Happy Birthday, Wanda Jackson

Queen of Rockabilly was a Continental Club fave until she retired in 2019

Wanda’s band circa 1960. Roy Clark was once a member of the Party Timers. Is that him second from the left?

Wanda Jackson was the first female rock 'n' roll star, a primped-up pioneer who snarled and hiccupped over a furious beat and made the audience members "get gone" at a time when a woman's place was on the dance floor.

Raven hair, ruby lips, wearing sexy, form-fitting dresses; the Oklahoma native had no right to grab rockabilly by the ducktail and spin it around. But she did, brilliantly, explosively, with such rockabilly classics as "Fujiyama Mama" (1957), "Honey Bop" (1958), "Mean Mean Man" (1960), which she wrote, and especially "Let's Have a Party." Jackson recorded her signature tune "Party" in 1958, but it was somehow ignored for two years until an Iowa disc jockey dusted it off, started playing it and watched the phone lines light up.

Written by Jessie Mae Robinson, from Newton County, TX, "Let's Have a Party" can hold its own with any single of the rockabilly era, including "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" by Jerry Lee Lewis, "Blue Suede Shoes" by Carl Perkins, "Good Golly Miss Molly" from Little Richard and anything Elvis Presley did. And yet it peaked at No. 37 on the Billboard charts. Amazingly, it was her only rock 'n' roll single to hit the Top 40.

In the exhaustive radio documentary "Whole Lotta Shakin'" (hosted by Austin's Rosie Flores, one of many who owes her career to Wanda), Jackson says, "In rock, they didn't think we belonged there," summing up the sexism she and such peers as Janis Martin, Charline Arthur and Cordell Jackson were faced with in the era of "Father Knows Best." Even to this day, Wanda Jackson is better known for her fling with Elvis Presley than her body of work. When Big E sang "Wear My Ring Around Your Neck," he was singing it to Wanda, who still has the ring. Somehow that band is more significant to many than the ones featuring guitarists Joe Maphis, Roy Clark and Dave Ronson and pianist Al Downing, whose salaries Jackson paid in the late '50s and early '60s, when she was "the sweet lady with the nasty voice."

The daughter of a car salesman, Wanda Jackson began her career as a country singer, discovered by Hank Thompson on Oklahoma City radio station KLPR in 1954 while she was still in high school. Her notorious sass could be heard on "You Can't Have My Love," a duet with Thompson's bandleader Billy Gray that landed at No. 8 on the country charts.

Working package shows in Texas and Louisiana in 1956, Jackson met rising star Presley, who took her home to Memphis and played her the "race records" that influenced his fusion of country and blues. The two also shared a love of gospel music.

By the early '60s, the rockabilly craze had waned and Jackson went back to her first love. On one day in Nashville in 1961, she cut "Right or Wrong" and "In the Middle of a Heartache," both Top 10 country singles that crossed over to the pop charts.

In 1971, Jackson and her husband, Wendell Goodman, became born-again Christians. When she signed with gospel label Myrrh Records, the deal was that she'd continue to also cut country records, but when that company was sold, the new ownership had no interest in marketing one of their artists to country radio. Jackson was forced to record only gospel until the end of her five-year contract, which, she told historian Rich Kienzle on the liner notes to the Rhino compilation Rockin' In the Country, gave the false impression that she'd left rock and country to sing only for the Lord.

Bless European roots fans for never forgetting those incredible rockabilly sides Jackson cut years earlier. When the singer toured England and Scandanavia during the late '70s punk explosion, she was hailed as visiting rock royalty, with such hot acts as the Clash, Pearl Harbour & the Explosions and Elvis Costello genuflecting in her presence.

Austin never lost track of Miss Wanda J either, with such acts as Flores, Lou Ann Barton, Marti Brom and Kelly Willis keeping Jackson's music in vogue in this rockabilly hotbed. For the several years in October, the Continental Club hosted a Wanda Jackson birthday tribute, with the woman of honor taking the stage just after midnight. But Jackson, who turns 84 today, has retired due to health reasons.

But, hot dog, she drove ‘em mad! When 300 fans packed the club on South Congress and the first lady of rock 'n' roll sang “Let’s Have a Party,” folks here knew it wasn’t just a suggestion. Austin “got” Wanda Jackson better than anywhere in the U.S.