Elvis Was Not A Songwriter
Elvis was a successful singer and guitar player, but he didn’t write any of his songs. Two of the songwriters he most frequently worked with were Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who wrote Hound Dog. Although his performance of this song is the best-known, it was originally released by Big Mama Thornton.
Mike and Jerry contributed directly to Elvis’s albums starting with his second record. He developed a close relationship with them when they wrote the songs for films like Loving You and Jailhouse Rock. They admired how quickly he would learn the lyrics. Songwriters for Elvis had to give up one-third of their royalty earnings.