ICON: Gene Vincent (1935-1971)

e>

The Collins Kids

I am still in New York. I am planning to work on a rockabilly music compilation,
around bleecker street and in Williamsborough there are great records shops.
I found rockabilly LPs to work soon on.
When i was looking for information about rockabilly, i discovered the amazing Collins Kids.

Historically credited as one of the originators of "Rock-A-Billy" music in the mid 50's, at the age of eight and ten, Tulsa, Oklahoma born Larry and Lorrie Collins, entertained audiences around the globe as "The Rockin' Rollin' Collins Kids".

The Collins Kids - High School Confidential


The Collins Kids - Just Because



The Collins Kids - Great Balls of Fire


Born and raised in Pretty Water, Oklahoma, their father and mother sold the farm and the cows to move to California so the two talented children could pursue their show business destinies. Within a year, the two joined the cast of the weekly country music showcase on Los Angeles television in 1954. It was on "Town Hall Party" that teen idol and TV star Ricky Nelson first saw Lorrie Collins. Before long, she became his first steady girlfriend.

The Collins Kids appeared on national TV shows like Ed Sullivan and Steve Allen and toured with country music stars of the day like Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins before Lorrie's teenage marriage interceded. By 1962, the duo even stopped recording, while Lorrie concentrated on motherhood and Larry turned his skills to songwriting.

For more info on Rockabilly click HERE

Wanda Jackson: a sweet lady with a nasty voice.

Yes, i definitively love Ladies with nasty voices, like Brenda Lee and the fabulous Rockabilly girls from the 40's -50's.
I discovered recently the songs of Wanda Jackson.
I hope you will enjoy her too.



Jackson was just 16 when country star Hank Thompson took her under his wing after hearing her on an Oklahoma radio station. Her single "You Can't Have My Love," a duet with bandleader Billy Gray, became a national hit while Jackson was still in high school. In 1955 Jackson hit the road as the opening act for Elvis Presley, just months before Elvis' career exploded. The two hit it off, dating for nearly a year. Elvis gave Jackson his ring. He also encouraged her to stretch out beyond country by singing rockabilly.
"My dad always told me, 'If you're going to do something, be different at it,'" says Wanda Jackson, 'stand out in some way, do a little bit more.'" Jackson took her dad's advice. In the mid-1950s, at the dawn of the rock 'n' roll era, she became one of the fledgling genre's first female stars, an energetic 18-year-old rockabilly queen who dated Elvis, made frequent stabs at the Top 40 and tore through the music industry like a Midwestern tornado.

Wanda Jackson - Hard-Headed Woman
Wanda Jackson - Cool Love