory behavior by underage fans", the booking was reduced to one week.<ref>Craig Morrison, ''Go Cat Go!: Rockabilly Music and Its Makers'', 3rd ed. (University of Illinois Press, 1996) page 67.</ref><ref>Don Tyler, ''Music of the Postwar Era'' (ABC-CLIO, 2008) p. 223.</ref> Freddie Bell and the Bellboys were still the resident act at the Silver Queen Bar in the Sands, and "Hound Dog" remained a staple for them.<ref name="Frankie Brent" /><ref name="auto" /> Presley and his band attended a performance and loved their burlesque reworking of "Hound Dog".<ref name="Fink-p168">Robert Fink, [http://www.johnhalle.com/bard.classes/bcs.II/elvis.everywhere.pdf "Elvis Everywhere: Musicology and Popular Music Studies at the Twilight of the Canon"]. ''American Music'' 16:2 (University of Illinois Press, Summer 1998) p. 168.</ref> According to Paul W. Papa: "From the first time Elvis heard this song he was hooked. He went back over and over again until he learned the chords and lyrics."<ref>Paul W. Papa, ''It Happened in Las Vegas: Remarkable Events that Shaped History'' (Globe Pequot, 2009) p. 69.</ref><ref>Barbara N. Land and Myrick Land, ''A Short History of Las Vegas'', 2nd ed. (University of Nevada Press, 2004) p. 137.</ref> When asked about "Hound Dog", Presley's guitarist [[Scotty Moore]] and his drummer [[D. J. Fontana]] agreed that Presley had borrowed the Bellboys version after seeing them perform the song live.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" />

In 1992, Leiber and Stoller confirmed that Presley was familiar with Thornton's record of the song but "he didn't do her version"; he had learned the song from Freddie Bell & The Bellboys.<ref name="americansongwriter.com"/> Presley first added "Hound Dog" to his live performances at the New Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas.<ref name="rockabillyhall1" /><ref>{{cite web|date=2007-01-15|title=Elvis live 1956|url=http://www.elvis.org/live/liv56.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070115234926/http://www.elvis.org/live/liv56.html|archive-date=2007-01-15|access-date=2011-06-05}}</ref> Ace Collins indicates that "Far from being the frenetic, hard-driving song that he would eventually record, Elvis' early live renditions of 'Hound Dog' usually moved pretty slowly, with an almost burlesque feel."<ref>Ace Collins, Untold Gold: The Stories Behind Elvis's #1 Hits (Chicago Review Press, 2005) p. 28.</ref> Presley modelled his performance, particularly his hip gyrations, on the Bellboys version, which was a Las Vegas-style comic [[burlesque]].<ref>Michael Coyle, "Hijacked Hits and Antic Authenticity", in Roger Beebe, Denise Fulbrook, Ben Saunders, ed., Rock Over the Edge: Transformations in Popular Music Culture (Duke University Press, 2002) p. 97.</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Interview with D.J. Fontana : Elvis Articles:'For Elvis Fans Only' Official Elvis Presley Fan Club|url=http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/interview_djfontana.shtml|access-date=2015-12-19|website=Elvis.com.au}}</ref>

Just weeks after they had seen Bell and the Bellboys perform, "Hound Dog" became Elvis and Scotty and Bill's closing number for the first time on May 15, 1956, at [[Ellis Auditorium]] in [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Ellis Auditorium|url=http://www.scottymoore.net/ellis.html|access-date=2011-06-05|publisher=Scotty Moore}}</ref> during the [[Carnival Memphis|Memphis Cotton Festival]] before an audience of 7,000.<ref name="McDonnell">{{cite web|title=Elvis Presley In Concert|url=http://www.elvisconcerts.com/real/hound01.htm|access-date=2015-12-19|website=Elvisconcerts.com}}</ref> The song remained his standard closer until the late 1960s.<ref name="McDonnell" /><ref>Robert Fink, [http://www.johnhalle.com/bard.classes/bcs.II/elvis.everywhere.pdf "Elvis Everywhere: Musicology and Popular Music Studies at the Twilight of the Canon"]. ''American Music'' 16:2 (University of Illinois Press, Summer 1998) pp. 168, 169.</ref> By the spring of 1956, Presley was fast becoming a national phenomenon and teenagers came to his concerts in unprecedented numbers, with the enthusiastic reaction – particularly to "Hound Dog" – causing riots at some performances.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Culture Shock: Flashpoints: Music and Dance: Elvis Presley|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/cultureshock/flashpoints/music/elvis.html|access-date=1 May 2021|website=Pbs.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Scotty Moore and James Dickerson|year=1997|title=That's Alright, Elvis|publisher=Schirmer Books|isbn=0-02-864599-5|page=175}}</ref> Presley researcher Guillermo F. Perez-Argüello contends that:

{{blockquote|Whatever Presley got from hearing Freddy Bell's version, which was sometime in April of 1956, lasted a couple of months only. In fact he sang it 21 times, live, at concerts and on television, using Bell's vocal arrangement but which also included his own blues version, at half speed, and only at the end, until he recorded it with what was undeniably, his own arrangement based not just on Scotty Moore's tremendously modern guitar work but his own rage and disgust at what had taken place the night before, at [[Steve Allen]]'s ''[[The Tonight Show|Tonight Show]]'', when he was forced to sing the song to a [[basset hound]], and dressed in tails while simultaneously facing an audience of 40 million. And once he recorded it, it was his version which he chose to deliver, although by the end of 1956, he'd added inflections from the Thornton version as well.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://americansongwriter.com/2014/11/lyric-week-big-mama-thornton-hound-dog/|title=Guillermo F. Perez-Argüello, comments on By Rick Moore, "Lyric Of The Week: Big Mama Thornton, "Hound Dog""|publisher=American Songwriter|date=November 10, 2014|access-date=1 May 2021}}</ref>}}

=== Response ===
Larry Birnbaum described Elvis Presley's rendition of "Hound Dog" as "an emblem of the rock 'n' roll revolution".<ref name="autogenerated1">Larry Birnbaum, ''Before Elvis: The Prehistory of Rock 'n' Roll'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2012) p. 234.</ref> George Plasketes argues that Elvis Presley's version of "Hound Dog" should not be considered a cover "since [most listeners] … were innocent of Willie Mae Thornton's original 1953 release".<ref name="George Plasketes 2010">George Plasketes, ''Play It Again: Cover Songs in Popular Music'' (Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2010) p. 243.</ref> Michael Coyle asserts that "Hound Dog", like almost all of Presley's "covers were all of material whose brief moment in the limelight was over, without the songs having become standards."<ref>Michael Coyle, "Hijacked Hits and Antic Authenticity", in Roger Beebe, Denise Fulbrook, Ben Saunders, ed., ''Rock Over the Edge: Transformations in Popular Music Culture'' (Duke University Press, 2002) p. 145.</ref> While, because of its popularity, Presley's recording "arguably usurped the original", Plasketes concludes: "anyone who's ever heard the Big Mama Thornton original would probably argue otherwise."<ref name="George Plasketes 2010" /> Presley was aware of and appreciated Big Mama Thornton's original recording of "Hound Dog",<ref name="Birnbaum235">{{Cite web|url=http://www.scottymoore.net/records.htmlLarry|title=Birnbaum, ''Before Elvis: The Prehistory of Rock 'n' Roll'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2012)|page=235|website=Scottymoore.net|access-date=1 May 2021}}{{Dead link|date=July 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> and had a copy in his personal record collection.<ref>"Elvis' Original Record Collection"</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.scottymoore.net/interview_by_kevin_woods04.html|title=93 Scotty Moore interview by Kevin Woods|website=Scottymoore.net}}</ref> Ron Smith, a schoolfriend of Presley's, says he remembers Presley singing along to a version by Tommy Duncan (lead singer for the classic lineup of [[Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys]]).<ref>Nick Tosches, ''Country: The Twisted Roots of Rock 'n' Roll'' (Da Capo Press, 2009) p. 55.</ref> According to another schoolmate, Presley's favorite r'n'b song was "Bear Cat (the Answer to Hound Dog)" by Rufus Thomas, a hero of Presley's.<ref name="Elvis Presley's pedigree chum" />

Agreeing with Robert Fink, who claims that "Hound Dog" as performed by Presley was intended as a burlesque, "troping off white overreactions to a black sexual innuendo",<ref name="Robert Fink 2002" /> Freya Jarman-Ivens asserts that "Presley's version of 'Hound Dog' started its life as a [[blackface]] comedy", in the manner of [[Al Jolson]], but more especially "African-American performers with a penchant for 'clowning'{{snd}}[[Louis Armstrong]], [[Dizzy Gillespie]], and [[Louis Jordan]].<ref>Freya Jarman-Ivens, ''Oh Boy!: Masculinities and Popular Music'' (Routledge, 2013) p. 109.</ref> It was Freddie Bell and the Bellboys' performance of the song (with Bell's amended lyrics) that influenced Presley's decision to perform, and later record and release, his own version: "Elvis's version of 'Hound Dog' (1956) came about, not as an attempt to cover Thornton's record, but as an imitation of a ''parody'' of her record performed by Freddie Bell and the Bellboys{{nbsp}}… The words, the tempo, and the arrangement of Elvis' 'Hound Dog' come not from Thornton's version of the song, but from the Bellboys'."<ref>Gilbert B. Rodman, ''Elvis After Elvis: The Posthumous Career of a Living Legend'' (Routledge, 1996) pp. 50–51.</ref> According to Rick Coleman, the Bellboys' version "featured [Dave] Bartholomew's three-beat Latin riff, which had been heard in [[Bill Haley]]'s '[[Shake, Rattle and Roll]]'."<ref name="Rick Coleman 2007">Rick Coleman, ''Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock 'n' Roll'' (Da Capo Press, 2007) p. 125.</ref> Just as Haley had borrowed the riff from Bartholomew, Presley borrowed it from Bell and the Bellboys.<ref name="Rick Coleman 2007" /> The Latin riff form that was used in Presley's "Hound Dog" was known as "[[Contradanza|Habanera]] rhythm", which is a Spanish and African-American musical beat form.<ref name=":0" /> After the release of "Hound Dog" by Presley, the Habanera rhythm gained much popularity in American popular music.<ref name=":0" />

When asked if Bell had any objections to Presley recording his own version, Bell gave [[Colonel Tom Parker]], Presley's manager, a copy of his 1955 Teen Records' recording, hoping that if Presley recorded it, "he might reap some benefit when his own version was released on an album".<ref>Mike Weatherford, ''Cult Vegas: The Weirdest! the Wildest! the Swingin'Est Town on Earth!'' (Huntington Press Inc, 2001) p. 117.</ref> According to Bell, "[Parker] promised me that if I gave him the song, the next time Elvis went on tour, I would be the opening act for him—which never happened."<ref>Freddie Bell, in Mike Weatherford, ''Cult Vegas: The Weirdest! the Wildest! the Swingin'Est Town on Earth!'' (Huntington Press Inc, 2001) p. 117.</ref> In another interview Bell said: "I hope my career is more than giving 'Hound Dog' to Elvis".<ref>Freddie Bell, in ''All Roots Lead to Rock: Legends of Early Rock 'n' Roll: a Bear Family Reader'', ed. Colin Escott (Schirmer Books, 1999) p. 79.</ref> In May 1956, two months before Presley's release, Bell re-recorded a more frantic version of the song for the Mercury label;<ref name="Nazareth-p157" /> however, it was not released as a single until 1957.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite web|url=http://www.globaldogproductions.info/m/mercury-45000-series-oz.html |title=45 Discography for Mercury Records – OZ – 45000 series |website=Globaldogproductions.info |access-date=2015-12-19}}</ref> It was later included on Bell's 1957 album, ''Rock & Roll…All Flavors'' (Mercury Records MG 20289).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rockabilly.nl/references/messages/freddie_bell.htm |title=Freddie Bell |website=Rockabilly.nl |access-date=2015-12-19}}</ref><ref>David Edwards, Randy Watts, Mike Callahan, and Patrice Eyries, [http://www.bsnpubs.com/mercury/mercury/04-popmain-20200/05mercury-20200-20399.html "Mercury Album Discography, Part 5: MG-20200 to MG-20399 Main Popular Music Series"] (December 19, 2008).</ref>

===Television performances===
Presley first performed "Hound Dog" for a nationwide television audience on ''[[The Milton Berle Show]]'' on June 5, 1956. It was his second appearance on Berle's program.<ref>{{cite web|title=Elvis Presley, his Hound Dog, and the controversy that followed|url=http://thepoodleanddogblog.typepad.com/the_poodle_and_dog_blog/2014/06/elvis-presley-his-hound-dog-and-the-controversy-that-followed.html|website=The Poodle (and Dog) Blog|access-date=2016-08-16|archive-date=2018-10-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181009185947/http://thepoodleanddogblog.typepad.com/the_poodle_and_dog_blog/2014/06/elvis-presley-his-hound-dog-and-the-controversy-that-followed.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> At Berle's request, Presley appeared without his guitar, the first time he had done so on national television.<ref>The Blue Moon Boys: The Story of Elvis Presley's Band. Ken Burke and Dan Griffin. 2006. Chicago Review Press. p. 52. {{ISBN|1-55652-614-8}}</ref> By this time, Presley's band had added instrumental flourishes to the song: Scotty Moore had added a [[guitar solo]], and D.J. Fontana had added a [[drum roll]] between verses. The performance started in an upbeat tempo in the style of the Bellboys, but dropped to a half tempo for the dramatic finish.<ref>The Blue Moon Boys: The Story of Elvis Presley's Band. Ken Burke and Dan Griffin. 2006. Chicago Review Press. p. 53. {{ISBN|1-55652-614-8}}</ref> Presley's movements during the performance were energetic and sexually charged, especially his hip gyrations, and the reactions of young women in the studio audience were enthusiastic, as shown on the broadcast.<ref name=":6">Robert Fink, [http://www.johnhalle.com/bard.classes/bcs.II/elvis.everywhere.pdf "Elvis Everywhere: Musicology and Popular Music Studies at the Twilight of the Canon"]. ''American Music'' 16:2 (University of Illinois Press, Summer 1998) p. 170.</ref> According to Robert Fink, "Hound Dog" as performed by Presley on Berle's show was intended to be humorous, "troping off white overreactions to a black sexual innuendo".<ref name="Robert Fink 2002" /> Over 40,000,000 people saw the performance.<ref name=":2">Jake Austen, ''TV-a-Go-Go: Rock on TV from American Bandstand to American Idol'' (Chicago Review Press, 2005) p. 11.</ref>

