SINGER

Big Mama Thornton

1926 - 1984

Photo of Big Mama Thornton

Icon of person Big Mama Thornton

Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton (December 11, 1926 – July 25, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter of blues and R&B. The Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock and Soul described Thornton saying "Her booming voice, sometimes 200-pound frame, and exuberant stage manner had audiences stomping their feet and shouting encouragement in R&B theaters from coast to coast from the early 1950s on". Thornton was the first to record Leiber and Stoller's "Hound Dog", in 1952, which was written for her. It became Thornton's biggest hit, selling over 500,000 copies and staying seven weeks at number one on the Billboard R&B chart in 1953. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Big Mama Thornton has received more than 1,644,180 page views. Her biography is available in 36 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 34 in 2019). Big Mama Thornton is the 649th most popular singer (down from 637th in 2019), the 3,472nd most popular biography from United States (up from 3,589th in 2019) and the 181st most popular American Singer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 1.6M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 53.68

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 36

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 2.98

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.47

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among SINGERS

Among singers, Big Mama Thornton ranks 649 out of 4,381. Before her are Andrea True, Šaban Bajramović, Percy Sledge, Mongo Santamaría, Gino Paoli, and Marianna Martines. After her are Roberto Alagna, Rocío Jurado, Del Shannon, Wadih El Safi, Rick Parfitt, and Sinan Sakić.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1926, Big Mama Thornton ranks 177. Before her are Jeffrey Hunter, Sonja Ziemann, Prince Ferdinand, Duke of Castro, Lou Ottens, Dennis W. Sciama, and Mark Taimanov. After her are James Samuel Coleman, Shigeru Kayano, Alfred Pfaff, Mickey Hargitay, Frank Finlay, and Johanna Quandt. Among people deceased in 1984, Big Mama Thornton ranks 101. Before her are Lee Krasner, Nodar Dumbadze, Motoo Tatsuhara, Manuel Fleitas Solich, Adam Malik, and Panteleimon Ponomarenko. After her are Knut Nordahl, Paul Ben-Haim, Jüri Lossmann, Jorge Guillén, Sergei Salnikov, and Richard E. Bellman.

Others Born in 1926

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Others Deceased in 1984

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Big Mama Thornton ranks 3,472 out of 20,380. Before her are Walter Jackson Freeman II (1895), David Blaine (1973), Seymour Martin Lipset (1922), Tyra Banks (1973), Donn F. Eisele (1930), and Stephenie Meyer (1973). After her are Daniel D. Tompkins (1774), Gore Verbinski (1964), Brenda Vaccaro (1939), David O. Russell (1958), Jim Davis (1909), and James Samuel Coleman (1926).

Others born in United States

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Among SINGERS In United States

Among singers born in United States, Big Mama Thornton ranks 181. Before her are Pink (1979), Pharrell Williams (1973), Bobby Brown (1969), Jay-Z (1969), Andrea True (1943), and Percy Sledge (1941). After her are Del Shannon (1934), Al Green (1946), Barbara Hendricks (1948), Rosemary Clooney (1928), Pat Boone (1934), and Melissa Etheridge (1961).

American born Singers

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