Rufus Thomas

Rufus Thomas Jr. was a Memphis entertainer, singer, and disc jockey whose career spanned seven decades of Memphis music history. He worked as a comedian and MC on the Beale Street vaudeville circuit, hosted a popular show on WDIA radio (the first all-Black-programmed station in America), and recorded for Sun and Stax Records. His 1953 Sun recording 'Bear Cat' (an answer song to Big Mama Thornton's 'Hound Dog') was Sun's first hit. His later Stax recordings, including 'Walking the Dog,' 'Do the Funky Chicken,' and 'The Breakdown,' were funky, good-humored dance records that kept him on the charts into the 1970s. He was known as the 'World's Oldest Teenager' for his irrepressible energy.