Unfortunately for Presley, the mainstream public did not find the sexually charged performance amusing, and controversy erupted.<ref name="Robert Fink 2002" /><ref name=":2" /> It was the first major controversy of Presley's career. Letters of [[protest]] poured into the [[NBC]] mailroom, critics called the performance vulgar, moral watchdogs raised concerns about juvenile delinquency, and even the [[Catholic Church]] published an opinion piece entitled "Beware Elvis Presley".<ref name="pbs.org" /><ref>{{cite book|last=Shumway|first=David|url=https://archive.org/details/keytermsinpopula0000unse/page/195|title=Key Terms in Popular Music and Culture|publisher=Blackwell Publishers Ltd.|year=1999|isbn=0-631-21264-7|editor=Bruce Horner and Thomas Swiss|edition=1st|page=[https://archive.org/details/keytermsinpopula0000unse/page/195 195]|author-link=Performance}}</ref> The performance earned Presley the [[sobriquet]] "Elvis the Pelvis".<ref name="Fink-p168" /> [[Ed Sullivan]], host of a popular televised variety show, publicly stated that he would never feature Presley. Steve Allen, who had already booked Presley for ''[[The Steve Allen Show]]'' on NBC, faced pressure from network executives to cancel the performance. Allen refused, insisting he would control the performance so it would not offend the public's sensibilities.<ref name="pbs.org">{{cite web|title=Culture Shock: Flashpoints: Music and Dance: Elvis Presley|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/cultureshock/flashpoints/music/elvis.html|website=Pbs.org}}</ref>

Presley appeared on ''The Steve Allen Show'' on July 1 that year. Steve Allen, who was notoriously contemptuous of rock 'n' roll music and especially songs such as "Hound Dog", ensured that the performance had a comedic bent, cracking jokes and presenting Presley with a signed prop toilet paper roll as a play on the name of the genre.<ref>{{cite web|date=1956-06-24|title=Steve Allen Comedy Show|url=http://www.steveallen.com/television_pioneer/steve_allen_comedy_show.htm|access-date=2011-06-05|publisher=Steveallen.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Sold on Song – Song Library – Hound Dog|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/soldonsong/songlibrary/indepth/hounddog.shtml|access-date=2015-12-19|website=BBC}}</ref> Presley performed in a [[Tuxedo (clothing)|tuxedo]] while singing an abbreviated version of "Hound Dog" to an actual [[top hat]]-wearing [[Basset Hound]].<ref>See Austen, Jake, TV-A-Go-Go: Rock on TV from American Bandstand to American Idol (2005), p. 13.</ref> Presley was reportedly a good sport about the silliness while on the show, but Presley would later recall it as an extremely embarrassing moment.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Keogh|first=Pamela Clarke|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4leHQDbq6MEC&dq=%22elvis+presley%22+%22steve+allen%22&pg=PT84|title=Elvis Presley: The Man. The Life. The Legend.|date=2008-06-24|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-1-4391-0815-4|pages=73|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":5">Robert Fink, [http://www.johnhalle.com/bard.classes/bcs.II/elvis.everywhere.pdf "Elvis Everywhere: Musicology and Popular Music Studies at the Twilight of the Canon"]. ''American Music'' 16:2 (University of Illinois Press, Summer 1998) p. 169.</ref> Scotty Moore later suggested that Presley's anger about the way Allen orchestrated the performance drove the aggressive style that he recorded "Hound Dog" in the very next day.<ref name=":5" />

Although [[Ed Sullivan]] had publicly stated he would never invite Presley onto his show, the ratings success of Presley's appearance on ''The Steve Allen Show'' convinced him to reconsider. Sullivan wound up paying $50,000 for Presley to appear on the ''[[Ed Sullivan Show]]'' three times; "Hound Dog" was performed during each appearance. On September 9, 1956, with the song topping several U.S. charts, Presley's set featured an abbreviated version of "Hound Dog". During his second appearance on October 28, Presley jokingly introduced the song as "one of the saddest songs we've ever heard", before playing it in full.<ref>The Ed Sullivan Shows DVD SOFA ENTERTAINMENT, INC.</ref><ref>Cf. William Patry, ''Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars'' (Oxford University Press, 2009) p. 134, which indicates that the television cameras were forbidden to show Presley from the waist down.</ref> In the third and final appearance on January 6, 1957, Presley performed seven songs, including "Hound Dog". This proved to be Presley's last live performance on American television.<ref>{{cite web|title=Ed Sullivan Performances on DVD|url=http://www.scottymoore.net/edsullivanDVD.html|website=Scottymoore.net}}</ref>

===Recording===
For 7 hours from 2:00&nbsp;pm on July 2, 1956, the day after the ''Steve Allen Show'' performance, Presley recorded "Hound Dog" along with "[[Don't Be Cruel]]" and "[[Any Way You Want Me (Elvis Presley song)|Any Way You Want Me]]" for RCA Victor at RCA's New York City studio with his regular band of Scotty Moore on lead guitar, [[Bill Black]] on bass, D. J. Fontana on drums, and backing vocals from [[the Jordanaires]]. Despite its popularity in his live shows, Presley had neither planned nor prepared to record "Hound Dog", but agreed to do so at the insistence of RCA's assigned producer [[Stephen H. Sholes]], who argued that "'Hound Dog' was so identified with Elvis that fans would demand a record of the concert standard."<ref name="Ace Collins 2005">Ace Collins, ''Untold Gold: The Stories Behind Elvis's #1 Hits'' (Chicago Review Press, 2005) p. 30.</ref> According to Ace Collins: "Elvis may not have wanted to record 'Hound Dog', but he had a definite idea of how he wanted the finished product to sound. Though he usually slowed it down and treated it like a blues number in concert, in the studio Elvis wanted the song to come off as fast and dynamic."<ref name="Ace Collins 2005"/>  While the producing credit was given to Sholes, the studio recordings reveal that Presley produced the songs himself, which is verified by the band members.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/soldonsong/songlibrary/indepth/hounddog.shtml |title=Sold on Song – Song Library – Hound Dog |publisher=BBC |access-date=2011-06-05}}</ref> Gordon Stoker, First Tenor of the Jordanaires, who were chosen to provide backup vocals, recalls: "They had demos on almost everything that Elvis recorded, and we'd take it from the demo. We'd listen to the demo, most of the time, and we'd take it from the demo. We had (Big) Mama Thornton's record on 'Hound Dog', since she had a record on that. After listening to it we actually thought it was awful and couldn't figure out why Elvis wanted to do that."<ref name="elvispresleymusic.com.au">{{cite web|url=http://www.elvispresleymusic.com.au/elvis-presley-new-york-sessions.html|title=Elvis Presley - The New York Sessions 1956|website=Elvispresleymusic.com.au}}</ref> However, what Stoker did not realize was that Presley wanted to record the version he saw in Las Vegas by Freddie Bell and the Bellboys that he had been performing since May. As session pianist Emidio "Shorty Long" Vagnoni left to work on a rehearsal for a stage show, Stoker plays piano on this recording of "Hound Dog".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.scottymoore.net/interview_by_Jonathan_Wingate.html|title=Music Mart interview by Jonathan Wingate - The Guitar Man|website=Scottymoore.net|access-date=1 May 2021}}</ref> As Stoker was unable to also sing first tenor, "the Jordanaires try to come up with a combined sound as best they can to cover it, and Gordon laughs as he states, 'That's one of the worst sounds we ever got on any record!' However Elvis insists on doing the song, and the results, albeit without Gordon singing tenor, will still do more than please the masses. Gordon also related that Elvis very much knew in his mind what he wanted the final results to be so they didn't spend a lot of time working out tempos."<ref name="elvispresleymusic.com.au"/>
In response to journalist Dave Schwensen, who said: "I remember reading an interview a few years ago with [[Keith Richards]] from the [[Rolling Stones]]{{nbsp}}... "He was talking about the second guitar break on the recording of 'Hound Dog' and said it sounded like you just took off your guitar, dropped it on the floor and it got the perfect sound. He said he's never been able to figure out how you did that.", in 2002 Scotty Moore indicated: "
{{blockquote|I don't know either,"{{nbsp}}... "Ahh{{nbsp}}… I was actually pissed off to tell'ya the truth."{{nbsp}}... "It was just{{nbsp}}… Sometimes in the studio you do it too many times and you go past that peak. Like three takes before was really the one you should use. That was it. We had done the thing, ("Hound Dog"). I think it was printed somewhere that we did it about forty or sixty{{nbsp}}… I don't know, give or take. But if someone was counting it off, just a couple notes and we stop, that's a take. You know? 'Take Two.' But I was frustrated for some reason and in the second solo I just went, BLAH."<ref>[https://theclassicrocker.wordpress.com/2016/07/02/interview-with-scotty-moore/] {{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>}}

Musicologist Robert Fink asserts that "Elvis drove the band through thirty-one takes, slowly fashioning a menacing, rough-trade version quite different than the one they had been performing on the stage."<ref>Robert Fink, "Elvis Everywhere: Musicology and Popular Music Studies at the Twilight of the Canon", in Roger Beebe, Denise Fulbrook, Ben Saunders, ed., Rock Over the Edge: Transformations in Popular Music Culture (Duke University Press, 2002) p. 97.</ref> The result of Presley's efforts was an "angry hopped-up version" of "Hound Dog".<ref>Robert Fink, "Elvis Everywhere: Musicology and Popular Music Studies at the Twilight of the Canon", in Roger Beebe, Denise Fulbrook, Ben Saunders, ed., Rock Over the Edge: Transformations in Popular Music Culture (Duke University Press, 2002) p. 98.</ref> Citing Presley's anger at his treatment on the ''Steve Allen Show'' the previous evening, [[Peter Nazareth]] sees this recording as "revenge on Steve ("you ain't no friend of mine") Allen, and as a protest at being censored on national TV."<ref>Peter Nazareth, "Elvis as Anthology," In ''Search of Elvis: Music, Race, Art, Religion'', ed. Vernon Chadwick (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997) pp. 37–72, plus End notes 253–258.</ref>  In analyzing Presley's recording, Fink asserts that 
{{blockquote|"Hound Dog" is "notable for an unremitting level of what can only be called rock and roll dissonance: Elvis just shouts, leaving behind almost completely the rich vocal timbres ("romantic lyricism") and mannerist rhythmic play on added syllables ("boogification") that Richard Middleton identifies as the cornerstones of his art. Scotty Moore's guitar is feral: playing rhythm he stays in the lowest register, slashing away at open fifths and hammering the strong beats with bent and distorted pitches; his repetitive breaks are stinging and even, when he begins one chorus in the wrong key, quite literally atonal{{nbsp}}... And the Jordanaires, a gospel quartet who would provide wonderfully subtle rhythmic backup on the next song Elvis recorded at the session, 'Don't Be Cruel', are just hanging on for the ride during this one, while drummer D.J. Fontana just goes plumb crazy. Fontana's machine-gun drumming on this record has become deservedly famous: the only part of his kit consistently audible in the mix is the snare, played so loud and insistently that the RCA engineers just gave up and let his riffs distort into splatters of clipped noise. The overall effect could not be more different from the amused, relaxed contempt of Big Mama Thornton; it is reminiscent of nothing so much as late 1970s white [[punk music|punk]] rage – the [[Ramones]], [[Iggy Pop]], the [[Sex Pistols]].<ref>Robert Fink, "Elvis Everywhere: Musicology and Popular Music Studies at the Twilight of the Canon", in Roger Beebe, Denise Fulbrook, Ben Saunders, ed., Rock Over the Edge: Transformations in Popular Music Culture (Duke University Press, 2002) pp. 97–98.</ref>}}

In the end, Presley chose version 28, declaring: "This is the one." During the day Presley's manager Colonel Tom Parker told RCA vice president Larry Kananga that "Hound Dog" "may become such a big hit that RCA may have to change its corporate symbol from the 'Victor Dog' to the 'Hound Dog'."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/elvis-presleys-national-tv-appearances-in-the-1950s.shtml|title=Elvis Presleys National TV Appearances In The 1950s: Elvis Articles – 'For Elvis Fans Only' Official Elvis Presley Fan Club|website=Elvis.com.au}}</ref> Although Presley knew about Big Mama Thornton's version of "Hound Dog," the lyrics to his recording of the song were actually based on the Freddie and Bellboys 1955 version, which involved the lyrics being rewritten to make the song's subject a dog rather than a man.<ref name=stollerandindependent>{{cite news|url=https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/music/news/elvis-presley-hound-dog-big-mama-thornton-b2113658.html|title=Elvis's 'Hound Dog' wasn't stolen from Big Mama Thornton, says the song's co-writer Mike Stoller|first=Megan|last=Graye|work=The Independent|date=July 1, 2022|access-date=February 13, 2025}}</ref>

After this recording, Presley performed this "angry hopped-up version" of "Hound Dog" in his concerts, and also on his performances on ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' on September 9 and October 28, 1956.

