HARD HEADED WOMAN • 1958

The words to this song, penned by Claude Demetrius, claim that assertive women have been a “thorn in the side” of men since the beginning. But the full lyrics exude far more humor than spite. Small wonder it inspired the queen of rockabilly, Wanda Jackson, to sing it with pride in 1961. (Interestingly, Jackson had dated Elvis when he was on the cusp of fame.) In the ’80s, Dolly Parton’s hit “Why’d You Come in Here Lookin’ Like That” inverted a key line from the original by referring to “a softhearted woman” and a “hardheaded man.” Even in the original, Elvis hardly succumbed to sexism. At the end of the song, he declares that the woman with “a head like a rock / If she ever went away / I’d cry around the clock.”