Every Night Is Saturday Night: A Country Girl's Journey To The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

by Wanda Jackson, Elvis Costello (Foreword by), Scott B. Bomar

Overview

Wanda Jackson's debut single, "You Can't Have My Love," reached the Top 10 while she was still a sixteen-year-old high school student. She hit the road after graduation, playing package shows with Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis Presley, who gave Wanda his ring and asked her to be "his girl." With Presley's encouragement, the Oklahoma native began recording rock music, often releasing singles with country on one side and rock on the other during her decade-and-a-half tenure on Capitol Records. Known for her energetic stage shows and pioneering presence as a female artist, Wanda stormed the charts with a series of hit singles, including "Let's Have a Party," "Right or Wrong," and "In the Middle of a Heartache." With more than 40 albums to her credit, Wanda has proven to be an enduring and genre-defying legend of American music. In Every Night is Saturday Night, Wanda tells her own story of getting discovered by Country Music Hall of Famer Hank Thompson; shy she refused to return to The Grand Ole Opry for more than fifty years; the challenges she and her integrated band, The Party Timers, faced in the early 1960s; finding the love of her life; her recent work with rock luminaries Jack White and Joan Jett; and how her deep faith has sustained her over more than seven decades of rocking, shocking, and thrilling audiences around the globe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781947026926
Publisher:	BMG Books
Publication date:	10/20/2022
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Known as the queen of rockabilly, Wanda Jackson combined grit with glamour to set a new template for country music's "girl singers" of the 1950s. Wanda is a multiple Grammy nominee, a recipient of the Americana Music Association's Lifetime Achievement Award, and a 2009 inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Scott B. Bomar is an award-winning and Grammy nominated writer who has authored or co-authored several books, including Southbound: An Illustrated History of Southern Rock; The Bakersfield Sound: Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, and California Country; and The "Odessey": The Zombies in Words and Images. Elvis Costello is a Grammy award-winning musician And Rock & Roll Hall of Famer whose career spans almost four decades.

Table of Contents

Foreword v

Preface vii

Chapter 1 Back Then 1

Chapter 2 California Stars 11

Chapter 3 No Place to Go but Home 21

Chapter 4 Turn Your Radio On 31

Chapter 5 Lovin' Country Style 41

Chapter 6 You Can't Have My Love 51

Chapter 7 Tears at the Grand Ole Opry 63

Chapter 8 I Wish I Was Your Friend 75

Chapter 9 Rock Your Baby 85

Chapter 10 If You Don't, Somebody Else Will 97

Chapter 11 I Gotta Know 109

Chapter 12 Let's Have a Party 121

Chapter 13 Fujiyama Mama 131

Chapter 14 Both Sides of the Line 141

Chapter 15 Right or Wrong 151

Chapter 16 You're the One for Me 161

Chapter 17 A Woman Lives for Love 171

Chapter 18 Santo Domingo 181

Chapter 19 Kickin' Our Hearts Around 191

Chapter 20 Tears Will Be the Chaser for Your Wine 201

Chapter 21 I Saw the Light 211

Chapter 22 My Testimony 221

Chapter 23 Rockabilly Fever 231

Chapter 24 Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On 241

Chapter 25 Thunder on the Mountain 249

Chapter 26 In the Middle of a Heartache 257

Chapter 27 Treat Me Like a Lady 265

Editorial Reviews

"I love her. She’s so brilliant. I don’t think Rollin’ in the Deep would exist if it wasn’t for Wanda Jackson.” —Adele

"Look around today and you can hear lots of rocking girl singers who owe an unconscious debt to the mere idea of a woman like Wanda. She was standing up on stage with a guitar in her hands and making a sound that was as wild and raw as any rocker, man or woman, while other gals were still asking, 'How much is that doggy in the window?'" —Elvis Costello

“She’s influential to every modern female singer, whether they know about her or not. She broke down those walls in the beginning, when it was the hardest to do.” —Jack White

“There’s an authenticity in her voice that conjures up a world and a very distinct and particular place in time.” —Bruce Springsteen

“As you look up the history of your roots in music, you don’t find a lot of women. But Wanda Jackson was right there, at the beginning of it….“I learned to sing rock ’n’ roll by listening to Wanda Jackson, but I learned about country music from her, too.” —Cyndi Lauper

​“Wanda Jackson, an atomic fireball of a lady, could have a smash hit with just about anything.” —Bob Dylan

From the Publisher