Etta James Profile (by Reverend Keith A.

Gordon),
Without a doubt, Etta James ranks among the very best that the blues, soul, rock, and
R&B worlds have ever seen. The talented vocalist has had her ups and downs
throughout a career that has spanned six decades, but she's always come through in
the end with stellar performances that span the aforementioned musical styles. She was
a mainstay of Chess Records during the 1960s, and over the course of her storied
career, James has earned four Grammy™ Awards and 17 Blues Music Awards.
The Wallflower Comes Of Age
Etta James was born as Jamesetta Hawkins to a single mother in Los Angeles, her
family moving to San Francisco when she was in her teens. The young vocalist learned
to sing in the church, and later formed a doo-wop group called the Peaches with two
other girls.
There are differing stories as to how James was discovered by bandleader Johnny Otis,
but in 1954 they recorded the song "The Wallflower," in response to Hank Ballard's R&B
hit "Work with Me, Annie." The James song became a #2 hit on the R&B charts for
Modern Records, and James followed it a year later with "Good Rockin' Daddy."
During the 1950s, James toured with Johnny Otis, Little Richard, Otis Redding, and
Johnny "Guitar" Watson, witnessing firsthand a lifestyle not experienced by many teens.
Follow-up singles for Modern like "Tough Lover" and "W-O-M-A-N" failed to chart, and
James left the label to sign with Chicago's Chess Records.

The Chess Years

Signed by Leonard Chess to his label's Argo subsidiary, James delivered a string of
R&B hits like "All I Could Do Was Cry" (recorded with her husband, Moonglows' lead
singer Harvey Fuqua), "Something's Got A Hold On Me," and "Trust In Me," among
others. In 1961, James delivered her masterpiece debut album for Chess, At Last!
showcasing the singer's breathtaking abilities to knock out both blustery blues tunes (like
Willie Dixon's "I Just Want To Make Love To You") as well as jazz standards like
"Stormy Weather" and R&B rave-ups like the title cut.
James enjoyed a successful run with Chess, staying with the label through 1978. James
released a powerhouse live album in 1963, Etta James Rocks The House, which was
recorded at Nashville's famed New Era Club. James ventured to Fame Studios in 1967
to record what would become the biggest hit of her career, "Tell Mama" and the album of
the same name, which also included the classic "I'd Rather Go Blind" and a strong cover
of Otis Redding's "Security." James' hits dried up in the late-1960s, however, as drug
addiction took its toll on the singer, although she remained a popular live performer.
A Rage To Survive
After suffering through the better part of a decade of lean years, hospitalization for her
addiction, and sporadic recordings, James got clean and recorded what many consider
to be her "comeback" album, 1988's Seven Year Itch, also recorded in Muscle Shoals. It
was James' first album in seven years, and it led to a handful of critically-acclaimed
album releases that mixed James' powerful rhythm & blues vocals with jazz overtones,
such as her Billie Holiday tribute Mystery Lady, which would earn James her first
Grammy™ Award.
In 1995 James published her autobiography, A Rage To Survive, co-written with David
Ritz. The book came clean about both the triumphs and the tragedies of her lengthy
career, including her drug addiction. She was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
in 1993, and to both the Blues Hall of Fame and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 2001. In
2003, James received a Grammy™ Lifetime Achievement Award, and a year later
Rolling Stone placed James at #62 on the magazine's list of "100 Greatest Artists of All
Time."
During the 1990s and '00s, James has continued to tour steadily, performing jazz and
blues festivals around the world, including the Monterey Jazz Festival a remarkable nine
times. She has also recorded a number of new albums in the soul, blues, and jazz styles
during this time, as well as her first holiday album, Etta James Christmas, in 1998. In
2008, James was portrayed by Beyonce Knowles in the film Cadillac Records, which
was loosely based on the history of Chess Records.
==
Rich and rough, Etta James’s (Jamesetta Hawkins) booming voice has put its stamp on
nearly every popular music genre—from blues to jazz to rock. On January 25, 1938,
James was born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles, California. Her 14-year-old mother,
Dorothy, was more interested in the club scene than in raising her infant. For much of
her youth, Jamesetta lived with her grandparents, devout churchgoers who placed her in
their church choir.
