Possessed of an edgy alto that easily matched Wanda Jackson and Brenda Lee for Southern sass, she sold over 750,000 copies of her first record and appeared on the Grand Ole Opry and American Bandstand, while Billboard called her its “Most Promising Female Vocalist for 1956.” But America wasn’t ready for a pregnant teenage female Elvis. RCA jumped on her like a duck on a Junebug and billed her as “The Female Elvis.” A native of Virginia, Martin was groomed at an early age for stardom, incorporating R&B influences like Ruth Brown into otherwise white hillbilly rock. I already knew Wanda Jackson’s material so Janis Martin’s records were the most interesting to me, filled with songs like “Will You, Willyum,” “My Boy Elvis,” and “Ooby Dooby,” but I was impressed she had been signed to RCA, Elvis’ label, at age 15. It wasn’t long before Alice herself started singing with the Trouble Boys (and landed that much-sought-after opening slot with the Clash on their “Know Your Rights” tour after Stevie Ray Vaughan was booed offstage in 1982) but that summer we were just in record heaven.
Every day the needle would be dropped on vinyl and the sounds of Wanda Jackson, Lori Collins, JoAnn Campbell, and Janis Martin echoed through the old house, bouncing off the stairs and sliding along wood floors. Alice would go on to play with El Vez, Hillbilly Frankenstein, and Clouseaux before she started teaching Spanish at a Houston school but back then she was into rockabilly.īoy howdy, was she into rockabilly. During the summer of 1981, I shared a big house on Baylor Street with roommates, including Alice Berry.
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