===Release and reception===
"Hound Dog" (G2WW-5935) was initially released as the [[A-side and B-side|B-side]] to the single "Don't Be Cruel" (G2WW-5936) on July 13, 1956.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://rcs-discography.com/rcs/show_pic.php?key=3330&type=ls |title=RCS Label Shot for RCA Victor (N.J.) 6604 |website=Rcs-discography.com |access-date=2015-12-19}}</ref> Soon after the single was re-released with "Hound Dog" first and in larger print than "Don't Be Cruel" on the record sleeve.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.45cat.com/record/476604us |title=Elvis Presley – Don't Be Cruel / Hound Dog – RCA Victor – USA – 47-6604 |website=45cat.com |access-date=2015-12-19}}</ref> Both sides of the record topped ''Billboard's'' Best Sellers in Stores and Most Played in Jukeboxes charts alongside "Don't Be Cruel", while "Hound Dog" on its own merit topped the country & western and rhythm & blues charts and peaked at number one on ''Billboard's'' main pop chart, the [[Billboard Hot 100|Top 100]]. Later reissues of the single by RCA in the 1960s designated the pair as [[Double A-side|double-A-sided]]. By August 18, 1956, Peacock Records had re-released Big Mama Thornton's original recording of "Hound Dog", backing it with "Rock-a-Bye Baby" (Peacock 5–1612),<ref name="Billboard 18 Aug 1956:70" /> but it failed to chart.

Stoller learned of the Presley cover from Leiber after returning from vacation in [[Europe]]. He expressed some disappointment in the success of the cover: "It just sounded terribly nervous, too fast, too white. But you know, after it sold seven or eight million records it started to sound better."<ref name="Leiber" />{{rp|90}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://willybrauch.de/In_Their_Own_Words/leiberstoller.htm |title=Interview with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller Introduction as if any introduction is necessary for this legendary song writing |website=willybrauch.de |access-date=17 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130424061251/http://willybrauch.de/In_Their_Own_Words/leiberstoller.htm |archive-date=24 April 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Leiber and Stoller tired of explaining that Presley had dropped most of their lyrics.<ref name="pc7">{{Pop Chronicles |7|4|Leiber and Stoller}}</ref> For example, Leiber complained about Presley adding the line, "You ain't never caught a rabbit, and you ain't no friend of mine", calling it "inane… It doesn't mean anything to me."<ref name="telegraph2" /><ref name="Leiber" /> Forty years later, Leiber told music journalist Rikky Rooksby that Presley had stamped the hit with his own identity: "(A) white singer from Memphis who's a hell of a singer—he does have some black attitudes—takes the song over{{nbsp}}… But here's the thing: we didn't make it. His version is like a combination of country and [[skiffle]]. It's not black. He sounds like [[Hank Snow]]. In most cases where we are attributed with rock and roll, it's misleading, because what we did is usually the original record—which is R&B—and some other producer (and a lot of them are great) covered our original record."<ref>Jerry Leiber, in Rikky Rooksby, ''Lyrics: Writing Better Words for Your Songs'' (Hal Leonard Corporation, 2006); from [http://rockaeology.com/2012/04/27/before-elvis-big-mama-thornton-hound-dog.aspx "Before Elvis, 'Big Mama' Thornton: 'Hound Dog'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130423035049/http://rockaeology.com/2012/04/27/before-elvis-big-mama-thornton-hound-dog.aspx |date=2013-04-23 }} (April 27, 2012).</ref>

In September 1956, Democratic congressman [[Emanuel Celler]] expressed disgusted at "the bad taste that is exemplified by Elvis Presley's 'Hound Dog' music, with his animal gyrations".<ref>R. Serge Denisoff and [[William D. Romanowski]], ''Risky Business: Rock in Film'' (Transaction Publishers, 1991) p. 37.</ref> In October 1956 ''[[Melody Maker]]'' critic [[Steve Race (musician)|Steve Race]] reacted negatively to Presley's rendition of "Hound Dog", saying that "for sheer repulsiveness coupled with the monotony of incoherence, 'Hound Dog' hit a new low in my experience."<ref>Steve Race, ''Melody Maker'' (October 10, 1956) in Ulf Lindberg, ed., ''Rock Criticism from the Beginning: Amusers, Bruisers And Cool-Headed Cruisers'' (Peter Lang, 2005) p. 83.</ref> Race later stated: "it is a thoroughly bad record",<ref>Steve Race, in Albin Zak, ''I Don't Sound Like Nobody: Remaking Music in 1950s America'' (University of Michigan Press, 2010) p. 168.</ref> lacking in "tone, intelligibility, musicianship, taste [and] subtlety", and defying "the decent limits of guitar amplification".<ref>Steve Race, in Andrew Caine, ''Interpreting Rock Movies: The Pop Film and Its Critics in Britain'' (Manchester University Press, 2004) p. 56.</ref>

In 1957 [[Frank Sinatra]] supported US Senator [[George Smathers]]' crusade against "inferior music", including "Hound Dog", which Sinatra sarcastically referred to as "a masterpiece".<ref>Larry Jordan, ''Jim Reeves: His Untold Story'' (2011) pp. 226–227.</ref> [[Oscar Hammerstein II]] had "a particular loathing of 'Hound Dog'".<ref>Ian Whitcomb, ''After the Ball: Pop Music from Rag to Rock'' (Faber & Faber, 2013).</ref> In 1960, [[Perry Como]] told ''[[The Saturday Evening Post]]'': "When I hear 'Hound Dog' I have to vomit a little, but in 1975 it will probably be a slightly ancient classic."<ref>Perry Como, in Serene Dominic, ''Burt Bacharach, Song by Song: The Ultimate Burt Bacharach Reference for Fans, Serious Record Collectors, and Music Critics'' (Music Sales Group, 2003):68.</ref> Albin J. Zak III, Professor of Music at the [[University at Albany, SUNY|State University of New York, Albany]], in his inaugural [[American Musicological Society]]/[[Rock & Roll Hall of Fame]] lecture, "'A Thoroughly Bad Record': Elvis Presley's 'Hound Dog' as Rock and Roll Manifesto",<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuRK5H1Ga3c&list=SPuYH1Vrzl1TOPkoOwkXEcw07v4t1GBUdY |title=AMS Lecture Series: Albin Zak -- Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog" |date=2013-02-28 |last=Rock & Roll Hall of Fame |access-date=2025-01-21 |via=YouTube}}</ref> in October 2011 asserted: "In retrospect{{nbsp}}… we can recognize defining moments of crystallization{{nbsp}}… The record was widely scorned by music industry veterans and high-pop aficionados, yet in its rude enthusiasm it represents an emphatic assertion of aesthetic principle at the dawn of rock and roll."<ref>Albin J. Zak III, [http://www.ams-net.org/RRHOFM-lectures/past.php "'A Thoroughly Bad Record': Elvis Presley's 'Hound Dog' as Rock and Roll Manifesto"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141226064455/http://ams-net.org/RRHOFM-lectures/past.php |date=2014-12-26 }}, American Musicological Society lecture (October 5, 2011).</ref> In 1997 [[Bob Dylan]] indicated that Presley's record influenced his decision to get into music: "What got me into the whole thing in the beginning wasn't songwriting. When 'Hound Dog' came across the radio, there was nothing in my mind that said, 'Wow, what a great song, I wonder who wrote that?'{{nbsp}}… It was just{{nbsp}}… it was just there."<ref>{{cite book|last=Zollo|first=Paul|title=Songwriters On Songwriting|year=1997|publisher=Da Capo Press|isbn=978-0306812651|page=83}}</ref>

Presley's "Hound Dog" sold over 4 million copies in the United States on its first release. It was his best-selling single and, starting in July 1956, it spent eleven weeks at number one—a record not eclipsed until [[Boyz II Men]]'s "[[End of the Road (Boyz II Men song)|End of the Road]]" held at the top for 13 weeks in 1992.<ref>Jean-Pierre Hombach, ''Heidi Klum & Seal: The Truth About the Divorce'' (epubli) p. 235.</ref> It stayed in the number one spot until it was replaced by "[[Love Me Tender (song)|Love Me Tender]]", also recorded by Presley. ''Billboard'' ranked it as the number two song for 1956.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bobborst.com/popculture/songoftheyear/ |title=Number One Song of the Year: 1946–2015 |website=Bobborst.com |access-date=2015-12-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180420175438/http://www.bobborst.com/popculture/songoftheyear/ |archive-date=2018-04-20 |url-status=dead }}</ref> "Hound Dog" would go on to sell 10 million copies worldwide, including 5 million in the United States alone.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2dgJVseZAlsC&q=%22%22Hound+Dog%22+sold+more+than+10+million%22&pg=PA223|title=Music of the Postwar Era|last=Tyler|first=Don|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2008|page=226|isbn=9780313341915|access-date=2013-02-17}}</ref><ref name="rock movers">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t5oYAAAAIAAJ&q=%22US+sales+top+5+million%22|title=Rock movers & shakers, Volume 1991, Part 2|page=400|author1=Rees, Dafydd  |author2=Crampton, Luke|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=1991|access-date=2013-02-17|isbn=9780874366617}}</ref> In 1958 the "Hound Dog"/"Don't Be Cruel" single became just the third record to sell more than three million copies, following [[Bing Crosby]]'s "[[White Christmas (song)|White Christmas]]" and [[Gene Autry]]'s "[[Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (song)|Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer]]".<ref name="telegraph2" />

Despite its commercial success, "Elvis used to say that 'Hound Dog' was the silliest song he'd ever sung and thought it might sell ten or twelve records right around his folks' neighborhood."<ref>Maxine Brown, ''Looking Back To See: A Country Music Memoir'' (University of Arkansas Press, 2005) p. 137.</ref> By the end of summer 1956, after Presley's recording of the song was a million-seller, Freddie Bell, who had introduced his version of the song to Presley in April, told an interviewer: "I didn't feel bad about that at all. In fact, I encouraged him to record it."<ref>Dave Laing, [https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/feb/15/obituaries.mainsection "Freddie Bell: Rock'n'roll pioneer who was a primary influence on Elvis"], ''The Guardian'' (February 15, 2008).</ref> However, after the success of Presley's recording, "Bell sued to get some of the composer royalties because he had changed the words and indeed the song, and he would have made millions as the songwriter of Elvis's version: but he lost because he did not ask Leiber & Stoller for permission to make the changes and thereby add his name as songwriter."<ref name="Nazareth-p157" />

Following Presley's version of "Hound Dog,"  Lieber and Stoller would write numerous songs for Presley.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/award_recipient_detail.asp?ceremonyId=12&awardRecipientId=88|title=Johnny Mercer Award – Songwriters Hall of Fame|access-date=February 13, 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061001163231/http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/award_recipient_detail.asp?ceremonyId=12&awardRecipientId=88|archive-date=October 1, 2006}}</ref><ref name=stollerandindependent />

====Later notable performances====
Presley's final performance on stage for almost 8 years was a benefit concert for the [[USS Arizona Memorial]] on Sunday, March 25, 1961, at the [[Naval Station Pearl Harbor|Bloch Arena]] in [[Pearl Harbor]]. During this concert, which raised nearly $65,000 for the USS Arizona Memorial building fund, Presley closed the concert singing "Hound Dog".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.elvisinhawaii.com/1961_concert.htm|title=Benefit Concert March 25,1961|website=Elvisinhawaii.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.elvispresleymusic.com.au/pictures/1961-march-25.html|title=Elvis Presley: March 25, 1961 – Honolulu, Hawaii. Bloch Arena: U.S.S. Arizona Benefit Concert|website=Elvispresleymusic.com.au}}</ref> Presley performed a high-energy version of "Hound Dog" in his legendary ''[[Elvis (1968 TV program)|Comeback Special]]'' that aired on December 3, 1968, on the NBC television network. After the ratings success of this program, on July 31, 1969, Presley returned to perform in Las Vegas for the first time since his unsuccessful performances in April and May 1956. Booked for a four-week, fifty-seven show engagement at the International Hotel, which has just been built and has the largest showroom in the city, "this engagement breaks all existing Las Vegas attendance records and attracts rave reviews from the public and the critics. It is a triumph." Presley's first live album, ''[[From Memphis to Vegas / From Vegas to Memphis|Elvis in Person at the International Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada]]'' was recorded during this engagement and was soon released. During this concert, Presley introduced "Hound Dog" as his "special song".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.neatorama.com/2012/10/21/The-Story-of-Elvis-Presleys-Hound-Dog/|title=The Story of Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog"|website=Neatorama.com|date=21 October 2012 |access-date=1 May 2021}}</ref> "Never one to take himself too seriously, Elvis joked with the crowd about the old days and the old songs. At one point, he decided to dedicate his next number to the audience and the staff at the International: 'This is the only song I could think of that really expresses my feeling toward the audience', he said in all earnestness, before bursting into 'Hound Dog'."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.elvispresleymusic.com.au/elvis-presley-1967-1969.html|title=Elvis Presley 1967–1969 : From Elvis In Memphis|website=Elvispresleymusic.com.au}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.elvispresleymusic.com.au/pictures/1969-july-31.html|title=Elvis Presley : Opening Night, July 31, 1969|website=Elvispresleymusic.com.au}}</ref>

Presley performed "Hound Dog" in his historic ''[[Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite]]'' concert special that was the "first entertainment special to be broadcast live around the world," on January 14, 1973. Beamed via Globecam Satellite to Australia, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, South Vietnam and other countries, it was also seen on a delayed basis in around thirty European countries. An expanded version was broadcast on NBC in the USA on April 4, 1973, on NBC, attracting 51% of the television viewing audience, and was seen in more American households than the July 1969 [[Moon landing]]. Eventually it was seen in about forty countries by one billion to 1.5 billion people.

