Wanda Lavonne Jackson (born October 20, 1937) is an American singer, songwriter, pianist and guitarist who is known as the "Queen of Rockabilly" or the "First Lady of Rockabilly".
Her professional career began while still attending high school when she was discovered by Hank Thompson in 1954, who heard her singing on a local radio station, and invited her to perform with his band, the Brazos Valley Boys. She recorded a few songs on their label, Capitol Records, including "You Can't Have My Love". The song was released as a single in 1954 and reached number 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." She signed with Decca Records instead.
After graduating from high school in 1955, Jackson began to tour, often sharing the bill with Elvis Presley, who encouraged her to sing rockabilly. In 1956 she signed with Capitol, recording a number of singles mixing country with rock and roll. 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"and "Honey Bop".
In 1960, Jackson had a Top 40 pop hit with "Let's Have a Party" and was headlining concerts with her own band, the Party Timers. Her country music career also began to take off with the self-penned "Right or Wrong", this is the b side of that single and gives me goosebumps every time I hear it.
By 1965, Jackson was focusing more exclusively on traditional country music and had a string of Top 40 hits during the next ten years.She also recorded some of her songs in German, Dutch and Japanese.
In the early 1970s she became a born again Christian and recorded some gospel albums. And in the early 1980s, she had a comeback touring England, Germany and Scandinavia and releasing Rockabilly Fever, her first secular album in a decade and her first recording of rock music in over twenty years.