At six, Jamesetta was singing solos and appearing on gospel radio shows. In her teens,
Jamesetta went to live with Dorothy Hawkins in San Francisco. Like her mother,
Jamesetta had a taste for street life and a knack for getting into trouble with the law. She
also shared with Dorothy a passion for the jazz singing of BILLIE HOLIDAY.
When she was 15, Jamesetta started her own singing group, the Creolettes, with two
friends. She bullied her way into an audition with band leader Johnny Otis, who was
wowed by her powerful voice. Still a minor, Jamesetta forged her mother’s name on a
release form, and the Creolettes started touring with Otis billed as the Peaches.
Rearranging the syllables of her name, Otis also rechristened Jamesetta as Etta James.
Soon, the Peaches had their first hit.
An answer to Hank Ballard and the Midnighters’ song “Work with Me Annie,” “Roll with
Me, Henry” hit number two on the rhythm and blues charts. Because the original title
was considered by some to be too raunchy for airplay, the song was also titled “The
Wallflower.” With her newfound success, James went solo. She toured with Little
Richard and sang backup for Marvin Gaye and Chuck Berry. Once she had the honor of
sharing a stage with her idol Billie Holiday, who was then dying from health ailments
resulting from her drug addiction. With her hands and feet hideously swollen, Holiday
whispered some words of advice to the young singer: “Just don’t ever let this happen to
you.”
In 1960, James moved to Chicago and began recording for Chess Records. She had 10
charting hits between 1960 and 1963, making her one of the top artists in rhythm and
blues. In records such as “At Last” (1961) and “Something’s Got a Hold on Me” (1962),
James displayed her wide range, moving easily from ballads to jazz songs to pop tunes.
Despite her success during this period, James was unable to crossover to sizable white
audiences like her contemporary DIANA ROSS, whose singing style was much inspired
by James. James’s records also had an enormous infiuence on JANIS JOPLIN, Rod
Stewart, the Rolling Stones, and other white artist who rose to fame later in the decade.
Through the late 1960s and early 1970s, James’s recording schedule became erratic as
a longtime heroin habit began to take over her life. In 1974, she finally kicked her
addiction after entering a rehabilitation clinic in Tarzana, California. Slowly, James set
about rebuilding her career, playing small clubs and occasionally appearing at jazz and
blues festivals. By the mid-1980s, she was touring with the Rolling Stones. She returned
to recording after a seven-year hiatus, releasing The Seven Year Itch in 1988.
Now considered a legend, James was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in
1993. In the 1990s, James began spending more time in the studio, creating recordings
in a variety of genres. The most successful was Mystery Lady (1994), which featured
James’s take on songs made famous by Billie Holiday. The album, which James said
she had wanted to make for 30 years, earned her a Grammy for best jazz vocal. Also
well-received were Love, Life and Blues (1998) and Matriarch of the Blues (2001), on
which she was backed by her two grown sons, Donto and Sametto.
Now settled in Los Angeles with her husband Artie Mills, James documented the many
ups and downs of her life in her autobiography, Rage to Survive (1995). In it, she said
she had learned to live with the rage that inspired much of her work. “In some ways, it’s
my rage that keeps me going,” she wrote. “Without it, I would have been whipped long
ago. With it, I got a lot more songs to sing.” ==
Etta James Biography by B. Kimberly Taylor and Linda Dailey Paulson
Born Jamesetta Hawkins on January 25, 1938, in Los Angeles, CA; daughter of Dorothy;
father unknown, but suspected to be noted pool player Minnesota Fats; married Artis
Mills; children: Donto and Sametto (sons); four grandchildren. Addresses: Management-
-DeLeon Artists, 1931 Panama Court, Piedmont, CA 94611.
Etta James was once among the most woefully overlooked figures in the history of blues
and rock. She began finally coming into her own in the 1990s, receiving industry awards
that confirmed her status as one of the matriarchs of modern music. James influenced a
variety of musicians, including The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Diana Ross, Janis
Joplin, and even Christina Aguilera.
She has been seen as bridging the gap between rhythm and blues and rock and roll.
