Wanda Jackson Rockin' With Wanda CD

Originally released on Capitol (1384). Includes liner notes by Holly George-Warren.

While 1958's WANDA JACKSON and 1959's THERE'S A PARTY GOIN' ON were albums of new material that explored the country and pop sides of Wanda Jackson, 1960's ROCKIN' WITH WANDA is a bracing collection of the first four years' worth of singles by the rockabilly spitfire. Classic rockabilly sides like the lascivious "Fujiyama Mama" and the whooping "Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad" are among the finest examples of the style -- male or female -- ever recorded, and even less well known cuts like "Baby Loves Him" and "Dona'a Wan'a" are a hoot. This is the essential Wanda Jackson document.

When Capitol Records assembled Wanda Jackson's self-titled debut album in 1958, the label was trying to suggest her versatility as a singer who could handle vocal pop and country as well as the rockabilly with which she was most closely associated. As the title of her next Capitol album, 1960s Rockin' with Wanda, suggested, there was less of an attempt at variety (although there were still a couple of examples of her talent for country, and "Don'a Wan'a" had a Latin flavor). The 12-track LP was actually a compilation collecting singles sides dating back to her 1956 Capitol debut 45, "I Gotta Know," the most recent being "You're the One for Me," which had been released a year earlier. (Although all of the tracks had been released previously on singles, none had appeared on an LP before.) This was the raucous Wanda Jackson, barely contained on rave-ups like "Fujiyama Mama" and "Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad," a performer worthy of being called the distaff Elvis Presley. Focusing attention on her talents as a rocker, the album should have broken Jackson into the rock realm, and it might have but for the late-breaking success of "Let's Have a Party," another up-tempo number that was not on the album. Clearly, too, 1960 was a little late for crowning a rockabilly queen, and by the following year Jackson was recording more frequently in a country vein. Nevertheless, Rockin' with Wanda stands as her finest achievement, at least as far as boppers are concerned. There was a British CD reissue that added four tracks and re-sequenced the album, but more impressive is the 2002 U.S. reissue, which adds another six songs (most of them more country than rock) drawn from the same batch of singles that produced the original 12. ~ William Ruhlmann

All tracks have been digitally remastered.

Vintage Alt-Country - Includes 6 Non-Album Bonus Tracks.

Audio Remasterer: David McEowen.

Liner Note Author: Holly George-Warren.