DESCRIPTION:
It had to happen sooner or later, I guess...me covering one of Wanda Jackson's Rockabilly oldies, "Rock Your Baby" (or "Rock Your Daddy" as I have re-tabbed it). Known to most rock'n roll afficionados as 'The Queen & First Lady of Rockabilly', Wanda sure cut some classic rock in her '50s heydays, there's no doubt about that! If you ain't seen her live performance of "Hard Headed Woman", rush on down and check it out here on YT, it's a total gas!! The reason that I personally cut "Rock Your Baby" was that I didn't want to copy one of her more well known '50s rockers, so this particular track came in pretty handy. Recorded at the same session as "Latch On" and a handful of other rockers, I used my trusty old Gretsch Country Gent throughout, without any particular overdubs in sight (I've always hated that and normally record at one take only and if it don't click right away, I simply erase it all and start on something else. On with the blue suede's then and start moving your feets...
TRIVIA: The early life and career of Wanda Jackson.
Wanda Lavonne Jackson was born in Maud, Oklahoma on October 20, 1937, but has lived much of her life in Oklahoma City. Her father, a musician, moved the family to California during the 1940s in hopes of a better life. Two years later, he bought Jackson a guitar and encouraged her to play.
Jackson began her professional career while still attending Capitol Hill High School in Oklahoma City after being discovered by Hank Thompson in 1954. She recorded a few songs on Capitol Records, including "You Can't Have My Love", a duet with Thompson's bandleader, Billy Gray. The song was released as a single in 1954 and reached No. 8 on the country chart. Jackson asked Capitol to sign her, but was turned down by producer Ken Nelson who told her, "Girls don't sell records." Instead, she signed with Decca Records.
After graduating from high school, Jackson began to tour with her father as manager and chaperon. She often shared the bill with Elvis Presley, who encouraged Jackson to sing rockabilly. In 1956 she signed with Capitol, recording a number of singles mixing country with rock and roll. "I Gotta Know", released in 1956, peaked at No. 15.
She continued to record more rockabilly singles through the decade with producer Ken Nelson. Jackson insisted that Nelson make her records sound like those of label mates Gene Vincent and The Blue Caps. Nelson brought in many experienced and popular session players, including rock and roll pianist Merrill Moore and the then unknown Buck Owens.
In the late 1950s, Jackson recorded and released a number of rockabilly songs, including "Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad," "Mean, Mean Man," "Fujiyama Mama" (which hit No. 1 in Japan) and "Honey Bop".
In 1960, Jackson had a Top 40 pop hit with "Let's Have a Party", a song Presley had cut three years earlier. She was headlining concerts with her own band, which she dubbed The Party Timers. Prominently featured were pianist Big Al Downing and guitarist Roy Clark, virtually unknown at the time. Her country music career also began to take off with the self-penned "Right or Wrong", a No. 9 hit, and "In The Middle of a Heartache", which peaked at No. 6.
The unexpected success of her records led Capitol to release a number of albums composed of her 1950s material, including 1960's Rockin' with Wanda and There's a Party Goin' On. In 1963, Jackson recorded a final album titled Two Sides of Wanda, which included both rock and roll and country music. The album earned Jackson her first Grammy nomination for Best Female Country Vocal Performance.
In 1965, Jackson made the move to country music as rockabilly declined in popularity, and had a string of Top 40 hits during the next ten years. In 1966, she released two singles that peaked in the country top 20, "Tears Will Be the Chaser For Your Wine" and "The Box it Came In". And the rest, as they say, is pretty much history...