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tbt: Baseball Season

Baseball season is in full swing, and the Berklee Archives staff have found some great prospects for the Red Sox! Check out these photos of superior athletic ability!

Photos from BCA-003, Berklee College of Music Photographic Collection by Alma Berk (https://bit.ly/2sL0ldY)

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In 1983, 2005 NEA Jazz Master and 2003 Berklee Honorary Degree Recipient Paquito D’Rivera brought his sweet saxophone stylings to campus for a clinic as part of the Visiting Artis Series. A Cuban native, D’Rivera has earned 14 Grammys, a lifetime achievement award from Carnegie Hall (1991), a National Medal of Arts (2005), and a Living Jazz Legend Award from the Kennedy Center (2007). Flier from the Office of Public Information collection by Alma Berk (http://bit.ly/2qEGIT6).

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Archives Spotlight: “Hound Dog”

This week, BerkleeICE (Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship), American Crew, and Elvis Presley Enterprises are partnering to celebrate Elvis Legacy Week on campus. So, it seems fitting to join in on the fun and highlight one of our recent finds: a shellac 78 of Big Mama Thornton’s recording of “Hound Dog” (with “Night Mare” on the B-side).

What’s the connection, you ask? In 1956, Elvis Presley was booked for a two-week run in Las Vegas. While there, he heard Freddie Bell and the Bellboys playing a rock cover of a song called “Hound Dog.” Elvis recorded his own version of the song later that year, and the rest is music history. 

However, “Hound Dog,” written by a young Leiber and Stoller, was originally recorded by “Big Mama” Thornton in 1952 and released in 1953. The first recording ever produced by Leiber and Stoller, it featured Johnny Otis on drums (as Kansas City Bill), Pete Lewis on guitar, and Mario Delagarde on bass. “Hound Dog” was number one on the R&B chart for 7 weeks and sold 500,000 copies. 

Though Elvis Presley’s cover of the song is more well known, “Big Mama” Thornton’s original version was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame in 2013, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has listed it as one of the “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.”