LaVern Baker: Voodoo Voodoo (1961)

The sudden revival of Wanda Jackson's career - courtesy of Jack White and the album The Party Ain't Over in early 2011 -- has singled her out as a great female rock'n'roller at a time (the late Fifties) when she was out there on her own amongst all the boys.

Not exactly true.

There was also -- albeit briefly -- Janis Martin (whose hit My Boy Elvis she co-wrote with Aaron Schroeder who went on to pen I Got Stung, Good Luck Charm and It's Now or Never for the King) and . . . .

Okay, not many.

But LaVern Baker was a rhythm'n'blues belter who had a million seller with Jim Dandy in '56 (aka Jim Dandy to the Rescue, covered by Black Oak Arkansas) and later sang with Jackie Wilson . . . which makes sense when you hear her belt out Voodoo Voodoo with the great King Curtis on sax.

Unfortunately this was a coulda-been hit: she recorded it in '58 (that's before Jackson's Let's Have A Party) but it wasn't released until '61. And by that time -- with Buddy Holly dead, Elvis having been in the army, Chuck Berry in jail and Little Richard back in the church for a spell -- the first wave of raw rock'n'roll had passed.

At the time the charts were filled with more bland acts and this slice of r'n'b rock'n'roll would have sounded like a throwback to an earlier era.

This has been lifted from the excellent box set of Fifties/early Sixties rebel rock'n'roll Loud Fast and Out of Control.

. 

For more oddities, one-offs or songs with an interesting backstory check the massive back-catalogue at From the Vaults.