Hound Dog

Eric Weisbard is Professor of American Studies at the University of Alabama and author of Songbooks: The Literature of American Popular Music, also published by Duke University Press.

• Intro  11. “Doggie in the Window” and the 1950s Pop Single  132. Dog Ditties  273. “Hound Dog,” Take One: Big Mama Thornton  354. Elvis Presley Belatedly Records “Hound Dog”  515. “Hound Dog” as Influence  656. Interpreting “Hound Dog”  817. The Whiteness of the Wail  93Outro  113Acknowledgments  117Notes  119Bibliography  129Index  139

“Eric Weisbard has long been one of my favorite music historians and writers. His professorial love for both the high- and the lowbrow (and the latter's relevance to the trends and movements that followed), mixed with his punchy, minimalistic voice, makes a great combination.” - Patterson Hood, performer, writer, and Drive-By Truckers cofounder “Bringing together the music of Big Mama Thornton, Elvis, Patti Page, Iggy Pop, George Clinton, DMX, Nirvana, and Patti Smith, among others, Eric Weisbard steers us through some of the most contentious debates in the American pop music landscape and somehow manages to make it a joyride. As witty as it is bighearted, Hound Dog reminds us that a favorite song-sometimes heard against the grain-can remake us and also remake worlds.” - Francesca T. Royster, author of (Black Country Music: Listening for Revolutions) "This is a both entertaining and informative traversal of the evolution of pop/rock, exemplified in one well-remembered song. [It] will likely appeal to both music scholars and readers investigating the intersection of race and society in the U.S." - Barry Zaslow (Library Journal) "[Eric Weisbard] carves out an engaging and unpredictable path through the American popular music canon like a machete-wielding traveler weaving in-and-out of a well-worn forest trail. . . . His writing mirrors what I understand to be a commitment to following pathways wherever they may lead and resisting the urge to categorically define artists, sounds, and moments as the sole property of an epistemological truism." - Matt Brounley (Journal of Musicological Research)