In August 1952 bandleader Johnny Otis called song-writers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and urged them to compose a song for blues singer Willie Mae (Big Mama) Thornton. After meeting with her at Otis's house, they rushed back to Stolller's house and wrote Hound Dog in about eight minutes. Originally, the song was about a gigolo.

Big Mama Thornton recorded Hound Dog in early 1953. Her version reached number one for six weeks on Billboard's rhythm & blues chart. The record label listed her band as Kansas City Bill's Orchestra, but the group was actually Otis's. Otis, a white musician, played drums on the recording and was credited on the label as the song's composer. Leiber and Stoller had to go to court to get their writers' royalties.

Several cover versions of Hound Dog were released in 1953, including those by Tommy Duncan (Intro 6071), former lead singer for the Bob Wills Orchestra, Little Esther Phillips (Federal 12126), Billy Starr (Imperial 8186), and John Brim (Checker 769), who used the title Rattlesnake.

Almost as soon as Thornton's version of Hound Dog was released, Sam Phillips wrote Bear Cat as an answer record. Rufus Thomas recorded the song for Phillips's Sun label (Sun 181) on March 8, 1953. Don Robey of Peackock Records in Houston sued Phillips, claiming that Bear Cat was a plagiarism of Hound Dog. After a U.S. District Court ruled in favour of Robey, an agreement was reached whereby Hi-Lo Music would pay a royalty of two cents to Lion Publishing for every copy of Bear Cat sold. Phillips also agreed to change the record label from Bear Cat (The Answer to Hound Dog) by Rufus (Hound Dog) Thomas Jr. to Bear Cat by Rufus Thomas, Jr. Thomas's band was thereafter known as the Bear Cats.

In 1955 an obscure group named Freddie Bell and The Bellboys recorded a comical version of Hound Dog (Tenn 101) in which they added the lines: "You ain't never caught a rabbit. You ain't no friend of mine." Although certainly aware of Big Mama Thornton's original version of Hound Dog, it was the version by Freddie Bell and The Bellboys that Elvis liked and copied. He first heard the group sing the song in Las Vegas while he was appearing at the New Frontier Hotel in late April-early May 1956. When time would allow, Elvis, Scotty Moore, Bill Black and D.J. Fontana would catch the Bellboys' act in the lounge. Soon after, Elvis added Hound Dog to his repertoire. It was such a crowd favourite that he began using Hound Dog as his closing number. D.J. Fontana stole his drum phrasing from Chick Greeney of the Bellboys.

Elvis sang Hound Dog during his second appearance on The Milton Berle Show (June 5, 1956) and on The Steve Allen Show (July 1, 1956). During the latter show he sang it to a basset hound named Sherlock while wearing a tuxedo

On July 2, 1956, Elvis went into RCA's New York City studios to record Hound Dog. It was the first song on which the vocal talents of the Jordanaires were used. Take #31 was selected by RCA for release. Hound Dog had a 28-week stay on Billboard's Top 100 chart, peaking at #2 for three weeks. The Platters' My Prayer and then Don't Be Cruel kept Hound Dog from the top spot. The song was number one for three weeks on the Country Jukebox chart and number one for one week on the rhythm & blues chart. In England, Hound Dog peaked #2. Sales in 1956 alone exceeded six million copies.

Hound Dog was sung on all three Ed Sullivan Show appearances (September 6, 1956; October 28, 1956; January 6, 1957), Elvis's last Louisiana Hayride appearance (December 16, 1956), the 1968 Elvis TV Special (December 3, 1968), the Elvis: Aloha From Hawaii TV Special (January 14, 1973), and Elvis In Concert (October 3, 1977). The 1981 documentary This Is Elvis used clips from the Milton Berle and Steve Allen shows.