(Credits: Far Out / Album Cover / Popsie)
Tue 4 November 2025 21:30, UK
Rock ‘n’ roll blew away the stuffy conservatism of 1950s America, but even the raucous riffs of Scotty Moore or Chuck Berry couldn’t dismantle the deeply ingrained gender roles which plagued every aspect of American society – that was a job for figures like Janis Martin.
Even in the modern age, the landscape of rock and roll is largely male-dominated, but it is not through a lack of female artists. In fact, rock has witnessed a near-constant deluge of utterly incredible female artists since its very inception, with the likes of Wanda Jackson, Brenda Lee, and Janis Martin flying the flag for female representation in rock throughout the 1950s. Martin, in particular, was among the brightest young sparks of the rock rebellion back then, despite receiving far less promotion than her male counterparts.
Martin’s story begins, like many rock stars of the 1950s, within the world of country music. Born into a musical family in Virginia, it was something of an inevitability that her childhood would be surrounded by the sounds of Hank Williams, and she soon sought to follow suit. Devoting herself to the mastery of country guitar, the budding young performer soon became a child prodigy on local radio.
Before she had even started high school, Martin had her own spot on the country radio show Old Dominion Barndance, rubbing shoulders with stars like Jim Reeves. Pretty soon, though, the young musician became infected with the rock and roll bug, as the emerging sounds of rockabilly began to sweep through the southern states, rendering the musical history of the United States forever changed.
With her newfound rock sensibilities, the then-15-year-old Martin scored a record deal with RCA Victor, who also boasted a newly signed Elvis Presley at that time in 1956. Inevitably, then, parallels were immediately drawn between the two artists, being young performers with roots in country music and an endless aptitude for rock and roll rebellion.
Before long, RCA were marketing Martin as ‘the Female Elvis’, and Presley’s infamous manager, Colonel Tom Parker, even offered to represent the young performer – a decision which was, rather wisely, turned down at the behest of Martin’s parents.
Janis Martin in 1956 – (Credits: Far Out / Popsie)
‘Will You Willyum’ was her very first release with RCA, penned by Carl Stutz, but it was the B-side, ‘Drugstore Rock ‘n Roll’, which really set her apart from the rest, because it was composed by Martin herself. At that time, artists who wrote their own material were depressingly few and far between, regardless of gender – even Elvis Presley himself didn’t write his own material, making the ‘Female Elvis’ tag seem like something of a disservice to Martin.
Had her career been allowed to continue to blossom, Martin could have rivalled any of rock’s early heroes, but it didn’t quite pan out like that. After eloping with her boyfriend, much to the chagrin of her parents, Martin fell pregnant while on a tour of Europe, and RCA rather cruelly dropped her as a result. Although other record companies were quick to pounce on this now free agent, her chosen deal with Palette in Belgium didn’t quite have the same power as that of RCA Victor.
To make matters worse, by the time the songwriter reached her 20th birthday, her second husband demanded she abandon the music industry entirely, and she did just that. All within the space of her teenage years, Martin had gone from listening attentively to Hank Williams records to rivalling the rock and roll mastery of ‘The King’ himself, but the dream was seemingly over.
It wasn’t until the 1970s that Martin returned to her love of performance, when some dedicated record collectors tracked her down to her day job with the Halifax Police Department in her native Virginia. Luckily, she was able to get back out on the road just in time to take advantage of the rockabilly revival years of the 1970s and 1980s, and she continued to perform with impressive regularity into the 21st century, before her untimely death in 2007 at the age of 67.
Ultimately, Janis Martin could have embodied her ‘Female Elvis’ tag in its entirety, what with her exhaustive touring schedule and repertoire of incredible rockabilly anthems, but she fell victim to the ever-present gender roles and discrimination of American society – it is, for instance, hard to imagine RCA dropping Elvis if he had gotten somebody pregnant around that same time.
Thankfully, though, her later resurgence meant that virtually every ounce of material she ever recorded is now out in the world, ready to be soaked up by rockabilly devotees in their masses.
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