Aired on Treasure Island Oldies –Mar 01, 2026

In February of 2023, one of our Moments In Time segments featured a story on an up-and-coming country/rockabilly artist by the name of Janis Martin.

Born in 1940 in southern Virginia, she had a precocious start in music. As a preteen, she could be heard on WDVA’s Barndance in Danville, Virginia, and on Old Dominion Barndance out of Richmond. Although she found her earliest performing opportunities in country music, she was drawn to R&B. “Ruth Brown,” she told the Washington Post in 1990 “was my favorite. … I don’t know what it was—the rhythm, the feeling—it was just my kind of music.”

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Discovered by RCA Victor in 1956, she received heavy promotion as the “Female Elvis.” Both Presley and his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, were impressed by her talent and were supportive of the promotion.

In 1958, RCA even released a 10” LP entitled “Janis and Elvis,” which featured four songs by each singer. While she was honored by the comparison to Presley, Janis also felt that the “Female Elvis” description deprived her of her own identity.

Although her musical style may have been comparable to Presley’s, RCA crafted an extremely wholesome, “girl next door” image for Martin. In publicity photos, she wore her hair long and curly; often sported a calf-length dress with puffy sleeves and a full skirt; and is often seen posed casually with an acoustic guitar—and extremely good posture. Her songs, however, were not always congruous with this image.

Janis admits that the image RCA crafted for her was quite a stretch from what she sang about and the realities of her personal life.

She was secretly married at the age of fifteen and pregnant with her first child within three years. She recalls that RCA suggested an abortion – when she refused, the label dropped her.

Given some of the material RCA gave her to record, this seemed hypocritical to Janis: she was encouraged to sing about elopement but not forgiven for actually eloping. Her last recordings for RCA were made while she was pregnant. She briefly recorded for Palette records before largely retiring from the music business.

During her initial run with RCA, the following song appeared on an EP that was released in 1957. A ballad, it ironically symbolizes her relationship with the record label, in that she was “Half Loved,” this week’s Tom Locke moment in time.

YouTube listing of the  song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trdG8yURmGA

This “Moments In Time” story is yet another example of a “golden oldie” or forgotten favorite that earned its place in the evolution of Rock & Roll.