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. According to New York University music professor Maureen Mahon, “the song is seen as an important beginning of rock-and-roll, especially in its use of the guitar as the key instrument”.

Thornton’s other recordings include her song “Ball and Chain“, made famous in the late 1960s by Janis Joplin. Though later recordings of her songs by other artists sold millions of copies, she was denied royalties by not holding the publishing copyrights to her creativity. Thornton died of a heart attack and liver disorders, penniless in a boarding-house in Los Angeles, California, and was buried in a shared pauper’s grave. In 2024, Thornton was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the musical influence category.