Thanks for the recommendation—this fills out my late 50s Rock n' Roll collection very nicely! I will take talent from whoever brings it, but not having a woman's record with an album's worth of killer hits was a bummer to me. I'd heard I Gotta Know before and didn't care for it, but maybe the genre-bending I just wasn't ready for. I listened to Baby Loves Him now and got into it right away. Anyway, thanks again!
I think THIS review now has me really confused about how your red, green, and dark blue coloring for artists really work on the site. If you find Wanda Jackson’s singles worthy of the top rockabilly names of the decade, why is she not a green artist? Other artists that you praise a lot like Odetta, the Coasters, and Lonnie Donegan don’t get the green name color but why do the Shadows get it, a band you seem to not like all that much yourself? Is it based on influence, how long they were at their peak, how much great material did they release? I’m just not sure what the metric is for rating artists here.
Well, first of all, it's not hard science, and neither the numbers for specific albums nor the colors for specific artists should be taken too seriously. Second, it's all a bit of an intuitive average between my personal tastes and the general consensus. Third, colors are given relative to the categories rather than on an overall basis (so The Shadows are really "green" inside the "pre-Beatles UK rock" category, where they do truly stand out from everyone else). Fourth, I might indeed consider upgrading Wanda to "green" - those decisions are not set in stone.
I've been in love with Wanda's growl ever since I first heard it on "Hard Headed Woman". I don't know another female artist who managed to replicate it - Charlene Arthur comes close on some lines in "Kiss The Baby Goodnight" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmc2OV9lB0M), but that seems to be a minor gimmick for her. Suzi Quatro tries to do it, I think, but ends up sounding more like Sweet's Brian Conolly (which says more about his vocals than hers). And metal growl is just not THAT kind of growl - I don't even know how to search for it, because I end up with hits only for metal vocalists.
Thanks for the recommendation—this fills out my late 50s Rock n' Roll collection very nicely! I will take talent from whoever brings it, but not having a woman's record with an album's worth of killer hits was a bummer to me. I'd heard I Gotta Know before and didn't care for it, but maybe the genre-bending I just wasn't ready for. I listened to Baby Loves Him now and got into it right away. Anyway, thanks again!
I think THIS review now has me really confused about how your red, green, and dark blue coloring for artists really work on the site. If you find Wanda Jackson’s singles worthy of the top rockabilly names of the decade, why is she not a green artist? Other artists that you praise a lot like Odetta, the Coasters, and Lonnie Donegan don’t get the green name color but why do the Shadows get it, a band you seem to not like all that much yourself? Is it based on influence, how long they were at their peak, how much great material did they release? I’m just not sure what the metric is for rating artists here.
Well, first of all, it's not hard science, and neither the numbers for specific albums nor the colors for specific artists should be taken too seriously. Second, it's all a bit of an intuitive average between my personal tastes and the general consensus. Third, colors are given relative to the categories rather than on an overall basis (so The Shadows are really "green" inside the "pre-Beatles UK rock" category, where they do truly stand out from everyone else). Fourth, I might indeed consider upgrading Wanda to "green" - those decisions are not set in stone.
I've been in love with Wanda's growl ever since I first heard it on "Hard Headed Woman". I don't know another female artist who managed to replicate it - Charlene Arthur comes close on some lines in "Kiss The Baby Goodnight" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmc2OV9lB0M), but that seems to be a minor gimmick for her. Suzi Quatro tries to do it, I think, but ends up sounding more like Sweet's Brian Conolly (which says more about his vocals than hers). And metal growl is just not THAT kind of growl - I don't even know how to search for it, because I end up with hits only for metal vocalists.
Well, Brenda Lee could do it, too, although sparingly, mainly for emphasis, and mainly in the early years (this original 'Jambalaya' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx7Q98Owh4U rocks much harder than the live version on the Ed Sullivan show, for instance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akIltjLjzrU).
But nobody really went as far out as Wanda, that's for sure.
Now I also remember how Ella Fitzgeral did Louis Armstrong impression on "Mack the Knife" (https://youtu.be/6vXAtVbZbkI?t=183)