Alabama NewsCenter — Hall of Fame songwriting legend Mike Stoller lends support to honoring Alabama’s ‘Big Mama’ Thornton

By Bob Blalock
Alabama NewsCenter

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame songwriting legend Mike Stoller says he wants to help honor Alabama native Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton, who made a hit of the now-classic “Hound Dog.”

Stoller and songwriting partner Jerry Leiber wrote the song for her seven decades ago when the two men were still teenagers.

Thornton, a native of Ariton in Dale County in southeast Alabama, has been called the Mother of Rock ‘n’ Roll for the influence she and her music had during the dawn of the genre in the 1950s. Thornton was 57 when she died in Los Angeles in 1984. She is buried with two other people in a paupers grave in Inglewood Park Cemetery.

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