Elvis serenades a Basset Hound

The first video is Elvis Presley on the Steve Allen Show on 1st July 1956, performing I Want You, I Need You, I Love You and Hound Dog, but most importantly singing to a Basset Hound.

The basset doesn’t appear until 4 minutes 40 seconds in, although he can be heard from the start.

Click on the image to start the video.

It was a curious choice for Elvis to record Hound Dog. The song had originally been recorded by Willie Mae ‘Big Mama’ Thornton in 1952 and was number one in the R&B charts for seven weeks in 1953. In Willie Mae’s hands the song is clearly a woman's blues, lamenting disappointment in love at the realisation her man had no intentions other than to get from her what he can. Nothing like a Hound really!

The song written for her by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller was the first record they produced. Willie Mae describes them, ‘They were just a couple of kids, and they had this song written on the back of a paper bag.’

In 1956 Freddie Bell and the Bellboys opened a show starring Elvis in Las Vegas, performing a comedy version of the song. As a result Elvis recorded it having apparently never heard the original.

The Original and the Best

The video below is not of the original recording but a live performance by Willie Mae with musicians from Muddy Waters band, including Buddy Guy, filmed twelve years later in 1965.

Elvis has the Basset Hound but Willie Mae takes the performing prize for me even if, distracted by the twist, not quite at her best.

Willie Mae Thornton’s original version of ‘Hound Dog’


She’s more than just a hound dog,
Bessie caught a rabbit
and she sure's a friend of mine.

Bessie came to stay with us for seven weeks over Christmas 2005. Bessie and Cocoa went out excitedly into the garden during the evening of Christmas day.

Bessie returned with a rabbit in her mouth.