Woman of Influence: All Hail Queen Wanda

Maud, Oklahoma, by some stroke of cosmic genius, is the birthplace of rock ‘n’ roll royalty.

Wanda LaVonne Jackson was born on Oct. 20, 1937, the only child of Tom and Nellie Jackson. Her dad, an amateur musician, held a variety of jobs — delivery driver, gas station attendant and cab driver among them. In the early 1940s the Jackson family moved to California in search of work opportunities, part of the exodus of so-called Okies who fled the Great Depression, Dust Bowl and limited opportunities of their home state. During the period between the 1930s and ’40s, it’s estimated that Oklahoma experienced a net loss of some 440,000 people. 

Wanda Jackson in Nashville’s White Avenue Studio in November 2017

By the time our heroine was 9, the family had made its way back to Oklahoma City. She’d already been playing music for three years at this point, having been given her first guitar by her dad when she was 6. Her mother, in a clever whereabouts-tracking maneuver, had encouraged the girl to sing when she was out of sight.

In an interview with “Voices of Oklahoma,” Jackson elaborated. “She was a workaholic, is the best word to describe her. I don’t remember anything but chasing Mother around the house if I wanted to talk to her. Now, if I could catch her ironing, then I could sit down and we could talk. She was very pretty, rather short in stature, but very slim. When you work that hard, you’re gonna be slim. Very jovial, you know, she sang as she worked a lot. I remember her smile; great big smile. A very happy person,” Jackson said. And her father? “Oh, I think of Daddy as being very laid back, real cool — he loved music, he loved to dance, he loved to tell jokes, that sort of thing. Just about everybody that knew Daddy liked him. He was just that type of person.”

By the time Jackson was in junior high, she was singing in church, and at friends’ houses after Sunday evening services. She told “Voices of Oklahoma” that that was how she learned to sing in front of people. “Mother said, ‘You never had to ask Wanda twice to sing.’ If somebody just mentioned it, I’d run and get my guitar because I liked to perform in front of people.”

Today, after decades of performing in front of people en route to becoming a musical legend, Jackson’s overarching vibe is one of good-natured happiness. She just seems amused by all the fuss, cheerful and filled with gratitude. She’s funny and smart as a whip. Her stories are wonderful to hear, told in an elegant, somewhat soft-spoken style so different from her gutsy, growly singing style. The contrast is so great that a documentary film about her was titled The Sweet Lady with the Nasty Voice.

Jackson dated — who else? — the King himself, Elvis Presley. The two were part of an extended package tour during 1955 and ’56, just as Presley was becoming a full-blown superstar. In an interview with James Sullivan for Rolling Stone, she said demurely, “Our dating amounted to what we could do on the road” — not to mention what they could do with her father, her manager, in tow. “If we got in town early, we might take in a matinee movie. Then after shows we could go places with his band — and my dad, of course.”

Photo by Jeff Faso

Presley certainly helped to propel her career into the stratosphere when he advised her to make her mark in the wild, male-dominated musical genre of rockabilly. She talked to Rolling Stone about the epiphany he triggered with his suggestion, saying “He broke into my train of thought and made me realize I could stretch myself. I could do more than I thought I could.” 

Some people are born for the world’s stage, and Jackson is one of them. She’s revered by musicians Elvis Costello, Jack White and Bruce Springsteen. She kept up a relentless touring schedule, performing 120 shows a year well into her 70s. She’s been written about, obsessed over, discovered, rediscovered and celebrated.

In 2011, a New York Times feature about her had this to say: “... through it all she has become a shimmying emblem of female independence in a male-dominated industry, testing boundaries with her forward style and lyrics about mean men and hard-headed women (and those are the love songs).” 

Jackson’s well-deserved accolades have been numerous: She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009 as an early influencer, and served as a spokeswoman for its “Women in Rock” exhibition. Terry Stewart, then president and CEO of the institution, said of her, “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.” 

In 2018 she was named Oklahoma’s 13th Cultural Treasure, sharing that distinction with writers, poets, performers and artists including John Hope Franklin, Ed Ruscha, N. Scott Momaday and Te Ata. The Oklahoma Arts Council bestows that high honor only to a select few individuals who are “considered especially precious or valuable by a particular period, class, community or population … must be 70 years of age or older, be a bearer of intangible cultural assets and have outstanding artistic or historical worth.” In 2023, a portrait of her by award-winning artist Tracey Harris was dedicated and will be permanently displayed at Oklahoma’s State Capitol.

The Luxiere List: The Sound of a Sensation

For those uninitiated to the power and the glory of Wanda Jackson, do yourselves a favor and take a truncated YouTube tour of her incredible career. Start here:

“Hard-Headed Woman,” which she cheekily referred to as “one of the most beautiful love songs ever written” on a 1958 television appearance

“Shakin’ All Over,” which she featured on her 30th studio album, 2011’s The Party Ain’t Over, a collaboration with Jack White

“Let’s Have a Party,” is a rollicking showcase of her signature growly vocals

“Pick Me Up on Your Way Down,” a pure honky-tonk tune

“In the Middle of a Heartache,” Jackson’s biggest hit in 1961

“Cool Love,” on which her guitar style is described as “badass”

“Right or Wrong,” a 1960 return to Jackson’s country roots

“Fujiyama Mama,” recorded with Jack White, which hit No. 1

in Japan

“Thunder on the Mountain,” also in collab with White and originally recorded by Bob Dylan — a high-energy great time.