It was a silly song that Elvis Presley turned into solid gold. “Hound Dog” was not loved by the critics and even writers Leiber & Stoller weren’t crazy about the record. You may have seen the Steve Allen Show clip of Elvis singing it to a top hat-wearing Bassett Hound it was no secret that Steve Allen hated rock and roll music. Let’s face it: “Hound Dog” is not much of a song, but Elvis’ exuberant, somewhat tongue-in-cheek performance (with 31 takes), made it into a winner. His version is an imitation of a version by Freddie Bell and the Bellboys. Big Mama Thornton was the original hit-maker with this song, but it’s more associated with The King. Pelvis Particulars- This song is well-traveled and is Elvis’ biggest seller. Songwriters- Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller Interestingly, years later, the song became the inspiration for Meat Loaf’s “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad.” It’s generally thought to be one of the poorer recordings in Elvis’ catalog. The producer wound up doing something very rare for that era he spliced together parts of two takes (14 and 17) to come up with a recording worth releasing. At the studio, Elvis and his band were so shook up from the scare in the air, that the recording session went poorly 17 takes in three hours with no keeper. Pelvis Particulars- The follow-up to “Heartbreak Hotel” was an important one for Elvis and RCA, as they were worried about him being a “flash in the pan.” On the flight to the studio, the plane had engine trouble and almost became a hunka hunka burnin’ metal. Songwriters- Maurice Mysels and Ira Kosloff.
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