Testing boundaries with ‘wildcat’ vocals and shaking hips

When Wanda Jackson, 73, took the stage for a sold-out show in Brooklyn recently, it was all cat growls, howls and hip swivels - and that was from Ms. Jackson herself.

The audience followed suit, with a chorus of fans joining in on her song “I Gotta Know.” She recorded it in 1956, not long after she began dating Elvis Presley.

Elvis changed her life. In 1958 Ms. Jackson recorded “Let’s Have a Party,” which he originally performed . Her version became a hit, cementing her place in music history among the first women to record a rock song. She has since swung from rock to country to gospel, and earned a cult following as the Queen of Rockabilly.

Now, like Johnny Cash and Loretta Lynn , she is working with a younger producer . “The Party Ain’t Over,” Ms. Jackson’s first studio album in eight years, is being produced by Jack White, a paragon of contemporary rock, formerly of The White Stripes. Everyone involved hopes it will afford Ms. Jackson a level of attention closer to her more famous contemporaries like Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash .

“She’s influential to every modern female singer, whether they know about her or not,” Mr. White said.

Since she was discovered at 15 in Oklahoma City, Ms. Jackson’s career has been etched by men: Hank Thompson, the country star who got her signed ; Elvis, who encouraged her to sing rock instead of country; Wendell Goodman, her husband of 50 years, her tour manager and constant companion; and now Mr. White. But through it all she has become a shimmying emblem of female independence , testing boundaries with her forward style and lyrics about mean men and hard-headed women.

Terry Stewart, the president and chief executive of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, said, “She’s still working sort of a wildcat sound, and she had it as a young lady, which was pretty much unheard of at the time.”

Ms. Jackson was inducted in 2009 as an early influencer . And she continues to tour in the United States and abroad.

She worried that her rockabilly fans would rebel at her recording contemporary stuff. But Mr. White, who first heard “Let’s Have a Party” as a teenager in a cover by the 5678s, an all-girl Japanese group, put her at ease quickly, helped by the familiar songs he selected: the Andrews Sisters’ “Rum and Coca-Cola,” Bob Dylan’s “Thunder on the Mountain” and the country staple “Dust on the Bible.” Ms. Jackson suggested an Elvis tune, “Like a Baby. ”

One song that Mr. White offered made his singer balk - Amy Winehouse’s “You Know That I’m No Good.” Some of the lyrics were too raunchy for Ms. Jackson, a bornagain Christian . So Mr. White rewrote them. “He sang in my headphones with me to teach me the melody,” Ms. Jackson said, “and then once I got it I said, ‘Oh yeah, this is a great song.’ ”

Now Ms. Jackson is being discovered by a young generation of artists. “I watch YouTubes of her all the time,” said Zooey Deschanel, the actress and one-half of the indie-pop duo She & Him. “I’m obsessed with her. ”

Ms. Jackson said she wished she’d had as much fame early in her career as her contemporaries. “I expected to be a big star and I got to be a star, but not that big star I wanted to be,” she said. But, she added, “I have more celebrity status now than I ever had in my life, and I appreciate it more. ”

She has also, without much fuss, outlasted nearly all her male contemporaries.


By MELENA RYZIK