"Hound Dog"

OK, back to the 50's: Leiber and Stoller were still teenagers when they penned this 12-bar blues classic first recorded by Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton in '52 (#1 R&B). Freddie Bell and The Bellboys reworked the lyrics in '55. The best-known version was Elvis Presley's from '56. The King and his band heard Bell in Vegas, rearranged it and the rest is rock & roll history. He debuted it on The Milton Berle show before a TV audience of 40 million without his guitar to hide his gyrations - the outcry earned him the epithet "Elvis The Pelvis". It was his concert- closing number for many years. Ranked #19 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time and was inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame in '88. The B-Side to "Don't Be Cruel", it remains THE only A and B side individual #1 single in the U.S. It topped the charts for 11 weeks. Part of the "American Graffiti", "Grease" and "Forrest Gump" soundtracks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XUAg1_A7IE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XUAg1_A7IE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR_BV37BU1s&feature=related

Yesterday's answer: "All Along the Watchtower". Hendrix's guitar solo consistently figures among the best ever in most polls and in a 2008 poll conducted by a panel of experts for Total Guitar Magazine, this was voted the best cover song of all time.
http://www.youtube.com/wat​ch?v=jkok1Z4WJuY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bng3agUOYiI