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The Horseshoe Tavern (known as The Horseshoe or The 'Shoe to Toronto locals) is a concert venue located at 370 Queen Street West (northeast corner of Queen at Spadina) in downtown Toronto, and has been in operation since 1947. Owned by "JC", Ken Sprackman, Craig Laskey and Naomi Montpetit, the venue is a significant part of Canadian musical lore. It is captured in the memories of thousands of concertgoers, and in books such as Have Not Been the Same.

Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton (December 11, 1926 – July 25, 1984) was an American rhythm and blues singer and songwriter. She was the first to record Leiber and Stoller's "Hound Dog" in 1952,[1] which became her biggest hit. It spent seven weeks at number one on the Billboard R&B charts in 1953[2] and sold almost two million copies.[3] However, her success was overshadowed three years later, when Elvis Presley recorded his more popular rendition of "Hound Dog".[4] Similarly, Thornton's "Ball 'n' Chain", had a bigger impact when performed and recorded by Janis Joplin in the late 1960s.