Elvis Went #1 With This Single 61 Years Ago 8/4/56

In the weeks between laying frown the track and its release (incredibly, as the B-side of “Don’t Be Cruel”), hardly an interview went by without Elvis being asked when the song would come out. Elvis’ manager, Colonel Tom Parker, joked with RCA executives that the song was going to be so big that the company would have to change its symbol from the “Victor Dog” to the “Hound Dog.”

When “Hound Dog” was finally released in July of 1956, it lived up to all the hype. When originally released, it was, ironically, kept out of the #1 spot by its own A-side. In compensation for its eclipse by “Don’t Be Cruel” on the pop chart, “Hound Dog” made it to #1 on the R&B and country charts. But soon, “Hound Dog” itself became the #1 pop song, a rare first in recording history, both sides of a record topping the charts.

Later, both “Hound Dog” and “Don’t Be Cruel” were awarded platinum status. On top of all these titles, “Hound Dog” was also voted the #1 most-played song on juke boxes on September 1, 1956.

Elvis instantly added “Hound Dog” to his repertoire, and it immediately became the bring-down-the-house finale to all his live shows. He platted his final show at the Louisiana Hayride with “Hound Dog” in December 1956 and sang it every opportunity that came on TV that year.

Elvis performed a high-energy version of “Hound Dog” in his legendary “Comeback Special” in 1968. When he returned to performing live in Las Vegas in July of 1969, Elvis introduced “Hound Dog” as his “special song.”

Although in his later years, Elvis tended to give his early rock and roll classic songs short shrift in his concerts, he knew no Elvis concert would ever be complete without at least a perfunctory version of his most famous tune. In his later years, Elvis was to christen one of his private planes The Hound Dog.

More than any of Elvis’ hit songs, the stirring opening notes of “Hound Dog” instantly conjure up the indelible image of the wild, uncontrolled singer with the sideburns and the jumping beans in his jeans. It almost seems a kind of tacit agreement amongst Elvis fans the world over that “Hound Dog” is the “theme song” -his trademark.

In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine placed Elvis’ “Hound Dog” at #19 in its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1988.

Source: (Neatorama)