1. Janis Darlene Martin was an American rockabilly and country music singer.
19 Facts About Janis Martin
1. 2.
Janis Martin was one of the few women working in the male-dominated rock and roll music field during the 1950s and one of country music's early female innovators.
3.
Janis Martin's mother was a stage mother, and her father and uncle were both musicians.
4.
Janis Martin soon claimed she was tired of country music and began a rock and roll career.
5.
The WRVA station announcer, Carl Stutz, wrote a song titled "Will You Willyum", and asked Janis Martin to sing the song live on stage that Saturday night so that he could make a demo tape to send to his publisher in New York.
6.
At age 15, Janis Martin signed with RCA Victor in March 1956, just two months after Elvis Presley joined the label.
7.
Janis Martin recorded "Will You Willyum" on March 8,1956, backed by her own composition "Drugstore Rock 'n Roll".
8.
Soon Janis Martin was performing on American Bandstand, The Today Show and Tonight Starring Steve Allen.
9.
Janis Martin appeared on Jubilee USA, and the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, becoming one of the younger performers to ever appear.
10.
On January 7,1956, Janis Martin eloped with her boyfriend, a paratrooper.
11.
Janis Martin told her parents of her marriage only after her husband was safely shipped overseas in Germany.
12.
Janis Martin's father tried to have it annulled because she was only 15 years old.
13.
In 1957, Janis Martin went on a USO tour in Europe with Jim Reeves, Del Wood, The Browns, and Hank Locklin.
14.
Janis Martin's husband got a 30-day leave and went on the road with her, which resulted in her getting pregnant with her son.
15.
Janis Martin then coaxed her to appear locally and tell her story in Goldmine magazine.
16.
Janis Martin toured through Europe as part of the rockabilly revival there, and in 1979 Bayes convinced RCA to pull four Janis Martin songs from their vault, which were then released on Dog Gone Records in 1977.
17.
Since the early 1980s Janis Martin started performing again at Rockabilly shows through Europe and the US.
18.
In 1995, Janis Martin appeared on Rosie Flores's Rockabilly Filly album for HighTone Records.
19.
Janis Martin died from cancer on September 3,2007, at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.