===Awards and accolades===
In 1988, Presley's original 1956 RCA recording was inducted into the [[Grammy Hall of Fame]]. In December 2004, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked it No. 19 on their list of the [[Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time|500 Greatest Songs of All Time]], the highest ranked of Presley's eleven entries. In March 2005, [[Q (magazine)|''Q'']] magazine placed Presley's version at number 55 of ''Q'' Magazine's 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.<ref>{{cite web|title=Q Lists|url=http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/qlistspage3.htm#Guitar%20Tracks|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060224054627/http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/qlistspage3.htm#Guitar%20Tracks|url-status=usurped|archive-date=February 24, 2006|publisher=Rock List Net|access-date=5 July 2013}}</ref> Presley's version is listed as one of the [[Rock and Roll Hall of Fame]]'s "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll".<ref name="rockhall.com"/>

===Charts and certifications===
{{col-begin}}
{{col-2}}

====Weekly charts====
{|class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! scope="col"|Chart (1956–1957)
! scope="col"|Peak<br />position
|-
|Australia ([[Kent Music Report]])<ref name=auscharts>{{cite book|title=Australian Chart Book: 1940–1969: the Hit Songs and Records from Thirty Years of Specially Compiled Charts|last=Kent|first=David|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F7KlYgEACAAJ |publisher=Australian Chart Book Limited.|year=2005|isbn=9780646444390|access-date=2013-03-04}}</ref>
| style="text-align:center;"|17
|-
{{single chart|Flanders|13|artist=Elvis Presley|song=Hound Dog!|date=1957-01-01|access-date=March 4, 2013}}
|-
{{single chart|Wallonia|8|artist=Elvis Presley|song=Hound Dog!|date=1956-12-01|access-date=23 June 2024}}
|-
{{single chart|UK|2|artist=Elvis Presley|song=Hound Dog|date=1956-10-27|refname=UK-1956|access-date=March 4, 2013}}
|-
|US ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' [[Billboard Hot 100|The Hot 100]]<ref name="allmusic">{{cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/elvis-presley-mn0000180228/awards|title=Elvis Presley – Awards|publisher=[[Allmusic]]|access-date=March 4, 2013}}</ref>
| style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
|US ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' ''[[Best Sellers in Stores]]''<ref name="joel whitburn">{{cite book|title=Joel Whitburn's top pop singles 1955–2006|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=99fXAAAAMAAJ |publisher=Record Research|date=2008-01-08|isbn = 9780898201727|access-date=March 4, 2013}}</ref>
| style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
|US ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' ''[[Billboard Hot 100|Most Played by Jockeys]]''<ref name="joel whitburn"/>
| style="text-align:center;"|4
|-
|US ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' ''[[Billboard Hot 100|Most Played in Jukeboxes]]''<ref name="joel whitburn"/>
| style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
|US ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' [[Hot Country Songs|Most Played Country & Western Singles]]<ref name="joel whitburn"/>
| style="text-align:center;"|6
|-
|US ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' [[Hot Country Songs|Most Played Country & Western in Jukeboxes]]<ref name="joel whitburn"/>
| style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
|US ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' [[Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs|Most Played Rhythm and Blues Singles]]<ref name="joel whitburn"/>
| style="text-align:center;"|2
|-
|US ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' [[Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs|Most Played Rhythm and Blues in Jukeboxes]]<ref name="joel whitburn"/>
| style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
|US ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' [[Hot Country Songs|Top Selling Country & Western Singles]]<ref name="allmusic"/>
| style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
|US ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' [[Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs|Top Selling Rhythm and Blues Singles]]<ref name="allmusic"/>
| style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
|US [[Cashbox (magazine)|Cash Box Magazine Top Country & Western Singles]]<ref name="joel whitburn"/>
| style="text-align:center;"|1
|}

{|class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! scope="col"|Chart (1971)
! scope="col"|Peak<br />position
|-
{{single chart|UK|41|artist=Elvis Presley|song=Heartbreak Hotel/Hound Dog|date=1971-10-02|refname=UK-1971|access-date=March 4, 2013}}
|}

{|class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! scope="col"|Chart (1974)
! scope="col"|Peak<br />position
|-
{{single chart|Dutch100|21|artist=Elvis Presley|song=Hound Dog|date=1974-04-20|access-date=March 4, 2013|refname="Dutch1974"}}
|}

{|class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! scope="col"|Chart (2007)
! scope="col"|Peak<br />position
|-
{{single chart|Ireland|25|artist=Elvis Presley|song=Hound Dog|year=2007|week=35|ref=<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.irishcharts.ie/search/placement |title=The Irish Charts – Search charts |publisher=[[Irish Recorded Music Association]] |year=2008 |id=To use, type "Hound Dog" in the "Search by Song Title" search var and click search |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090602061251/http://www.irishcharts.ie/search/placement |archive-date=2009-06-02 |access-date=March 4, 2013}}</ref>}}
|-
{{single chart|Dutch100|83|artist=Elvis Presley|song=Jailhouse Rock|date=2007-09-01|access-date=March 4, 2013|refname="Dutch2007"}}
|-
{{single chart|UK|14|artist=Elvis Presley|song=Hound Dog|date=2007-09-08|access-date=April 3, 2014}}
|}

====Year-End charts====
{|class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! scope="col"|Chart (1956)
! scope="col"|Peak<br />position
|-
|US ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' (''[[Best Sellers in Stores]]'')<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://longboredsurfer.com/charts/1956.php|title=Billboard Top 50 – 1956|publisher=Longbored Surfer|magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]|year=1956|access-date=2013-03-04|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130128033332/http://longboredsurfer.com/charts/1956.php|archive-date=2013-01-28}}</ref>
| style="text-align:center;"|8
|-
|US Singles (''[[Cashbox (magazine)|Cash Box]]'')<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cashboxmagazine.com/archives/50s_files/1956YESP.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121009064915/http://cashboxmagazine.com/archives/50s_files/1956YESP.html|title=The CASH BOX Year-End Charts: 1956|publisher=[[Cashbox (magazine)|Cash Box Magazine]]|year=1957|archive-date=2012-10-09|access-date=2013-03-04}}</ref>
| style="text-align:center;"|15
|}

====Sales and certifications====
{{Certification Table Top}}
{{Certification Table Entry|region=United Kingdom|type=single|artist=Elvis Presley|title=Hound Dog|award=Gold|relyear=2005|certyear=2023|id=15835-2984-1|access-date=May 5, 2023}}
{{Certification Table Entry|region=United States|type=single|artist=Elvis Presley|title=Hound Dog_Don_t Be Cruel|award=Platinum|number=4|relyear=1956|certyear=1999|salesamount=5,000,000|salesref=<ref name="rock movers"/>}}
{{Certification Table Bottom|nosales=true|noshipments=true|streaming=true}}
{{col-end}}

===Responses===
The commercial success of Presley's 1956 RCA version of "Hound Dog" precipitated a proliferation of cover versions, answer songs, and parodies. Additionally, "Hound Dog" was translated into several languages, including German, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and even [[Bernese German]].

===Other cover versions===
By 1964, Presley's version of "Hound Dog" had been covered over 26 times, and by 1984, there were at least 85 different [[cover version]]s of the song, making it "the best-known and most often recorded Rock & Roll song".<ref>George Moonoogian, in James M. Salem, ''The Late, Great Johnny Ace and the Transition from R & B to Rock 'n' Roll" (University of Illinois Press, 2001) p. 83.''</ref> In July 2013 the official Leiber & Stoller website listed 266 different versions of "Hound Dog", but acknowledged that its list is incomplete.<ref name="leiberstoller1">{{cite web|url=http://www.leiberstoller.com/Discography.html |title=Discography |website=Leiberstoller.com |access-date=2015-12-19}}</ref> Among the notable artists who have covered Presley's version of "Hound Dog" are: [[Gene Vincent]] and His Blue Caps; [[Jerry Lee Lewis]]; [[Chubby Checker]]; [[Pat Boone]]; [[Sammy Davis, Jr.|Sammy Davis Jr.]]; [[Betty Everett]]; [[Little Richard]]; [[The Surfaris]]; the [[Everly Brothers]]; [[Junior Wells]]; [[the Mothers of Invention]]; [[The Easybeats]]; [[Jimi Hendrix]]; [[Vanilla Fudge]]; [[Van Morrison]]; [[Conway Twitty]]; [[John Lennon]] and the [[Plastic Ono Band|Plastic Ono Elephant's Memory Band]]; [[John Entwistle]]; [[Carl Perkins]]; [[Eric Clapton]]; [[James Taylor]]; and (in 1993) [[Tiny Tim (musician)|Tiny Tim]] (in his full baritone voice). In 1999 [[David Grisman]], [[John Hartford]], and [[Mike Seeger]] included "Hound Dawg" on their 1999 album ''[[Retrograss]]'', which was nominated for a [[Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album]] at the [[42nd Annual Grammy Awards]] in 2000.

Australian band [[Sherbet (band)|Sherbet]] released "Hound Dog" in 1973 as a non-album single, backed with "Can I Drive You Home?". It reached number 18 on the [[Kent Music Report]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://australianmusicdatabase.com/recordings/hound-dog-by-sherbet|title=Hound Dog - Australian Music Database|website=Australianmusicdatabase.com|access-date=July 30, 2018}}</ref> and appeared at number 21 on the ''[[Go-Set]]'' year-end chart.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.poparchives.com.au/gosetcharts/1973/19730811.html|website=Poparchives.com.au|title=Sherbet - Hound Dog|access-date=1 May 2021}}</ref>

====Beatles and John Lennon cover versions====
As Elvis Presley was a major seminal influence on [[Paul McCartney]] and [[John Lennon]],<ref name="Bill Harry 2000">Bill Harry, ''The John Lennon Encyclopedia'' (Virgin, 2000) p. 727.</ref> and "Hound Dog" was a favorite of the young Lennon and his mother,<ref>Jeff Burlingame, ''John Lennon: "Imagine"'' (Enslow Publishers, Inc., 2010) p. 30.</ref> during [[The Beatles]]' early career "Hound Dog" was one of the songs Lennon and McCartney as the [[Quarrymen]] and later as the Beatles played from August 1957 through 1961. No recorded version is known to survive.<ref name="Bill Harry 2000"/><ref>Mark Lewisohn,
''The Complete Beatles Chronicles'' (Harmony Books, 1992) pp. 15, 23, 363.</ref> On August 30, 1972, Lennon performed the song with the [[Plastic Ono Band|Plastic Ono Elephant's Memory Band]] at [[Madison Square Garden]], New York City, in one of his last charity concerts,<ref name="beatlesbible1">{{cite web|author=Joe |url=http://www.beatlesbible.com/people/john-lennon/songs/hound-dog/ |title=John Lennon: Hound Dog |date=6 August 2010 |publisher=The Beatles Bible |access-date=2015-12-19}}</ref> and was released on his ''[[Live in New York City (John Lennon album)|Live in New York]]'' album on January 24, 1986. John Lennon also recorded "Hound Dog" during his huge rehearsal of early Rock and Roll classics (for the Madison Square Garden concert) that was released on the unauthorized album ''[[S.I.R. John Winston Ono Lennon]]''. [[Tony Sheridan]] (who was asked to join the young Beatles) also recorded the Presley version of "Hound Dog".

