Wanda Jackson “Rockin’ With Wanda!” 1960. A compilation of a “dozen rockin’ swingin’ surprises” from the sweetest hellraising rockabilly voice ever. I love every single song on this album, especially because the first time I heard this album was listening to the mixtape pictured below from my now-husband who made it on this date 23 years ago. He lived in Milwaukee, I lived in Madison and we were just friends at the time. He mailed the tape to me just before I left on a post-college graduation trip to California – I showed it to a guy-friend of mine and his comment was “this dude is totally into you.”

I still get little jolts of delight as I spin this, especially “Rock Your Baby,” “Fujiyama Mama” (which hit #1 on the Japanese charts in 1958), “Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad,” “Baby Loves Him” (complete with references to blue suede shoes and pink Cadillacs) and  “Mean Mean Man.” We saw Wanda Jackson play at the small Cactus Club here in our Milwaukee neighborhood a few years ago and Wanda’s voice sounded as clear and sweet as it was 50 years ago.