Queen of Rockabilly

Wanda Jackson

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 27, 2004)
• Original Release Date: October 17, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Ace (U.K.)
• ASIN: B00004WGED
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #20,551 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Ace Records' Queen of Rockabilly is such a good idea for a Wanda Jackson collection that it's astonishing that it didn't get put together and released until 2000 -- or that Bear Family Records, which is no slouch when it comes to distilling down certain aspects and angles of American country and rock & roll stars, didn't do it first. It should have been out a lot earlier, in the 1970s -- that would have saved hundreds of listeners (maybe thousands, around the world) having to buy, borrow, or steal her old LPs and singles, so we could isolate and distill down her rockabilly and rock & roll tracks onto open-reel tape or audio cassette. Compiler/annotator Rob Finnis allows the songs to jump across seven years, back and forth, pulling together the strands and threads of this side of Jackson's work into a killer collection of 30 songs, clocking in at less than 70 minutes. And running through the rough and raucous rock & roll sounds is the enigma of Wanda Jackson herself -- this CD touches more musical and cultural buttons than even the man who put it together seems aware of, or than Jackson herself will ever admit to. She has said that she was never as consciously committed to rockabilly or rock & roll as her career direction would seem to indicate; she spent years walking a tightrope between traditional country and rock & roll, just trying to carve out a niche for herself and earn a living, and rock & roll was as new to her as it was to most country music fans in 1954-1955. In keeping with the sensibilities of the era, as the daughter of white working-class Texas-born transplants to Oklahoma (and then to California -- around Bakersfield, natch -- and back to Oklahoma), blues and R&B, as something that she would do herself or allow herself to be influenced by, were mostly alien to her when she began exploring the music (with help and encouragement from Elvis Presley) in 1955.

Luckily, the King of Rock & Roll was correct in his assessment of Jackson as a natural, and she became the Queen of Rockabilly at a time when Janis Martin was "the Female Elvis" and Brenda Lee was some child mutant doing rock & roll with some success. Jackson even recorded with a mixed-race band, the Poe Cats (including Big Al Downing), beginning in early 1958, and the records were amazing, although they didn't start selling seriously until 1960, when a DJ started playing "Let's Have a Party," a three-year-old track off of her 1957 debut LP, and Capitol got it out as a single. She was suddenly on the pop charts, as a unique voice and personality by then, and her career, which had started to coast, was suddenly thrown into high gear. It's all here, the astonishingly raucous and even raunchy early singles like "Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad" and "Fujiyama Mama" (the latter a huge hit in Japan, amazingly enough), the LP renditions of "Long Tall Sally" and "Rock Your Baby," and the raw, throat-ripping performances of "Rip It Up," from as late as 1963. There are some especially amazing moments amid the rip-roaring rock & roll that even Finnis misses, such as Jackson's rendition of Chuck Berry's "Brown Eyed Handsome Man." The song itself was Berry's commentary on the plight of the black man in white society, but for a white Southern woman rocker to sing it in 1961, even on an LP, while Berry was in the middle of his first-round trials for alleged illicit activities with an underage girl, was an amazingly challenging and provocative act -- Finnis extends the effect by following it with the later LP track "You Don't Know Baby," a slow, smoldering blues that Jackson makes work as a woman's song. She's equally bold and convincing on Little Richard's "Slippin' and Slidin'" from the same session as the Berry song; of course, in 1958 Jackson was also singing "Rock Your Baby," with its demand "Rock your baby all night long, and don't be slow" -- a song she wrote herself, no less. By the time it's over, this CD will make one wonder if Jackson -- her denials and professed innocence notwithstanding -- was the most sexually and musically subversive white woman ever to step in front of a microphone. The sound is great too, up to Ace's usual high standard and then some.

Bruce Eder/All Music Guide

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elvis may have left the building, but Wanda is still rockin', April 2, 2002

By	Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

I heard an excerpt of this CD on NPR along with an interview of Wanda Jackson. The first and just about only lady of Rockabilly was friends with Elvis and should be more of a legend that she is. And she is still around, still making music.

Wanda's voice is absolutely unique; once you hear her raspy, dirty-girl version of "Let's Have a Party" you may be as hooked as I was. Her voice has great variety, her arrangements are classic. Since Amazon puts up clips for you to hear, listen to "Let's Have a Party" and "Fujiyama Mama" for starters.

I bought this CD and played it for my rock n' roll loving mate and he was absolutely smitten. He had never heard of Wanda Jackson, but now she's his favorite.

If you love Elvis, Rock 'n Roll, you will adore Wanda Jackson and this CD is not only great for the songs it includes but it has SO MANY OF THEM. You cannot go wrong with this CD.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Rockabilly, May 25, 2006

By	El Freak (Mooringsport, LA USA) - See all my reviews

When I listened to this for the first time, I fell out of my chair. Next thing I knew my [...] started shakin' involuntarily. This has GOT to be some of the most raw and rockin' stuff to come out of the 1950's. After I recovered the first question that came to my mind was "WHY IN THE HELL AIN'T I NEVER HEARD OF THIS BEFORE?" The answer's simple: 1950's America could barely handle Elvis and Gene Vincent, and there ain't no way in hell they woulda been ready to handle a sexy white Southern gal doing the same thing. Wanda may not have been the first woman to sing rockabilly, nor was she the last by any means, but whereas the rest of these women seemed just a bit too "ladylike" to really cut raw rockabilly, Wanda was the exact opposite. This is stuff about drinkin', hell-raisin' and fornicatin', as all rockabilly should be, and her performances here give off a raw sexual energy that even Elvis, Gene, and Jerry Lee had a tough time matching. Wanda was not exclusively a rockabilly singer, most of her career was spent in the country genre, but her country stuff, as good as it is, can't hold a candle to this. One other thing that set Wanda apart in my mind from many of the other female rockabillies is there's never a sense of cutesiness or that she was only doing it to sell a few more 45's. Like Elvis, Carl, Jerry Lee and all the rest of 'em, this was girl was country born and bred but had a deep love and respect for the blues and r&b. And when it comes to the blues, this chick can hang with Big Mama Thornton, Ruth Brown or any of the rest of 'em. Also, all rockabilly has GOT to have some bangin' and twangin' guitar work on it, and this doesn't disappoint. If I'm not mistaken, most of the guitar on these tracks was by legendary session cat Joe Maphis, and the rest feature Roy Clark(!). Both absolutely burn. Anyway, to summarize, buy it. You'll be dancing around the room shortly afterwards.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Queen of Rockabilly, have to pretty much agree with that, July 28, 2004

By	nebula42 - See all my reviews

I love the twangy rockabilly guitar sound and was looking for some oldies type music, but didn't want the mainstream stuff so much. Some of the new music out there is great, but I really wanted to get to the heart of rockabilly guitar sounds. I searched Amazon for Rockabilly CDs and this Wanda Jackson one caught my eye. Listened to some of the tracks and went to all of the local stores. Couldn't find the CD anywhere, so I purchased here on Amazon. Received it in just 3 days, and am really, really happy with it. Great guitars and lots of fun rock and roll. Don't make the same mistake I made at first and buy her country stuff - I thought her other CDs would have some Rockabilly stuff on them - WRONG! This Queen of Rockabilly is the CD to get for Wanda's rock and roll stuff.