===Foreign-language versions===
Among those artists who have recorded non-English versions of "Hound Dog" are:<ref name="leiberstoller1" />
* [[Ralf Bendix]] (in German, as "Heut Geh' Ich Nicht Nach Hause") (1957);<ref>{{YouTube|ZQ-t7cPvG1k|"Ralf Bendix – Heute geh ich nicht nach Hause"}}</ref> ("Today I'm Not Going Home")
* Die Rock and Rollers with the [[:de:Johannes Fehring|Johannes Fehring]] Orchestra (in German, as "Das Ist Rock And Roll") (lyrics: Fini Busch) (1957);
* Dyno Y Los Solitarios<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dyno - Alberto Aveleyra |url=https://estroncio90.typepad.com/blog/2009/08/dyno-alberto-aveleyra.html |access-date=2025-01-21 |website=Vuelve Primavera: El rock de los 60 en México}}</ref> (in Mexican Spanish, as "Sabueso") (1960: Discos Audiomex).<ref>{{YouTube|iXgXZYupgSw|"Sabueso – Los Solitarios"}}</ref> ("Hound")
* Los Rogers (in Spanish, as "El Twist Del Perro") (1961); ("Dog Twist")
* [[:fr:Lucky Blondo|Lucky Blondo]] (in French, as "Un Vieux Chien de Chasse") on his album ''To Elvis from Nashville'' (1977: [[Philips Records|Philips]]) ("An Old Hound")
* [[Angela Ro Ro]] (in [[Brazilian Portuguese]], as "Hot-Dog") (1984)
* [[Züri West]] (in [[Bernese German]] as "Souhung") on their album ''Elvis'' (June 15, 1990: Black Cat at Sound Service)
* Aurelio Morata (in Spanish, as "Perra Boba") ''Tributo Al Rey'' (1997: [[Picap]])

===Parodies===
After the Presley version of "Hound Dog" became a commercial success, Homer and Jethro parodied it as "Houn' Dawg" (RCA Victor 47–6706; 20–6706),<ref>"Reviews of New C&W Records", ''The Billboard''(November 10, 1956) p. 124.</ref><ref>Paul C. Mawhinney, ''MusicMaster, the 45 RPM Record Directory: 1947 to 1982, Volume 2'' (Record-Rama, 1983) p. 348.</ref> including such lines as: "You look like an [[Airedale Terrier|Airedale]], with the air let out".<ref>Max Décharné, ''A Rocket in My Pocket: The Hipster's Guide to Rockabilly Music'' (Profile Books, 2010).</ref> Several parodies emphasized the cross-cultural appeal of Presley's record. [[Lalo Guerrero|Lalo "Pancho Lopez" Guerrero]], the father of [[Chicano#Music|Chicano music]],<ref>Cordelia Chávez Candelaria, Peter J. Garcâia, Arturo J. Aldama, eds., ''Encyclopedia of Latino Popular Culture, Vol. 1: A – L'' (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004) p. 135.</ref> released a parody version in 1956 entitled "Pound Dog" (L&M LM1002) about a [[Chihuahua (dog)|chihuahua]].<ref>Anthony Macías, ''Mexican American Mojo: Popular Music, Dance, and Urban Culture in Los Angeles, 1935–1968'' (Duke University Press, 2008) p. 205.</ref> In January 1957, Jewish American satirist [[Mickey Katz]] released a [[Yinglish]] novelty song version, "You're a Doity Dog" ([[Capitol Records|Capitol]] F3607), singing with a [[Yiddish]] accent, and having a [[klezmer]] break between verses.<ref>Mickey Katz; Hannibal Coons; and Joel Grey, ''Papa, Play for Me: The Hilarious, Heartwarming Autobiography of Comedian and Bandleader Mickey Katz. As told to Hannibal Coons'' (Simon & Schuster, 1977).</ref> In this ''[[Klezmer|freilach]]''-rock song, Katz sang "You ain't nothin' but a paskudnick".<ref>Josh Kun, ''Audiotopia: Music, Race, And America'' (University of California Press, 2005) p. 78.</ref> By March 1957, veteran country singer Cliff Johnson responded to the popularity of Presley's "Hound Dog" by recording his self-penned "Go 'Way Hound Dog (Let Me Sing My Blues)" ([[Columbia Records|Columbia]] 4-40865; Australia: [[Coronet Records]] KW-022),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://rcs-discography.com/rcs/artist.php?key=john3800 |title=Johnson, Cliff (RCS Artist Discography) |website=Rcs-discography.com |access-date=2015-12-19}}</ref> described in ''Billboard'' as "rockabilly that professes satiation with rockabilly music."<ref>"Reviews of New C&W Records", ''The Billboard'' (March 16, 1957) p. 49.</ref> In 1991, [[Elvis impersonator|Elvis "translator"]] [[El Vez]],<ref>Junu Bryan Kim, "What If Elvis Were Mexican?", ''Vegetarian Times'' (April 1991) p. 96.</ref> backed by The Memphis Mariachis, released "(You Ain't Nothin' But a) Chihuahua", a "Chicano Power parody"<ref>Erika Lee Doss, ''Elvis Culture: Fans, Faith, & Image'' (University Press of Kansas, 1999):206.</ref> that opens with: "You ain't nothin' but a [[Chihuahua (dog breed)|Chihuahua]]/ Yapping all the time."<ref>Harold Fiske, ''Hack Like Me'' (Penguin Books Canada, 1999) p. 98.</ref><ref>American Graphic Systems, Inc, ''I am Elvis: A Guide to Elvis Impersonators'' (Pocket Books, 1991).</ref><ref>Jason Blake Meyler, ''Reconstructing the US Latino/a image in literature and performance art'' (Stony Brook University, 2006) p. 170.</ref><ref>Stuart Thornton, [http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/entertainment/music/article_61378d44-4384-59d4-b79f-3861227b0fb9.html "El Vez is part Weird Al, part Elvis – and all entertainment"], ''Monterey County Weekly'' (May 8, 2008).</ref>

Encouraged by the 1994 decision of the [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]] in ''[[Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.]]'' that "ruled that{{nbsp}}… musicians do not have to obtain permission from the original artists to perform and record parodies of those compositions",<ref>Steve Hoffman, [http://www.pantagraph.com/lifestyles/faith-and-values/christian-group-apologetix-readies-for-farmer-city-concert/article_4e75abf8-c363-5bb1-aada-0e06e96e1684.html "Christian group ApologetiX readies for Farmer City concert"], ''Pantagraph'' (Bloomington: October 31, 2008).</ref> other parodies of "Hound Dog" emerged subsequently. These include "Found God", a self-acknowledged parody of Presley's version by popular [[Christian rock|Christian]] band [[ApologetiX]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.apologetix.com/music/song.php?freebie=true%20&song_id=282 |title=Song Lyrics: Found God |website=ApologetiX.com |access-date=2015-12-19}}</ref> which, using the original tune, opens with: "I ain't nothin' but I found God/It took quite a long time".<ref>"Is Apologetix the way to welcome God's return?" ''The Daily News Journal'' (Murfreesboro, Tennessee, March 15, 2007) p. B.2</ref>

==Litigation==
Over the years "Hound Dog" "has been the subject of an inordinate number of lawsuits",<ref name="Robey"/> and "would eventually become one of the most litigated songs in recorded music history".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.americanbluesscene.com/2014/03/blues-law-hound-dog-vs-bear-cat/|title=Brian Lukasavitz, "Blues Law: Hound Dog vs. Bear Cat"|publisher=American Blues Scene Magazine|date=March 19, 2014|access-date=1 May 2021}}</ref>

===''Lion Music Publishing Company v. Sun Records'' (1953)===
====Background====
On September 9, 1952, the copyright application for "Hound Dog" was lodged. On the application the words & music are attributed to Don Deadric Robey & Willie Mae Thornton, with the copyright claimants listed as: "Murphy L. Robey (W) & Willie Mae Thornton (A).<ref>{{cite web|last=Library of Congress. Copyright Office.|date=3 November 2017|title=Catalog of Copyright Entries 1952 Unpublished Music Jan-Dec 3D Ser Vol 6 Pt 5B|url=https://archive.org/details/catalogofcopyrig365lib|publisher=U.S. Govt. Print. Off.|page=508|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> It was renewed subsequently on May 13, 1980, with the same details.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.popsike.com/CLASSIC-WILLIE-MAE-BIG-MAMA-THORNTON-78-HOUND-DOG/120646307690.html|title=popsike.com - CLASSIC WILLIE MAE "BIG MAMA" THORNTON 78 "HOUND DOG" - auction details|website=Popsike.com}}</ref>

By the end of 1953 at least six "answer songs" that responded to 'Big Mama' Thornton's original version of "Hound Dog" were released.<ref name="autogenerated1" /><ref name=Salem83 /> According to Peacock Records's Don Robey, these songs were "bastardizations" of the original and reduced its sales potential.<ref name=Salem84/> These included: 
* "Mr. Hound Dog's in Town" recorded on March 18 by Blues shouter Roy Brown for King Records (45–4627).<ref name="Walter Bruyninckx 1977"/><ref name="Nick Tosches 1991"/><ref name="Marion"/> While it had the same melody and many of the same lyrics as the original, Brown is credited as the sole writer.<ref name="Congress. Copyright Office 1954"/>
* "(You Ain't Nothin' But a Female) Hound Dog" (King 45–1212) recorded by vocalist Charlie Gore and guitarist Louis Innis on March 22 for King Records on March 22.<ref name="William R. Daniels 1985"/><ref name="countrydiscography.blogspot.com"/> This song was credited to Innis, Lois Mann (a pseudonym of King Records owner Syd Nathan, the latter his wife's maiden name),<ref name="Jeff Wallenfeldt 2013"/> and Johnny Otis.<ref name="Congress. Copyright Office 1953"/>
* "Rattlesnake" recorded by blues guitarist John Brim for Chess Records' Checker subsidiary<ref name="autogenerated1" /> with Little Walter on blues harp.<ref name="allmusic" />
* "Real Gone Hound Dog" (Combo 25), "an obscure 'answer' record to 'Hound Dog'",<ref name="Review"/> recorded by Chuck Higgins and His Mellotones' with a vocal by Higgins' brother "Daddy Cleanhead" for Jake Porter's Combo Records. The composition was credited to Higgins and Porter (as V. Haven).<ref name="globaldog"/>

However, the most popular of the answer songs to "Hound Dog" was "Bear Cat (The Answer To Hound Dog)" (Sun 181) recorded by Memphis disc jockey Rufus Thomas (adopting the nickname, "Rufus 'Hound Dog' Thomas") at Sun Studios at 706 Union Avenue, Memphis.on March 8, 1953,<ref name="Robey"/> just two weeks after Thornton's original version was released,<ref name="Martin Hawkins 2011"/> and even before a review of "Hound Dog" had been published in ''Billboard''.<ref name="ReferenceB"/> While retaining the same melody as "Hound Dog", Sun founder Sam Phillips wrote new lyrics,<ref name="autogenerated2001" /> in which he altered the gender of the singer, who bemoaned that his woman was a "bear cat", a Jazz Age slang term for "a hot-blooded or fiery girl".<ref name="David Mahony 2003"/><ref name="Peter Gammond 1989"/> The record's spare electric guitar work by Memphis bluesman Joe Hill Louis was greatly influenced by that of Pete Lewis on the original.<ref name="Robey"/> According to James M. Salem:
{{blockquote|[I]nstead of barking and howling there is meowing and hissing in the background. In true answer form, the gender of the participants was reversed. This time the protagonist is male, directly challenging the worthless female of the original song—correcting her previous insults and re-directing them at her. "You know what you said about me woman?" says the man in open confrontation. "Well…You ain't nothin' but a bear cat, scratchin' at my door." All the irony and sarcasm of the original is captured in the answer, even the sexuality: "You can purr, pretty kitty, but I ain't gonna rub you no more."<ref name=Salem84/>}}
By the end of March, "Bear Cat" was in stores, prompting ''Billboard'' to describe it as "the fastest answer song to hit the market".<ref name="Robey"/> It became both Thomas' and Sun Records' first hit,<ref name="Rob Bowman 1997"/> eventually reaching number three on the R&B charts.<ref name="autogenerated2001" /> However, as Phillips claimed a writing credit for the song,<ref name="John Broven 2009"/> a copyright-infringement suit ensued that nearly bankrupted Phillips' record label.<ref name="Galen Gart 1954"/><ref name="Jet 2002"/><ref name="The Sun Records Label Story"/><ref name="Answers 1953"/>

On March 28, ''Billboard'' reported that, "In an effort to combat what has become a rampant practice by small labels—the rushing out of answers which are similar in melody and/or theme to ditties which have become smash hits—many pubbers are now retaining attorneys. Common practice, of course is to regard the answer as an original. Currently publishers are putting up a fight to protect their originals from unauthorised or infringing answers."<ref name="Robey"/> In that same issue, Robey told ''Billboard'' he had notified the [[Harry Fox Agency|Harry Fox publishing agency]] "to issue Sun a license on 'Bear Cat' in order that Robey might collect a royalty".<ref name="Robey"/>

On April 4, 1953, Robey wrote to Phillips that, "unless contracts are signed and in the office of Mr. Harris Fox by Wednesday, April 8, 1953, I will be forced to take immediate steps with Court Actions",<ref name="Robey"/> hoping "this will not cause any unfriendly relations, but please remember that I have to pay when I intrude upon the rights of others, and certainly must protect my own rights."<ref name="Robey"/> On April 11 [[Bob Rolontz]] reported in ''Billboard'': "The answers to r&b tunes, which have become prolific with the many replies to such smash hits as 'I Don't Know', 'Mama' and 'Hound Dog' are being given a serious scrutiny by the original copyright holders of the tunes on the original hit waxings. It appears they do not think too highly of writing an answer to a hit unless a license is obtained and permission to write a parody is given by the publisher."<ref>Bob Rolontz, "Rhythm & Blues Notes", ''The Billboard'' (April 11, 1953) p. 41.</ref> On the prior page, Peacock Records placed an advertisement promoting Thornton's release as "The Original Version of 'Hound Dog'", warning: "Beware of Imitations – Follow the Leader for Good Results" before reminding the reader: "The Original – The Best".<ref>''The Billboard'' (April 11, 1953) p. 40.</ref> Two pages later, Intro Records touted the version by Tommy Duncan and the Miller Bros. as "Best of them all!!!"<ref>''The Billboard'' (April 11, 1953) p. 42.</ref>

