Wanda Jackson’s musical success rooted in Oklahoma
Wanda Jackson (The Oklahoman Archives photo)
A version of this story appears in Thursday’s The Oklahoman.
Often known as the Queen of Rockabilly and First Lady of Rock and Roll, Wanda Jackson was born in Maud in 1937.
In 1941, with the country caught in the throes of the Great Depression, her family moved to California. When she was about 12, the family returned to Oklahoma City, where Jackson has lived since.
While attending Capitol Hill High School, she won a local talent contest and was offered a 15-minute daily show on radio station KLPR. Country singer Hank Thompson heard her perform and urged her to record with the Brazos Valley Boys. In 1954, when she was just 17, “You Can’t Have My Love” became her first hit.
She started singing rock ‘n’ roll in 1956. She tried the style at the urging of up-and-coming singer Elvis Presley, with whom she toured and dated.
The two-time Grammy nominee later returned to recording country music and also performed as a gospel artist. A perennial rock star in Europe and Japan, her rock career revived in the U.S. in the 1990s with a resurgence of rockabilly.
She was inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2000, and in 2005, she earned the National Endowment for the Arts’ National Heritage Fellowship Award. A documentary, “Wanda Jackson: The Sweet Lady With the Nasty Voice,” featuring Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello and Lemmy Kilmister, was released in 2007.
In April, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame under the early influences category.
“A Conversation With … Wanda Jackson,” an in-depth OETA special about her, will debut at 9 p.m. Tuesday on the PBS station.
-BAM
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