#9: Mean Mean Man by Wanda Jackson

City: London, ON
Radio Station: CKSL
Peak Month: October 1958
Peak Position in London ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Mean Mean Man”
Lyrics: “Mean Mean Man”

Wanda Lavonne Jackson was born in 1937 in Maud, Oklahoma. According to Wolf Kurt in his essay, “You Can’t Catch Me: Rockabilly Bursts Through The Door,” Jackson’s dad was a musician. In search of a better life, he relocated the family to Bakersfield, California, in the 1940’s. While in Bakersfield, her dad purchased Wanda a guitar and taught her to play. Tom Jackson also took his daughter to live concerts by Spade Cooley, Tex Williams and Bob Wills, which opened her eyes and ears to the exciting world of country and western music. It was when she was eleven years old that her family returned to Oklahoma in the fall of 1948. In 1954, while she was still sixteen years old, Wanda Jackson started to sing professionally in Oklahoma City. While in high school, Jackson had been discovered by country music recording artist, Hank Thompson, who heard Wanda singing KLPR-AM in Oklahoma City. Thompson asked Wanda to sing with his band, the Brazos Valley Boys. This led to her recording several  songs with Capitol Records. Among those was a duet with the Brazos Valley Boys bandleader, Billy Gray titled “You Can’t Have My Love”. The song climbed to #8 on the Billboard country chart.

From her initial success, Wanda Jackson approached Capitol Records to give her a record contract. However, she was told by producer Ken Nelson that Capitol wasn’t interested because “Girls don’t sell records.” Subsequently, Wanda Jackson got a record deal with Decca Records.

Once she was finished high school, Wanda Jackson went on tour with her dad, Tom Jackson, who was her manager and chaperon. On numbers of occasions, in 1955, she was on the same concert roster as Elvis Presley. It was Presley who persuaded her to switch her sound from country and western to rockabilly. Wanda dated Elvis for a short time while on tour. Meanwhile, Jackson was given a spot on the ABC-TV show Ozark Jubilee, broadcast from in Springfield, Missouri. She stayed with the show from 1955 to 1960. With these developments, Capitol Records reconsidered their decision to turn down Jackson’s interest in a record deal. In 1956 she signed with Capitol. Among the recordings to come out of her studio sessions that year was “I Gotta Know”.It climbed to #15 on the national country charts in America.

According to Wolf Kurt, the stage outfits Wanda Jackson wore in concert were mostly made and designed by her mother, Nellie Jackson. Instead of the peasant clothing worn by female country music singers of the time, she wore fringed dresses, high heels and long earrings. Wanda Jackson would later remark that she was the first woman to put “glamor into country music.”

Wanda Jackson recorded more rockabilly singles into the late 50’s with producer Ken Nelson. She wanted her sound to resemble Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps. Among the session musicians playing on her recordings was the then unknown Buck Owens. Owens went on to chart 21 songs to #1 on the Billboard Country chart and co-host a country music show beginning in 1969 called Hee-Haw.

In 1958, Wanda Jackson released three singles. One of these was “Mean Mean Man”.

“Mean Mean Man” was written by Wanda Jackson. The song makes a list of the kind of guy a gal loves, despite his many faults. His shortcomings include: a) he’s a mean, mean man, b) he’s never around when she wants him, c) he’s never on time, he’s always late, d) and he forgets to kiss her goodnight.

“Mean Mean Man” peaked at #3 in London (ON).

Among the singles Jackson released was “Fujiyama Mama”, which became a #1 chart topper in Japan in 1958. In February and March 1959 she went on tour in Japan.

In 1960 Wanda Jackson was a concert headliner traveling  with her band the Party Timers. Among her bandmates was guitarist new to the scene named Roy Clark. Jackson’s followup single release was titled “Happy Happy Birthday“. This was a shortened song title from a hit three years earlier by an R&B doo-wop group from Woburn, Massachusetts, named The Tune Weavers. She also had a hit in 1960 titled “Let’s Have A Party” which peaked at #6 in Australia, and #17 in the Netherlands.

In 1961 Wanda Jackson got into the Top Ten on the Billboard Country charts with a #9 hit titled “Right or Wrong”, followed by a #6 hit titled “In The Middle Of A Heartache”. The latter tune stalled at #27 on the Billboard Hot 100, but climbed to #9 on CKWX in Vancouver. Jackson also had a Top 20 hit in 1961 with “Riot In Cell Block Number Nine”, a cover of a song by the R&B group the Robbins who later became The Coasters.

Between 1954 and 1974 Wanda Jackson had nearly 30 singles make the Billboard country chart in the USA. Most country and western fans are unaware of her earlier rockabilly roots and impact on rock ‘n roll. In 2009 she released a tribute album titled I Remember Elvis.

In November 2017, Wanda Jackson’s autobiography, Every Night Is Saturday Night: A Country Girl’s Journey to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was published. In her eightieth year, in 2017, some of the cities Wanda Jackson has played in concert are Nashville, Chicago, Toronto, Long Beach, Los Angeles and Santa Ana, California.

Now at the age of 87, the Queen of Rockabilly is still in the music business. In August 2021, she recorded her thirty-second and final studio album, Encore. 

March 17, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
Jackson, Wanda, with Bomar, Scott. Every Night Is Saturday Night: A Country Girl’s Journey to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  BMG Books, Berlin, Germany, 2017.

CKSL 1410-AM London (ON) Top Ten | October 11, 1958