Elvis Presley: inspiration, not theft

A constant theme of the forthcoming book is the fragile nature of inspiration versus theft, and one of the prime examples of this is the furore over Elvis' version of "Hound Dog". For decades, uninformed critics have proclaimed that Elvis stole Big Mama Thornton's hit and, as such, stole from black culture. The most obvious points to make here are that (a) "Hound Dog" was not written by Thornton but by two white Jewish boys from Los Angeles, and (b) Elvis recorded it in July 1956, fully three years after Thornton's original hit had slipped from the r&b charts. Thornton lost not one cent by Elvis recording it, and the composers (Lieber & Stoller) literally made millions of dollars. In fact

Featured Posts
Recent Posts
Archive
Search By Tags
  • w-facebook
  • Twitter Social Icon

© 2015 George Smith Publications. All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all content is the property of George Smith Publications and may not be copied, posted, distributed, displayed or otherwise disseminated without express prior written permission of the author, Tony Plews.(georgesmithpublications@gmail.com)