Wanda Jackson

The Queen of Rockabilly not only long-outlived most of her '50s peers — the likes of Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Johnny Burnette, and her former boyfriend, Elvis Presley — she dismissed any possibility of septuagenarian retirement by joining forces with Jack White on 2011's The Party Ain't Over: on cuts like the Dylan cover "Thunder Mountain" the still-sassy Wanda Jackson rewinds the clock five decades with a flamin' creosote vocal first heard during rock 'n' roll's early years. Check out 1956's "I Gotta Know" and her 1960 trans-Atlantic hit version of Presley's "Let's Have a Party," which still sounds dangerous more than half-a-century down the line.

Jackson rips it up, and then some, in Next Steps.

The seeds of Wanda Jackson's reputation as a wild woman, back in the day, can be found right here, on tracks dedicated to the pursuit of fun — 'round the time that she cut "Man We Had a Party" and "There's a Party Goin' On," she named her touring band the Party Timers (featuring Big Al Downing and Roy Clark) for obvious reasons. Buddy Holly gets the Jackson treatment on "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" and an expertly yodeled version of "Rave On," and with the 1958 stand-out, "Honey Bop" — with its edgy vocal and back-alley guitar — we get a snapshot of the groundbreaking artist who convinced her producer Ken Nelson that she could give Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps a run for their money.

Jackson's country roots show through, in Deep Cuts.

Wanda Jackson broke the mould for female country artists with mid-'50s stage outfits, which were (relatively, at least) a little risqué — but even though high heels, long earrings, and fringe dresses set her sartorial tone, and rock 'n' roll fueled her firecracker reputation, she never lost a deep love of country, often backing her rockabilly singles with something closer to Nashville. "Why I'm Walkin'" is a hell of a heartbreaker, and a strong suggestion that, given an alternative career twist, she could've been as big as Patsy Cline; if you need any more convincing of that, cue up her take on "Crazy." As for Jackson's "Blue Moon Of Kentucky," with its rumblin' drums and wild guitar work . . . that's a different kind of crazy.

It's a long haul from winning an Oklahoma City talent contest in 1952 to hooking up with Jack White for 2011's The Party Ain't Over, but then again, the limits of Wanda Jackson's endurance in the rock 'n' roll business seriously defy belief. Here she is, the girl who once dated Elvis Presley, now lighting the trail to her mid-seventies with vocal wildfire, showing a crew of reverential whipper-snappers exactly how it's done. Back in the old days, she sent a frisson of shock through the Grand Ole Opry — where other country girls dabbed perfume behind their ears, Jackson seemingly favored a thick smear of moonshine — but became a born-again Christian in the '70s, and looked to the revivalist rockabilly clubs of Europe to keep her legend alive as the subsequent decades unfolded. Recently came her alliance with the aforementioned Mr. White: the perfect excuse to soak up some of that incredible Jackson energy and check out her back catalog . . . and that's what these Essentials are all about.