Wanda Jackson - 'Rockin' With Wanda!'

 

I have written before about how my older brother and I used to listen to music in his bedroom during the late 1950s, in Brooklyn.  One of those records was ‘Rockin’ With Wanda!’ I knew all the words to the album, and my twelve-year-old self would dance and sing along with Wanda.

One afternoon, I was sitting at our kitchen table with my mother and brother.  My mother had just made a batch of little French sponge cakes called Madeleines (left).  While we were eating them, my brother said, "Hey Babs, give us a little Wanda!".  


So I jumped up, shook my hips, and started singing:

"Rock your baby, all night long
Rock your baby, all night long
Take me in your arms and whisper low
Then rock your baby and don't be slow"

While I was singing, my brother tapped out the beat on the kitchen table, saying, "Go Babs, go!".  As I took a breath to continue, my mother screamed at the top of her lungs, "Zhez-oo-kree!" (phonetic spelling of Jésus-Christ in French).  She then told me, "You're going to end up in hell!" and asked me, "Where did you hear that, from Denise (yep, you guessed it, "The Grease")?", I told her "No from Wanda".  She told me, "I don't want you hanging around this Wanda girl."  This caused by brother to burst out laughing, and he told her condescendingly, "Wanda Jackson is a singer…she makes records.", he looked at me and said, "She's so el-seven".  My now infuriated mother asked, "What is all this el-seven nonsense?" I told my mother, "It means your square.", and I made an "L" with my thumb and forefinger of my right hand and then joined it with the thumb and forefinger of my right hand shaped like a "7", and rolled my eyes.  

My mother walked across the kitchen, opened a drawer, came back with an extra large commercial/weapons grade wooden spoon, and smacked my still laughing brother on the back of his head with it, and told him, "Laugh that off, you little merde (French for shit)!  My brother said, "OW!", and started laughing even harder, much to the chagrin of my mother.  She then shook the spoon in my direction, and asked me, "Would you like one across your cul (French slang for ass or butt), young lady?" I was laughing so hard, I could only shake my head no.  Ten minutes later, it was like it never happened (Corsicans are like this).  For some reason, my mother never cursed, or "took the lord's name in vain" in English, always French.

Be that as it may…

Wanda Jackson was born in Maud, Oklahoma in 1937.  She was a pioneer in the music industry and paved the way for future generations of female rock and country artists.  Since the 1950s, she has recorded and released music in the genres of rock, country, and gospel.  She was among the first women to have a career in rock and roll, recording a series of 1950s singles that helped give her the nickname "The Queen of Rockabilly". 

In 2009, Wanda was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, she was also inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,^[the Oklahoma Hall of Fame and the Oklahoma Country Music Hall of Fame. 

On an international level, she has been inducted into the International Gospel Hall of Fame and the German Country Music Hall of Fame.  [In other news, there's a German Country Music Hall of Fame. Who knew? - Ed]

Don't let this cutesy cover fool you, this is scorching Rockabilly.  Wanda rips into originals like "Fujiyama Mama" (which was actually big in Japan, and way before "Big in Japan" was a thing), the anthem-like, and my sentimental favorite "Rock Your Baby".  She complains about her "Mean, Mean Man"(a red-hot rocker), and enjoys testing her boyfriend in "Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad!".  Wanda also deftly combines the two secular genres she loves the most in "I Gotta Know" which switches the beat from rock verses to country chorus.

'Rockin' With Wanda!' is right up there with anything Bo, Chuck, Buddy, Gene, Jerry, Elvis, Richard, and Eddie did in the late 1950s early 1960s.  It's also, without question, the best female rock & roll album of the late 1950s early 1960s.

For the freeload, who's your favorite female artist(s)?