====Proceedings====
Their requests for payment having been ignored, Robey and two other music publishers initiated unprecedented legal proceedings in April against the record companies that released these competing songs, alleging copyright infringement.<ref name=Salem84/> As a result, Chess Records withdrew Brim's "Rattlesnake" from sale.<ref name="autogenerated1" /> In the Memphis courts, Lion Publishing Co. sought royalties and treble damages, claiming "Bear Cat" was "a dead steal". In May, Phillips responded: "There's a lot of difference in the words. As for the tune, there's practically no melody, but a rhythm pattern", adding that it is hard to differentiate between any two 12-bar blues songs.<ref>"Recording Companies In Law Suit Over 'Hound Dog'", ''Jet'' (May 14, 1953) p. 62.</ref> By June 1953 in a "precedent-setting" decision the Court ruled against Phillips, and upheld the charges of [[plagiarism]], finding the tune and some of the lyrics of "Bear Cat" to be identical to those of "Hound Dog".<ref name="autogenerated2001" /><ref>"Who Wrote That There Song?" ''The Pittsburgh Courier'' (June 6, 1953):19.</ref><ref name="Rebecca Kobrin 2012"/><ref name="King Hops">"King Hops Into 'Hound' Hassle", ''The Billboard'' (August 1, 1953) p. 15.</ref> Phillips was ordered to pay 2% of all of the profits of "Bear Cat" plus court costs.<ref name=Salem85>James M. Salem, ''The Late, Great Johnny Ace and the Transition from R & B to Rock 'n' Roll' (University of Illinois Press, 2001) p. 85.''</ref> As this amounted to $35,000 compensation, Phillips was reduced to near bankruptcy, ultimately forcing him to sell Elvis Presley's Sun contract to RCA for $35,000 to raise the funds to settle his debts.<ref>Richard Buskin,[http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct03/articles/samphillips.htm "Sam Phillips: Sun Records: The Man Who Invented Rock & Roll"], ''Sound On Sound'' (October 2003).</ref> On June 4, 1953, ''[[Jet (magazine)|Jet]]'' reported that:
:"The Sun Record Company of Memphis agreed to pay $2,080 to a Texas Recording firm because its blues tune, ''Bear Cat'', is too similar to ''Hound Dog''. Lion Publishing Company of Houston, Tex., won the out-of-court settlement after contending in a court suit that ''Bear Cat'' was a "conscious imitation" of their own recording with "only minor variations". Sam C. Phillips of Sun Record agreed to pay ''Hound Dog'' owners two cents per record for 79,000 waxings of ''Bear Cat'' already sold and two cents a record for future sales.<ref>"'Hound Dog' Owners Win $2,080 in Recording Suit", ''Jet'' 4:4 (June 4, 1953):61.</ref>

On July 8 Robey wrote to Phillips again, thanking him "kindly for your co-operation in this matter",<ref name="Robey"/> but Phillips still refused to purchase a [[mechanical license]] for Thomas' "Bear Cat". Robey then instructed his company lawyer Irving Marcus to sue Phillips and Sun Records,<ref name="Rebecca Kobrin 2012">Rebecca Kobrin, ed., ''Chosen Capital: The Jewish Encounter with American Capitalism'' (Rutgers University Press, 2012) p. 151.</ref><ref>James M. Salem, ''The Late, Great Johnny Ace and the Transition from R & B to Rock 'n' Roll' (University of Illinois Press, 2001) pp. 84–85.''</ref> hoping to use this as a [[test case (law)|test case]] to determine the legal status of all answer songs.<ref>Ed Ward, Geoffrey Stokes, and Ken Tucker, eds., ''Rock of Ages: The Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll'' (Rolling Stone Press/Prentice Hall, Incorporated, 1986) p. 75.</ref>  While earlier pressings of Sun 181 bore the caption "(The Answer To Hound Dog)" above the A-side title, as a result of the legal action this was removed from all later pressings. In the 1980s, Sam Phillips conceded: "I should have known better. The melody was exactly the same as theirs, but we claimed the credit for writing the damn thing".<ref name="Robey"/>

===''King Records vs Lion Publishing Co.'' and ''Lion Publishing Co. vs King Records & Valjo Music'' (1953)===
In late July 1953 Syd Nathan, president of King Records, took Robey and his Lion Publishing Company to court. The August 1, 1953 ''Billboard'' reported: "Lion [Music] itself was in court defending the contention of {{Sic|nolink=y|Syd Nathan Records}} in Cincinnati that he had an interest in the song 'Hound Dog' and should have a fifty per cent share of its success."<ref name="Robey"/><ref name="King Hops" /> Nathan claimed that Valjo Music, one of King Records' publishing affiliates, had legal rights to the song as Johnny Otis, who claimed to be a co-author, was under exclusive contract to them at the time.<ref name="King Hops" /> An article entitled "New Howl Goes Up Over 'Hound Dog' Infringement" in ''[[Pittsburgh Courier|The Pittsburgh Courier]]'' of August 8, 1953 reported:
:You ain't nothin' but a hound dog" is becoming a battle cry faster than a pup can clean a bone. "Hound Dog" has been howling on the juke boxes for several months and all this time the record has been hounded by imitations and sundry other misfortunes. One thing is sure: this is the most profitable hound dog since [[Uncle Tom's Cabin|Eliza]] slid across the ice. This is the latest episode: King Records joined the pack this week in the legal hassle over who's gonna get the profits from the current rhythm Dog." ... Valjo, meanwhile, is complaining that one of the writers of the tune, Johnny Otis, was under exclusive contract to them when he wrote the tune in collaboration with others and they are claiming 50 per cent of the publisher's share of the tune. At any rate, on it goes and the big problem now seems to be, how much Is that "Hound Dog" In the juke box worth?<ref name="Over 1953">"New Howl Goes Up Over 'Hound Dog' Infringement", ''The Pittsburgh Courier'' (August 8, 1953) p. 18.</ref><ref>see also: James M. Salem, ''The Late, Great Johnny Ace and the Transition from R & B to Rock 'n' Roll' Music in American life'' (University of Illinois Press, 2001) p. 85.</ref>

In response, Robey counter-sued both King Records and Valjo Music over Roy Brown's answer record, and also over Little Esther's cover record (King 12126).<ref name=Salem84/><ref name="King Hops" /><ref name="Over 1953"/><ref>J.C. Marion, [http://home.earthlink.net/~jaymar41/jotis2.html "Johnny Otis – Part Two"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150117164332/http://home.earthlink.net/~jaymar41/jotis2.html |date=2015-01-17 }} ''JammUpp''19 (2001).</ref> When the dust settled, the publishing for "Hound Dog" (in all variations) remained with Lion, and writing credit with Leiber and Stoller. In April, 1954, ''Billboard''{{'}}s Rolontz summed up the events thusly: "The year 1953 saw an important precedent set in regard to answer tunes … since the 'Hound Dog' decision, few record firms have attempted to 'answer' smash hits by other companies by using same tune with different lyrics."<ref name="Robey"/><ref name="Rolontz 23"/>

===''Valjo Music Publishing Corporation v. Elvis Presley Music'' (1956–1957)===
The most protracted lawsuit involving "Hound Dog" was ''Valjo Music Publishing Corporation v. Elvis Presley Music'' that was initiated in the [[United States District Court for the Southern District of New York]] in October 1956, after the commercial success of Elvis Presley's version of the song, and concluded in December 1957. It would be the first "legal spat" for Presley's publishing company, Elvis Presley Music.<ref>Clinton Heylin, ''It's One For The Money: The Song Snatchers Who Carved Up a Century of Pop & Sparked a Musical Revolution'' (Hachette UK, 2015).</ref>

====Background====
Leiber and Stoller were introduced to Otis in July 1952 by [[Federal Records]]' [[Ralph Bass]] when Otis needed songs for artists he was recording for Federal,<ref name="findacase">UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK, [http://ny.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.19571204_0000293.sny.htm/qx "VALJO MUSIC PUBL. CORP. v. ELVIS PRESLEY MUSIC"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140323122036/http://ny.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.19571204_0000293.sny.htm/qx |date=2014-03-23 }} (December 4, 1957).</ref> including Little Esther, [[Little Willie Littlefield]], and [[Bobby Nunn (doowop musician)|Bobby Nunn]] of [[The Robins]]. In exchange for Otis using their songs, Leiber and Stoller gave Otis a one-third interest in those songs and assigned the publishing to Otis' company, Valjo Music Publishing Company.<ref name="findacase" /> Similarly, on August 30, 1952, Leiber and Stoller signed a contract with Spin Music Inc.—another publishing company in which Otis held an interest—assigning it certain rights to "Hound Dog" and some other songs in exchange for royalties to be divided equally between Leiber, Stoller, and Otis.<ref name="autogenerated1957">Library of Congress. Copyright Office, ''Decisions of the United States Courts Involving Copyright, 1957–1958: Copyright Office Bulletin No. 31. Reprint 1972'' (1972):639–641.</ref> When the song was copyrighted initially on September 9, 1952, words and music were credited to Don Deadric Robey and Willie Mae Thornton, with Lion Publishing Co. identified as the registered publisher.<ref>Library of Congress. Copyright Office., [https://archive.org/stream/catalogofcopyrig365lib#page/508/mode/1up/search/%22Hound+Dog%22 ''Catalog of Copyright Entries 1952 Unpublished Music Jan–Dec 3D Ser Vol 6 Pt 5B''] (U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1952) pp. 508, 804, 824.</ref> However, on March 26, 1953, it was credited to Leiber, Stoller, and Otis; and Valjo Music—not Spin—was the registered publisher.<ref>Library of Congress. Copyright Office., ''Catalog of Copyright Entries, 3D Ser Vol 7 Pt 5A'', (U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1953) p. 211.</ref>

According to the findings of the court in ''Valjo Music Publishing Corporation v. Elvis Presley Music'': "Thereafter Otis, in apparent disregard of the contracts both with Spin Music Inc. and plaintiff, arranged to have 'Hound Dog' published by Lion Music Publishing Company of Houston, Texas, and released by its affiliate Peacock Records. Otis executed a writer-publisher contract on October 10, 1952, with Lion Music Publishing Company in which Leiber, Otis and Stoller were described as the writers of 'Hound Dog.'"<ref name="findacase" /> Thus, Otis received a co-writing credit with Leiber and Stoller on Thornton's Peacock Records release and on all of the 1953 cover versions. The court also noted: "Otis signed not only his name but also signed—or perhaps forged—the names of Stoller and Leiber to it. The president or proprietor of Lion Music Publishing Company noted the similarity of the handwriting of the signatures and made contact with Leiber and Stoller who advised him that Otis had no authority to sign their names to the agreement and that Otis was not a co-author of the song, although he was entitled to receive one-third of the royalties. Lion then arranged for a contract with Leiber and Stoller alone for the publishing rights."<ref name="findacase" /> In order for Leiber and Stoller to execute the contract with Lion—"which, because we were underage, had to be signed by our mothers"<ref name="Leiber" />—a court appointed Mary Stein (for Leiber) and Adelyn Stoller (for Stoller) as their legal guardians in late April 1953.<ref>Galen Gart, ed., ''First Pressings: The History of Rhythm & Blues, First Pressings: The History of Rhythm & Blues'', Vol. 3 (Big Nickel Publications, May 1986) p. 40.</ref> The contract assigned the publishing for "Hound Dog" to Lion. Otis' credit was omitted from all subsequent records.<ref name="Leiber" /> Following on the popularity of Elvis' live and televised performances of "Hound Dog", Elvis Presley Music made the acquisition of half the publishing for the song from Lion Music a precondition to issuing a recording, to which Robey assented.

====Proceedings====
In October 1956, the success of Presley's version (sales at that time exceeded 2 million copies) prompted Valjo to sue Leiber and Stoller and Elvis Presley Music (an affiliate of [[Hill & Range|Hill & Range Songs]]) for an accounting of profits and for damages and to have Otis restored as co-writer and recover damages for lost royalties.<ref>"Who Let That Hound Dog Off His Leash?" ''Billboard'' (October 27, 1956):18, 21.</ref><ref>''Hastings Communications and Entertainment Law Journal'' 18 (Hastings, 1995) p. 130ff.</ref> In ''Valjo Music Publishing Corporation v. Elvis Presley Music'', Otis as [[plaintiff]] alleged that he was the co-author of "Hound Dog" along with two defendants, Leiber and Stoller. The defendants denied that Otis wrote any part of the song.<ref>Library of Congress. Copyright Office, ''Decisions of the United States Courts Involving Copyright, 1957–1958: Copyright Office Bulletin No. 31. Reprint 1972'' (Library of Congress. Copyright Office, 1972) p. 638.</ref> On August 26, 1956, Otis signed a release of any claims to the song in exchange for $750.<ref name="findacase" /> In court, Otis claimed that he had done so because he had learned that the defendants were legally infants at the time of the original contracts in 1952, and would, therefore, disaffirm any contract that they had with him.<ref>Julie Cromer Young, [http://wvlawreview.wvu.edu/r/download/55730 "From the Mouths of Babes: Protecting Child Authors From Themselves"]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, ''West Virginia Law Review'' 112 (2000) p. 442.</ref> This made no sense to the United States Southern District of Court of New York: "Otis was a man who had many years experience in the music business. He must have realized that even though Leiber and Stoller were infants they could not disaffirm his co-authorship of a song, if in fact he had been a co-author."<ref>156 F. Supp. 568–570 (S.D.N.Y. 1957).</ref><ref>Julie Cromer Young, [http://wvlawreview.wvu.edu/r/download/55730 "From the Mouths of Babes: Protecting Child Authors From Themselves"]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, ''West Virginia Law Review'' 112 (2000) pp. 42-443.</ref> Further, while Leiber and Stoller acknowledged that they had given Otis one-third of the mechanical rights for the original Thornton recording, they denied giving him one-third authorship credit.<ref>George Lipsitz, ''Midnight at the Barrelhouse: The Johnny Otis Story'' (University of Minnesota Press, 2010) pp. 42–43.</ref> On December 4, 1957, Federal Court Judge [[Archie Owen Dawson|Archie O. Dawson]] dismissed Valjo's claim in the [[New York (state)|New York]] [[United States federal courts|Federal Court]],<ref>"Vajo Music Loses 'Hound Dog' Suit", ''Billboard'' (16 December 1957) p. 28.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://ny.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.19571204_0000293.sny.htm/qx|title=Opinion, Valjo Music vs. Elvis Presley Music in US District Court, Southern District of New York, December 4, 1957|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140323122036/http://ny.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.19571204_0000293.sny.htm/qx|archive-date=March 23, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wR0EAAAAMBAJ&q=otis+%22hound+dog%22+court&pg=PA28|title=Billboard|date=16 December 1957|via=Google Books}}</ref> on the basis that Otis was "unworthy of belief", that he admitted forging Leiber and Stoller's signatures on a declaration to third-party publisher Lion Music, that Leiber and Stoller were underage at the time, and that Otis had signed a release to any claims for $750.<ref name="autogenerated1957" /><ref>United States. Copyright Office. Bulletin, ''Decisions of the United States Courts Involving Copyright'' (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1973):637ff.</ref> As the evidence would not sustain Valjo's contention that Otis had collaborated in the writing of "Hound Dog",<ref>United States. Courts, ''Modern Federal Practice Digest: All Federal Case Law in the Modern Era, Volume 37'' (West Publishing Company, 1961) p. 14.</ref> the Court voided Leiber and Stoller's contract,<ref name="bluesworld1921" /> ordered Otis to pay the legal costs of the defendants,<ref>Dennis Hartman, ''Motion Picture Law Review: Including Radio, and the Theater, Volume 20'' (D. Hartman, 1959) p. 105.</ref> and awarded 46.25% of the song to Leiber and Stoller, with Lion Music receiving 28.75% and Elvis Presley Music receiving the final 25%.<ref name="Lipsitz-p43" />

