A Hound Dog Tale

“This well-written book offers a glimpse into the tangled world of early rock ’n’ roll and those who were part of the perfect storm that produced the song ‘Hound Dog.’ Ben Wynne addresses the complicated matter of cultural appropriation by white artists using African American musical forms, and he shows how the young Jewish songwriters who penned the lyrics add an intriguing factor that is typical of a hybrid American culture. A Hound Dog Tale is for fans of the music but also for anyone interested in American society at a galvanizing musical moment.” ~Charles Reagan Wilson, author of Judgment and Grace in Dixie: Southern Faiths from Faulkner to Elvis

“[This book is] very well-researched. Wynne tells us the saga of ‘Hound Dog’ and, in doing so, contributes to the fact that Big Mama Thornton’s role in this story deservedly shines again in the public eye.” ~Michael Spörke, author of Big Mama Thornton: The Life and Music

“Music historian Wynne scrupulously documents how Elvis’s 1956 hit song ‘Hound Dog’ helped catapult rock ’n’ roll ‘into the American cultural mainstream.’ . . . Exhaustively researched and energetically written, this is a colorful study of rock’s complicated beginnings.” ~Publishers Weekly