When Willie Mae Thornton left home to tour the Southern States of the USA as a singer in the Hot Harlem Revue in 1941 she was just 14. Just like Big Joe Turner, who’d started his career only a couple of years before (ABON 0138), she could shout the Blues louder than most of her rivals, who were twice her age. And also like Big Joe Turner, even as a teenager, she had the physique to gain access to the bars, clubs and theatres of the South years before she should legally have been allowed to. 

By the beginning of the 1950s, although she was still only 24, she had already been on the stage for 10 years and plain Willie Mae had blossomed into Big Mama Thornton. At 20 stone and with a voice that had become even more ferocious over the years, she was an imposing and slightly intimidating figure. 

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It would make perfect sense – and be absolutely logical – if the key influences on Rock’n'Rollers Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard were the pioneering Blues shouters of the of the 30s and 40s such as Big Joe Turner (see ABON 0139) and the R’n'B stars of the late 40s such as Wynonie Harris who were the first to move towards a R’n'R-tinged music.

So it might be a bit of a surprise to most people when they realise that this is wrong. The single artist who seems to have influenced all three future stars most, by their own admission, is actually Sister Rosetta Tharpe. And Sister Rosetta didn’t even sing the Blues.

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Bill Haley’s alternative version, ‘pure’ Rock’n'Roll, version of Big Joe Turner’s proto-Rock’n'Roll hit. Recorded two months after Big Joe’s and posted here to enable comparison with today’s real post, ABON 0139.

Instead of Big Joe’s subtle, supportive, ‘walking’ bass, Bill Haley’s band employed a modern, slapped-right-in-your-face approach. On Bill’s version there was no tinkling, Boogie Woogie-tinged piano accompaniment in the background. Instead he brought the brass, honking, right up front. And instead of Big Joe’s laid-back shouting Blues style of vocals, Bill sang. The overall effect was to produce a much brighter, more ‘up’ sound with no hint of the melancholy of the Blues which Big Joe could never quite shake off.

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When we last met Big Joe Turner he was a Blues Shouter trying his hand at Boogie Woogie, supported by Pete Johnson on piano (see ABON 0138). But in the years since 1938 he’d moved on from Boogie Woogie to the 1940s craze of Jump Blues – an up tempo form of Blues built for dancing and played by bands with brass sections. And so had Pete Johnson, his piano-playing partner in crime, who had seamlessly switched from Boogie Woogie piano-accompanist to leader of the Jump Blues band that Big Joe usually sang with.

But by 1950 Big Joe and Pete’s partnership had run its 13-year course. Big Joe signed solo to Atlantic Records and started the third stage of his long career - as a Rock’n'Roller. Albeit a Rock’n'Roller who was still at heart a Blues Shouter and who shouted his own particular version of R’n'R that very firmly still had at least one foot in Jump Blues.

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In the days before microphones, singing in front of a band was a job for a powerful voice – a voice powerful enough to be heard over the top of the guitars, pianos, brass and drums. Even after microphones became commonplace in the 1930s, weak amplification often meant that performing live with a band demanded an abnormally strong voice. And the owners of these rare and precious assets were known as Blues Shouters.

Big Joe Turner was the leading Blues Shouter of his day. With a voice that could shake the foundations of most of the venues he appeared in and a physique to match, he remained the undisputed King of the Shouters from the late 30s until well into the 50s. 

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