Despite the Court's findings, Otis continued to claim that he wrote the third verse and rewrote some of the lyrics in the second verse<ref>"Valjo Music Loses 'Hound Dog' Suit", ''The Billboard'' (December 16, 1957) p. 28.</ref><ref>''[[Journal of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A.]], Volume 5'' (New York University Law Center, 1957) p. 161.</ref>—including adding "You made me feel so bad. You make me weep and moan. You ain't looking for a woman. You're looking for a home"—and edited out what he described later as "derogatory crap".<ref name="Lipsitz-p43">George Lipsitz, ''Midnight at the Barrelhouse: The Johnny Otis Story'' (University of Minnesota Press, 2010) p. 43.</ref> In 2000, Otis claimed: "Leiber and Stoller brought me the song, 'Hound Dog,'" Otis recalls, of the time he produced Big Mama Thornton's recording of what was to become an R&B, and then rock 'n' roll, classic. "Parts of it weren't really acceptable. I didn't like that reference to chicken and watermelon, said 'Let's get that crap out of there.'{{nbsp}}... This came out and was a big smash, and everything was all right. I had half the publishing rights and one third of the song-writing. Then Elvis Presley made it a mega hit, and they got greedy. They sued me in court. They won, they beat me out of it. I could have sent my kids to college, like they sent theirs," Otis said. "But, oh well, if I dwell on that I get quite unhappy, so we try to move on."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://triviana.com/BLUES/sfb00/otis.htm|title=Johnny Otis page|website=Triviana.com}}</ref> However, Leiber and Stoller maintained consistently and emphatically that Otis was "''not'' a writer of the song" (emphasis theirs).<ref name="Leiber" />

As he had provided lyrics for the version of "Hound Dog" recorded by Presley, Freddie Bell "sued to get some of the composer royalties because he had changed the words and indeed the song, and he would have made millions as the songwriter of Elvis' version: but he lost because he did not ask Leiber & Stoller for permission" to make those changes.<ref>Peter Nazareth, "'Nineteen Fifty-Five': Alice, Elvis And The Black Matrix", ''Journal of the African Literature Association'', Vol. 1 (Spring 2007) p. 157.</ref>

[[Broadcast Music, Inc.|Broadcast Music, Incorporated]] (BMI) is the performing rights organization for "Hound Dog" (BMI Work #94632, ISWC # T-905246869-6), while [[Sony/ATV Music Publishing|Sony/ATV SONGS LLC]] owns the publishing rights.

==In popular culture==
* The song was included in the 1996 stage musical, ''Hound Dog: A Hip hOpera'', a musical send-up that was written, and produced by [[Jeff Rake]], that ran for three months at [[Hollywood Theatre Row|Hollywood's Hudson Theatre]], receiving five ''[[LA Weekly]]'' Theatre Award nominations, including Musical of the Year.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.abcmedianet.com/web/showpage/showpage.aspx?program_id=3112595&type=producers |title=ABC Medianet |website=www.abcmedianet.com |access-date=17 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110828022532/http://www.abcmedianet.com/web/showpage/showpage.aspx?program_id=3112595&type=producers |archive-date=28 August 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>F. Kathleen Foley, [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-11-29-ca-4061-story.html "'Hound Dog': Elvis Meets Rap Music"], ''LA Times'' (November 29, 1996).</ref>
* In 2022 Big Mama Thornton was featured as a character in ''[[Elvis (2022 film)|Elvis]]'', a biopic about Elvis Presley. In the movie, Thornton (played by Shonka Dukureh in her only film role, as she died shortly after the film's release) is shown as the original singer of the song "Hound Dog" and appears in the movie singing the song. Presley (played by [[Austin Butler]]) hears Thornton sing the song at a concert and decides to record a cover version. Dukureh's performance of "Hound Dog" is included in full on the movie [[Elvis (soundtrack)|soundtrack]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://variety.com/2022/music/news/elvis-soundtrack-music-complete-guide-who-sings-what-1235297605/ | title=The Music of 'Elvis': A Complete Guide to Who Sings What on Soundtrack, from Jack White to Jazmine Sullivan to Stevie Nicks |website=Variety| date=June 18, 2022 }}</ref>
* The [[AGM-28 Hound Dog]] missile's name is inspired by Presley's version of the song. The missiles were air-launched supersonic missiles designed to destroy heavily defended ground targets. Almost 700 AGM-28s were built.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ammsalumni.org/html/north_american_aviation.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051228003927/http://www.ammsalumni.org/html/north_american_aviation.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=December 28, 2005 |title=A Brief Account of the Beginning of the Hounddog (GAM 77) Program |author=Ellis Katz |date=February 9, 2011 |publisher=AMMS Alumni |access-date=February 6, 2012 |quote=I recall Joe Berrer (Joe was president of the Missile Division at the time; not sure of the spelling of his last name) returning from Inglewood where he had met with Dutch Kindleberger and Lee Atwood regarding the contract award and telling us that it had been decided to name the GAM-77 as "Hounddog". At the time Elvis was "King" and his musical fame carried over to our bird.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Boeing: Historical Snapshot: GAM-77 Hound Dog Missile|url=https://www.boeing.com/history/products/gam-77-agm-28-hound-dog-missile.page|access-date=2020-10-19|website=Boeing.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Weintz|first=Steve|date=2018-08-18|title=The AGM-28 'Hound Dog' Cruise Missile: How the Air Force Planned to Drop a Hydrogen Bomb on Russia|url=https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/agm-28-hound-dog-cruise-missile-how-air-force-planned-drop-hydrogen-bomb-russia-29177|access-date=2020-10-19|website=The National Interest|language=en}}</ref>

==Discography==
===Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton===
* with Kansas City Bill and Orchestra "Hound Dog" / "Night Mare" (US: February 1953; Peacock 1612) (UK: 1954; Vogue V 2284) (Sweden, 1954; Karusell K 66) (France, 1954: Vogue V 3328) Song is credited to Leiber-{{Sic|nolink=y|Stroller}}-Otis.<ref name="Record Details">{{cite web|url=http://www.45worlds.com/78rpm/record/1612 |title=78 RPM – Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton – Hound Dog / Night Mare – Peacock – USA – 1612 |website=45worlds.com |access-date=2015-12-19}}</ref>
* with Kansas City Bill and Orchestra "Hound Dog" / "Rock-a-Bye Baby" (US: August 1956; Peacock 5–1612)
* with Kansas City Bill and Orchestra "Hound Dog" / "Rock-a-Bye Baby" (Aust & NZ: 1956; Prestige PSP-1004) Song is credited to Robey-Thornton-Leiber-Stoller.<ref name="45cat.com"/>
* ''The Big Ones From Duke and Peacock Records'' (US: 1967; Peacock Records PLP-2000) Various Artists
* "Hound Dog" / "Let's Go Get Started" (1969: Mercury Records 72981)
* ''She's Back'' (1970: Back Beat Records BLP-68) Reissued: (1974: ABC/Back Beat BBLX-68).
* ''Hound Dog: The Peacock Recordings'' (1992: Peacock MCAD-10668)

===Freddie Bell and the Bellboys===
* "Hound Dog" (Leibler-Stoller) (2:45) / "Move Me Baby"(1955: Teen 101). This version is slower and includes "arf arf" sounds. * (2:20) (Leiber-Stoller-* "Hound Dog" (Leiber-Stoller-Otis) (2:20) ''Rock'n'Roll Vol. 1''  (UK: 1956: Barclay 14159 EP) (France: Mercury 14159) 
* "Hound Dog" (Leiber-Stoller-Otis) (2:20) / "Big Bad Wolf" (1957: Mercury Records 45152)<ref name="ReferenceA"/> (Australia: July 1957; Mercury 45152)
* "Hound Dog"''Rock 'N' Roll Vol. 2'' (Sweden: 1957; Mercury EP-1-3502) (Norway: 1957; Mercury EP MN5) 
* "Hound Dog"(Leiber-Stoller)''Rock´n Roll All Flavors'' (1957: Mercury MG 20289)

===Elvis Presley===
* ''Elvis: The First Live Recordings:'' These are recordings from the [[Louisiana Hayride]] radio show from 1955 and 1956. (1982: Music Works PB 3601)
* "Hound Dog" / "Don't Be Cruel" (Recorded: July 2, 1956; Released: July 13, 1956: RCA Victor 47–6604) (Canada: July 13, 1956; RCA Victor 20–6604) (Germany: August 4, 1956; RCA 20–6604; 47–6604) (UK: September 1956; [[His Master's Voice (British record label)|His Master's Voice POP]] 249) (Belgium: September 1956; 47–6604) (Australia: 1956; RCA 10186) (Italy, 1956: [[RCA Italiana]] 45N 0515) "Perro De Caza (Hound Dog)" (Spain: 1957; RCA 3–10052) (Japan: August 1962; Victor SS-1297)

===Cover versions===
{{Cleanup section|reason=versions may not meet [[:WP:SONGCOVER]].|date=October 2019}}

====Thornton version====
* Little Esther (Recorded: March 11, 1953; Released: April 1953: Federal 12126)
* Jack Turner and His Granger County Gang (Recorded: March 20, 1953; Released: April 4, 1953: RCA Victor 47–5267),<ref name="The Billboard 1953"/> who was actually Henry D. Haynes on vocals, with his Homer and Jethro partner Kenneth C. Burns on mandolin, with Chet Atkins on lead guitar, Charles Green on bass, and Jerry Byrd on steel guitar.
* [[:de:Billy Starr]] (Recorded: November 1952; released: April 4, 1953: 78pm: IF-452; Imperial 45–8186)
* Betsy Gay (Recorded: March 18, 1953; Released: April 11, 1953: Intro Records 45–6070) (w/ Joe Maphis and Merle Travis).<ref name="Betsy Gay"/>
* Eddie Hazlewood (April 11, 1953: Intro Records 45–6069)
* Tommy Duncan and the Miller Bros. (April 18, 1953: Intro Records 45–6071)
* Cleve Jackson [Jackson Cleveland Toombs] and His Hound Dogs (1953: Herald H-1015) on Various Artists, ''Chicago Rock'' (Netherlands: 1974; Redita [1st series] 108) Various Artists ''Boppin' Hillbilly, Vol. 5'' (Netherlands: 1989; White Label WLP2805)
* The Cozy Cole All Stars (William Randolph Cole) "Hound Dog Special" (Recorded: February 24, 1954: [[MGM Records|MGM]] 11794) "A {{Sic|nolink=y|spend off|expected=spin-off}} of Willie Mae Thornton's" version.<ref name="Instrumentals"/> (instrumental)
* The Dirty Blues Band ''Dirty Blues Band'' (1967: [[BluesWay Records|BluesWay]] 6010) (1968: BluesWay 45–61016) Modified Thornton version
* [[James Booker]] ''Classified'' (1982: [[Demon Music Group|Demon]])
* [[Susan Tedeschi]] ''[[Better Days (Susan Tedeschi album)|Better Days]]'' (1995)
* Etta James ''[[Matriarch of the Blues]]'' (2000: [[Private Music]])
* Robert Palmer ''[[Drive (Robert Palmer album)|Drive]]'' (2003)
* Macy Gray Various Artists ''Lightning In a Bottle: A One Night History of the Blues'' (Recorded live at [[Radio City Music Hall]] in New York City; 2004 DVD directed by [[Antoine Fuqua]])

