Miss Wanda Jackson, The Queen of Rockabilly, turns 74 today. Join me after the jump for a Crasstalk celebration of Wanda, her music, and her legacy.
Born in Maud, Oklahoma in 1937, Wanda was surrounded by music at an early age. Her musician father introduced her to the guitar, and at the young age of 11 Wanda won a talent contest which enabled her to sing on the radio.
In the mid-1950s, when Wanda was still in high school, she began to get professional recognition for her skills. Mentored by Hank Thompson, Wanda tried to get signed with Capitol, but she was rejected because she was female and signed with Decca.
When Jackson graduated high school she was able to tour more extensively. She famously toured with Elvis Presley and even dated the rock icon for a time. He encouraged her to expand her musical palette, and Wanda began to play rockabilly, a mixture of country and rock and roll, a famous early example being “I Gotta Know.” Throughout the 50s, Wanda recorded a string of successful rockabilly hits.
This culminated with her recording a song Elvis had done first, “Let’s Have A Party,” in 1960. By this point, Wanda was headlining her own shows. She was also finding great success recording country. Both “Right or Wrong” and “In the Middle of a Heartache” were recorded during this time.
As rockabilly became less popular in the mid to late 1960s, Jackson shifted fully toward her country tendencies, releasing a string of successful songs and also recording in German for Electrola (Capitol’s German counterpart).
In the 1970s, Wanda became a Christian and recorded gospel music for a period, even embarking on church tours.
As an interest in rockabilly resurfaced, Wanda was sought out because of her importance to the genre, and she soon began to tour again. In 2003 she released her first album in over 20 years, Heart Trouble. The album featured collaborations with Elvis Costello, The Cramps, and Rosie Flores.
Costello was instrumental in securing Jackson a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which she was inducted into in 2009. Jack White, who famously resuscitated Loretta Lynn’s career, expressed an interest in working with Wanda, and in 2011 Wanda released The Party Ain’t Over.
Wanda continues to tour today. Known for her kitten growl, Miss Jackson still commands the stage, even in her 70s. She was playing rock and roll before it even really had a name (“We just called it Elvis’s music,” she told the audience when I saw her live a few years ago); she attained success when women were not well respected, especially in the rock and country genres; her discography speaks to her versatility as an artist: yes she recorded rock, country and rockabilly, but you’ll also find some jazz standards and straight traditional pop songs there as well.
Jack White curated a list of tracks for The Party Ain’t Over, and Wanda’s ability to make each track her own, whether she’s covering something as contemporary as Amy Winehouse or as old-fashioned as The Andrews Sisters is a testament to her immense talent. That she was chosen to tour with Adele on a leg of the British songbird’s tour only enforces the idea that after 50 years recording music, Wanda Jackson is still relevant.
