Rockin' in the Country

Blessed with the sexiest voice since Elvis Presley, Wanda Jackson defied white female stereotypes of the late ’50s with sizzling rockabilly and rock & roll singles considered too hot to be hits. Hitching her country roots to the rhythm & blues wagon, Wanda added a devastating come-hither tone that spoke volumes. Rockin’ in the Country, a concise retrospective (14 tracks; 18 on CD), contains the best of her bad- girl classics (”Let’s Have a Party,” ”Fujiyama Mama,” etc.), but gives equal time to her less rambunctious Nashville country work of the ’60s. B+