Jackson was still in high school when country singer Hank Thompson heard her sing on an Oklahoma City radio show and asked her to record with his band in 1954. She dated Elvis Presley, who encouraged her to step away from the country-tinged gospel she had been performing since childhood and try her hand at rock and roll. She developed her own distinctive voice and performed in a variety of styles, from folksy traditional tunes to country twang and high yodels to throaty, suggestive ballads. She was a prolific singer of songs with wry lyrics such as "Fujiyama Mama," which contained many references to the World War II bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; ironically, it became a #1 hit in Japan. Her biggest hit was 1959's "Let's Have a Party."
Jackson achieved great and continuing success throughout Europe, Asia, and Australia, but has never found the same level of fame in her native United States. She toured with rock and roll pioneers such as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Buddy Holly. She has been nominated for two Grammys, and has been awarded the Oklahoma Native Daughter Award. She has been inducted into the Oklahoma Country Music Hall of Fame, the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, the International Hall of Fame, the International Gospel Music Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame, and the German Country Music Hall of Fame, and in 2009 was finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an Early Influence.
A born-again Christian, Jackson and her husband/manager Wendell Goodman abandoned rock and roll in 1971 and spent the next 25 years performing gospel in churches.
In 1996, Jackson was invited by alt-country singer Rosie Flores to duet with her on an upcoming album. The two were so pleased with the results that Jackson joined Flores on a handful of promotional club dates which were soon extended into a five-week North American tour. Jackson, plesantly surprised to discover that she and her songs were known by a generation of rockabilly fans her grandchildren's age, soon assembled her own band and returned to clubs and festivals, where she continues to perform.
In recent years Jackson has recorded with such artists as The Cramps, Lee Rocker, Dave Alvin, and Elvis Costello. 2006 saw the release of a new Jackson album, I Remember Elvis.
In 2009, it was announced that Jackson would start work on new recordings with Jack White. The resulting album, The Party Ain't Over, was released on January 25, 2011. It included a cover of the Bob Dylan rockabilly song, "Thunder on the Mountain" and the Amy Winehouse song "You Know I'm No Good". On January 20, 2011, she performed with Jack White on The Late Show With David Letterman and again on January 25, 2011, on Conan.
My Baby's Gone
Wanda Jackson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Don't let the moonlight shine across the lonely hill
Dry all the raindrops and hold back the sun my world has ended my baby's gone
Sometimes I wake up in the night and realize you're gone
And then I toss upon my bed and wait for day to come
I try to tell my lonely heart it must go on alone
But it cries the world has ended my baby's gone
Dry all the raindrops and hold back the sun my world has ended my baby's gone
The lyrics to Wanda Jackson's My Baby are about a woman who has lost her lover and is struggling to come to terms with it. The first two lines of the song 'Hold back the rushing minutes make the wind lie still, Don't let the moonlight shine across the lonely hill' could be interpreted as the singer's plea for time to stop so that she doesn't have to face the reality of her loss. She asks for the wind to be still and the moonlight not to shine as a way of creating a moment of stasis in which she can hold on to her memories with her lover.
Despite her attempts to hold onto the past, the singer is unable to escape the present. She describes waking up in the night and realizing that her lover is gone. In the second verse, she tries to tell herself that life must go on without her lover, but her heart won't let her forget the pain of her loss: 'But it cries the world has ended my baby's gone.' The final line of each verse, 'my baby's gone,' is repeated throughout the song, emphasizing the singer's sense of grief and loss.
Overall, My Baby is a poignant song about the pain of losing someone you love. The singer's plea for time to stop and her inability to move on are relatable to anyone who has experienced heartbreak.
Line by Line Meaning
Hold back the rushing minutes make the wind lie still
Slow down time and calm the breezes, so that everything stays the way it was when my baby was still here with me.
Don't let the moonlight shine across the lonely hill
Keep the darkness around me, so that I don't have to see the empty spaces that my baby used to fill.
Dry all the raindrops and hold back the sun my world has ended my baby's gone
Remove all signs of life and happiness from the world, because my baby leaving me feels like the end of everything that ever mattered to me.
Sometimes I wake up in the night and realize you're gone
Every now and then, I come back to reality and remember that my baby is no longer with me.
And then I toss upon my bed and wait for day to come
I spend sleepless nights in agony, just waiting for the next day to arrive so that maybe something can change and bring my baby back.
I try to tell my lonely heart it must go on alone
I try to convince myself that life will go on even without my baby, but it's difficult and painful to accept.
But it cries the world has ended my baby's gone
No matter how hard I try to move on, my heart still feels like the world has come to a stop since my baby left me.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: HAZEL MARIE HOUSER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind