Queen Of Rockabilly

Wanda Jackson was a maverick - the first and only white female rocker with attitude. Raven-haired and heavy-lidded, Jackson dared you to believe there was something deliciously forbidden about a wild rock'n'roll tune like Mean Mean Man, not least because she recorded so few of them in a career that took her from country to rock'n'roll then back to country again. Though it's not readily apparent or commonly perceived, Wanda Jackson broke the mould in more ways than one.

When producer Ken Nelson signed Wanda to Capitol in the spring of 1956, Elvis was on the brink of global stardom. Wanda had toured the South with him back in 1955 when he was a little-known but promising newcomer on the Sun label. At that time, they shared the same booking agent, Bob Neal of Memphis, and continued to cross paths on hillbilly package tours until early 1956.

Usurped by rock'n'roll, traditional country music was in a state of flux as it began to embrace, somewhat reluctantly, its bastard off-shoot, rockabilly. Wanda appears to have allowed herself to be marketed (in an unwritten, even unspoken, way) as a kind of female counterpart to Elvis, a clear indication of the way record industry minds were working during this time of uncertainty. It seemed to make sense. She and Elvis shared the same sultry physical appeal and, as Colin Escott put it, "like Elvis, her sensuality was coupled with a beguiling awshuckiness."