====Presley version====
* Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps (Recorded: 1956; Released: 2004; [[Norton Records|Norton]] 45–114) ''The Capitol Years '56–'63'' (Recorded 1956; Released: 1987: [[Charly Records]] BOX 108)
* [[Hoosier Hot Shots]] ''Hoosier Hot Shots'' (Recorded & released: 1957; [[Tops Records]] L1541)). Novelty version. 
* Jerry Lee Lewis ''Whole Lotta' Shakin' Goin' On'' (recorded at Sun Studios February 14, 1958) ''Whole Lotta' Shakin' Goin' On: Where Rock Began'' (1977: Gusto GT-103) (1992: [[Dragon Street Records|Dragon Street]] 7822) ''The Greatest Live Show On Earth'' (Recorded live in [[Birmingham, Alabama]], on July 1, 1964; December 1964, #71: [[Smash Records]] MGS 27056/SRS 67056)
* Chubby Checker ''[[For Twisters Only]]'' (Recorded 1960; Released: December 1961, #8: [[Cameo-Parkway Records|Parkway]] P-7002) ''Your Twist Party'' (December 1961, #2; Parkway P-7007)
* [[Dickie Valentine]] (UK: 1962) ''Live In Concert'' (UK: June 12, 2012; Record label: Master Classics Records) Comedy version featuring Valentine singing the song, then reciting it as [[Mr. Magoo]] and [[Edward G. Robinson]]
* Pat Boone ''[[Pat Boone Sings Guess Who?|Sings Guess Who?]]'' (September 1963: [[Dot Records]] DLP-3501/25501)
* Sammy Davis Jr. [[Sammy Davis Jr. at the Cocoanut Grove|''Sammy Davis Jr. at the Coconut Grove'']] (Recorded: 1963 at the [[Coconut Grove]]) (part of a medley with "[[What'd I Say]]")
* Betty Everett ''You're No Good'' (Retitled: ''It's in His Kiss (Shoop Shoop)'') (December 1963: [[Vee-Jay Records]] VJS-1077) ''I Need You So'' (1968: [[Sunset Records]] SUS-5220)
* Little Richard ''[[Little Richard Is Back (And There's a Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On!)|Little Richard Is Back (And There's A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On!)]]'' (June 1964: Vee-Jay Records VJS-1107)
* The Surfaris ''Fun City, U.S.A.'' (US: 1964; Decca 4560)(UK: 1964; [[Brunswick Records|Brunswick]])
* The Everly Brothers ''[[Rock'n Soul (Everly Brothers album)|Rock n Soul]]'' album (Recorded December 1, 1964; Released March 1965: [[Warner Records|Warner Bros.]] W/WS 1578)
* Junior Wells ''[[Hoodoo Man Blues]]'' (September 22, 1965: [[Delmark Records]] DS 9613)
* The Mothers of Invention ''{{'}}Tis the Season to Be Jelly – Live in Sweden'' (Recorded September 30, 1967) in ''Beat the Boots'' set (July 1991: [[Rhino Entertainment|Rhino]]/Foo-eee label R2 70542)
* Jimi Hendrix featured on the live album ''[[BBC Sessions (The Jimi Hendrix Experience album)|BBC Sessions]]'' (Recorded: 1967; Released: 1998)
* Vanilla Fudge ''[[The Beat Goes On (Vanilla Fudge album)|The Beat Goes On]]'' (February 1968; [[Atco Records]] 33-237)
* Van Morrison ''Live at [[Pacific High Recording|Pacific High Studios]]'' (1971) Bootleg
* Conway Twitty ''Conway Twitty Sings the Blues'' (1972: MGM Records SE-4837)
* Jimi Hendrix & Little Richard on the album ''[[Friends from the Beginning - Little Richard and Jimi Hendrix|Friends From The Beginning]]'' (1972)
* John Lennon performed by Lennon and the Plastic Ono Elephant's Memory Band on August 30, 1972, at Madison Square Garden, New York City, from one of his last charity concerts.<ref name="beatlesbible1"/> Released on ''Live in New York'' (US: January 24, 1986: UK: February 24, 1986: [[Parlophone]] PCS 7301)
* John Entwistle ''[[Rigor Mortis Sets In]]'' (Recorded: 1973; Released: 1973 on [[Track Records]])
* [[Scorpions (Band)|Scorpions]] ''[[Tokyo Tapes (album)|Tokyo Tapes]]'' (Recorded: 1978; Released: 1978 on RCA Records)
* Carl Perkins (UK: 1985; Magnum Force MFLP-2.039)
* [[The Residents]] ''[[The King & Eye]]'' (1989 on [[Rykodisc]])
* Eric Clapton (Germany: 1989; [[Reprise Records|Reprise]] 5439-19719-7) ''[[Journeyman (album)|Journeyman]]'' (November 1989: Duck Records 7599-2 6074–1) (1990: Warner Bros. 19848)
* Tiny Tim : ''Tiny Tim Rock'' (1993; [[Regular Records]] D 31093)
* David Grisman, John Hartford, and Mike Seeger "Hound Dawg" on ''[[Retrograss]]'' (1999: [[Acoustic Disc]]); Nominated for a [[Grammy Awards|Grammy Award]] in the Traditional Folk Album category in 2000.
* James Taylor ''[[Covers (James Taylor album)|Covers]]'' (2008)

===Answers and parodies===
* Charlie Gore & Louis Innis "(You Ain't Nothin but a Female) Hound Dog" (March 22, 1953: King 3587)
* Homer and Jethro "(How Much Is) That Hound Dog In The Window?" ([[Bob Merrill]]) (March 1953: RCA Victor 47–5280)
* Roy Brown and His Mighty, Mighty Men "Mr. Hound Dog's in Town" (March 1953: King Records 45–4627)
* John Brim "Rattlesnake" (1953: Checker 769)
* Chuck Higgins and His Mellotones (vocal by "Daddy Cleanhead") "Real Gone Hound Dog" (written by C. Higgins & V. Haven) (1953: Combo 25)<ref name="globaldog"/>
* Smiley Lewis "Play Girl" (D. Bartholomew) (1953: Imperial 45–5234)<ref name="globaldogproductions.info"/>
* Rufus "Hound Dog" Thomas, Jr. "Bear Cat (The Answer To Hound Dog)" (March 1953: Sun Records 181)
* Unknown (attributed to [[Rosco Gordon]]) "(You Ain't Nuttin' But a) Juicehead" (Probably March 1953: unreleased demo recorded at Sun Records)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.706unionavenue.nl/64258507 |title=1953 Sun Sessions |language=nl |publisher=www.706unionavenue.nl |access-date=2015-12-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222131416/http://www.706unionavenue.nl/64258507 |archive-date=2015-12-22 |url-status=dead }}</ref> On Various Artists ''"706 Blues": A Collection of Rare Memphis Blues'' (Netherlands, 1974: Redita LP-111) On Various Artists (Netherlands 1988: ''Keep On Rolling'' (Redita 131) Various Artists ''Sun Records: The Blues Years 1950–1958'' (1996: Charly CDSUNBOX 7)
* Juanita Moore and the Eugene Jackson Trio "Call Me a Hound Dog" (Robert Geddins) on Various Artists ''Toast of the Coast: 1950s R&B from Dolphin's of Hollywood, Vol. 2'' (Recorded ca. 1953; Released: UK: March 10, 2009: Ace)
* Frank "Dual Trumpeter" Motley & His Crew (with vocal by Curley Bridges) "New Hound Dog" (1954: Big Town 116)
* Big "Tiny" Kennedy [Jesse Kennedy, Jr.] and His Orchestra "Country Boy" (Tiny Kennedy) (October 1955: Groove 4G-0106) Re-released 2011: Juke Box Jam JBJ 1025)
* Homer and Jethro "Houn' Dawg" (November 10, 1956: RCA Victor 20–6706; 47–6706)
* Lalo "Pancho Lopez" Guerrero "Pound Dog" (1956: L&M LM1002)
* Cliff Johnson "Go 'Way Hound Dog (Let Me Sing My Blues)" (1956: Columbia 4-40865; Australia: 1957; Coronet Records KW-022)
* Mickey Katz and His Orchestra "You're A Doity Dog (Hound Dog)" (January 1957; Capitol F3607) (Germany: 1957; Capitol F 80 411)
* Johnny Madera "Too Many Hound Dogs" ([[Bob Crewe]], [[Frank Slay]]) (November 1960: [[Swan Records]] 4063)
* The Raging Storms "Hound Dog [Twist]" (Fred Kelly) December 1961: [[Warwick Records (United States)|Warwick Records]] M677; Trans Atlas M677<ref>''Billboard'' (18 December 1961): 27.</ref><ref>''Billboard'' (27 January 1962):23.</ref>
* El Vez and The Memphis Mariachis (as "(You Ain't Nothin' But a) Chihuahua") (1991) ''Son of a Lad From Spain?'' (December 14, 1999: Sympathy 4 the R.I.)

==See also==
* [[List of best-selling singles]]
* [[List of best-selling singles in the United States]]
* [[List of number-one singles of 1956 (U.S.)]]
* [[List of number-one rhythm and blues hits (United States)#1956|List of number-one rhythm and blues hits of 1956]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
*Burroughs, Alison Joy. [http://awalker2820.tripod.com/alicewalker.htm "Alice Walker's 'Nineteen Fifty-Five'"].
* Chilton, Martin. [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/8718491/Hound-Dog-10-facts-about-Elvis-Presleys-hit-song.html "Hound Dog: 10 facts about Elvis Presley's hit song"], ''The Telegraph'' (August 23, 2011).
* Cooper, B. Lee and Wayne S. Haney, ''Response Recordings: An Answer Song Discography, 1950–1990'', Scarecrow Press, 1990.
* Corliss, Richard. [https://entertainment.time.com/2011/08/24/remembering-jerry-leiber-the-hound-dog-poet-of-rock-n-roll/ "Remembering Jerry Leiber, the ‘Hound Dog’ Poet of Rock ‘n’ Roll"]. ''Time'' (August 24, 2011).
* Du Verger, Jean. {{usurped|1=[http://www.webcitation.org/6HpXJ8bPJ?url=http://www.univ-lehavre.fr/ulh_services/IMG/pdf/Du_Verger.pdf "From Musical Revolution to Countercultural Music: The Poet and the King"]}}, ''Revue Ecolle'' 2 (March 19, 2012).
* Fink, Robert. [http://www.johnhalle.com/bard.classes/bcs.II/elvis.everywhere.pdf "Elvis Everywhere: Musicology and Popular Music Studies at the Twilight of the Canon"]. ''American Music'' 16:2 (University of Illinois Press, Summer 1998):135–179.
* Gart, Galen and Roy C. Ames, ''Duke/Peacock Records: An Illustrated History with Discography''. Big Nickel Publications, 1990.
* Gritten, Dave. [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/8718381/Jerry-Leiber-tribute.html "Jerry Leiber tribute"], ''The Telegraph'' (August 23, 2011).
* Lillistam, Lars. (1988) "Musical Acculturation: 'Hound Dog' From Blues to Swedish Rock'n'Roll. In Hennion, ed. ''1789–1989: Musique, Histoire, Democratie, Vol. III''. 1988.
* Moonoogian, George A. "Ain't Nothin' But a Hound Dog." ''Whiskey, Women and … '' 14 (June 1984):4–10.
* Moonoogian, George A. "The Answer Record in R&B." ''Record Exchanger'' 22 (1976):24–25, 28.
* Myers, Marc. {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20170903121936/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324503204578320200118939878 "The House That 'Hound Dog' Built"]}}, ''The Wall Street Journal'' (February 28, 2013).
* Nazareth, Peter. "Elvis as Anthology", in Vernon Chadwick, ed., ''In Search of Elvis: Music, Race, Art, Religion.'' Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997.
* Nazareth, Peter. [http://www.africanlit.org/publications/jala/Vol1No2/nazareth.pdf "Nineteen Fifty-Five": Alice, Elvis And The Black Matrix"]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. ''Journal of the African Literature Association'' 1:2 (Summer/Fall 2007):150–162.
* Norton, Cherry. {{usurped|1=[https://archive.today/20130704175106/http://www.questia.com/library/1P2-5050959/hound-dog-the-song-that-did-most-to-leave-world "`Hound Dog' – the Song That Did Most to Leave World All Shook Up"]}}. ''The Independent''. London, England: January 24, 2000.
* "Soundaffects", [http://soundaffects.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/elvis-hound-dog-and-questions-of-intended-meaning/ "Elvis, Hound Dog and questions of intended meaning"] ''Soundaffects'' (September 24, 2008).
* Spörke, Michael. [http://www.mcfarlandbooks.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-7759-3 "Big Mama Thornton: The Life and Music."] McFarland Inc. {{ISBN|978-0-7864-7759-3}} (July 22, 2014) 
* St. Pierre, Roger. "Big Mama Thornton: The Hound Dog Howler Who Inspired Janis". ''[[New Musical Express]]'' (January 1, 1972).
* Wynne, Ben. [https://lsupress.org/9780807181492/a-hound-dog-tale/ "A Hound Dog Tale: Big Mama, Elvis, and the Song That Changed Everything."] LSU Press. {{ISBN|978-0-8071-8114-0}} (February 7, 2024)

==External links==
* [http://www.leiberstoller.com/Discography.html "Leiber & Stoller Discography"]

{{Elvis Presley}}
{{Elvis Presley singles}}
{{Sherbet}}

{{authority control}}

{{Category more|Groove Records}}

[[Category:1952 songs]]
[[Category:1953 singles]]
[[Category:1955 singles]]
[[Category:1956 singles]]
[[Category:Big Mama Thornton songs]]
[[Category:Billy "Crash" Craddock songs]]
[[Category:Crossover (music)]]
[[Category:Elvis Presley songs]]
[[Category:Etta James songs]]
[[Category:Jerry Lee Lewis songs]]
[[Category:Little Richard songs]]
[[Category:The Easybeats songs]]
[[Category:Sherbet (band) songs]]
[[Category:Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients]]
[[Category:Number-one singles in the United States]]
[[Category:Songs involved in plagiarism controversies]]
[[Category:Songs written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller]]
[[Category:Song recordings produced by Stephen H. Sholes]]
[[Category:1973 singles]]
[[Category:Groove Records singles]]
[[Category:Infinity Records singles]]
[[Category:RCA Victor singles]]
[[Category:Song recordings produced by Richard Batchens]]
[[Category:Songs about dogs]]
[[Category:United States National Recording Registry recordings]]