Recording some of the first-ever rock and roll records when she was a teenager in the
1950s, James had a unique view of rock's origins. Not limiting herself to rock, however,
she went on to make potent soul records in the 1960s and 1970s, adding further polish
to her lengthy career.
Born Jamesetta Hawkins on January 25, 1938, in Los Angeles, James's start in life was
not ideal. Her mother, Dorothy, gave birth at 14; her father was unknown. James has
remained convinced that it was Minnesota Fats, the noted pool hustler. "My heart told
me that Minnesota Fats was my father. There was also evidence to back me up. But [in
the 1970s]... I didn't have the courage or means to confront him," James wrote in her
autobiography.
Baby Jamesetta was placed in the care of Lulu Rogers, her landlady, when her mother
proved to be an unwilling parent. James was raised in the church and sang gospel
hymns in the St. Paul Baptist Church choir. She was a child prodigy, performing on Los
Angeles gospel radio broadcasts by the age of five. "I'm not a braggart, but when I was a
little girl people used to come from all over Hollywood to hear me sing," said James in a
2004 interview with Essence. "Here was this 5-year-old sounding like a grown woman.
People were shouting all over the place."
After the death of Rogers in 1950, James went to live with relatives in San Francisco,
when she was 12. According to Essence, James was "a restless womanchild, in and out
of girl gangs and singing groups." When James was still a teenager, she formed a
singing group called The Creolettes with two other girls.
West Coast rhythm and blues titan Johnny Otis discovered James in 1954. "We were up
in San Francisco," Otis recalled in Rolling Stone, "for a date at the Fillmore. That was
when it was black. ... I was asleep in my hotel room when ... my manager phoned. He
was in a restaurant and a little girl was bugging him: she wanted to sing for me. I told
him to have her come around to the Fillmore that night. But she grabbed the phone from
him and shouted that she wanted to sing for me NOW. I told her that I was in bed---and
she said she was coming over anyway.
Well, she showed up with two other little girls. And when I heard her, I jumped out of bed
and began getting dressed. We went looking for her mother since she was a minor. I
brought her to L.A., where she lived in my home like a daughter." Despite her
determination to audition for Otis in his hotel room, James remarked later in Rolling
Stone, "I was so bashful, I wouldn't come out of the bathroom."
"Roll With Me, Henry" Took Off
Otis took the Creolettes on the road with him in 1954, paid them each ten dollars a night,
and changed their name to The Peaches.
It was Otis who transformed Jamesetta into Etta James. The trio first recorded in 1953
with Modern Records, home to John Lee Hooker, Elmore James, and B.B. King. The
group's first side was "Roll with Me, Henry," an "answer song" to Hank Ballard's leering
hit "Work with Me Annie." The song, written by James, was eventually covered by
"whiter-than-white Georgia Gibbs, whose 'Dance with Me, Henry' ... outsold Etta's hit,"
according to Booklist. James, Otis, and Ballard split the royalties three ways. "That's one
time when we were not unhappy with a white cover [of a song originally recorded by a
black performer]," Otis told Rolling Stone.
After this success James went on tour with 1950s' rock and roll sensation Little Richard.
"I was so naive in those days," James admitted in the same Rolling Stone piece.
"Richard and the band were always having those parties. I'd knock on the door and
they'd shout 'Don't open it! She's a minor!' Then one day I climbed up on a transom, and
the things I saaaaaw...." After her stint with Richard, James sang backup on records by
soul greats Marvin Gaye, Minnie Riperton, and Harvey Fuqua; she also lent her voice to
many 1950s hits by early rock legend Chuck Berry, an association that would lead to a
longstanding friendship. With her ripe, whiskey-cured, brawling belts, James was well on
her way to becoming queen of the blues.
Early Sixties Proved Ripe
James began an association with Chicago's Chess Records in the late 1950s, recording
several numbers on Chess's subsidiary label, Argo. She made the move to Chess and
then to Chicago with Fuqua's help. Fuqua is best known as the founding vocalist of The
Moonglows. James was in love with Fuqua, but he did not return her affection. In fact, he
left Chicago for Detroit and Motown, where he met and married Gwen Gordy, sister of
Motown mogul Berry Gordy. Ironically, James's first recording for Chess about a jilted
lover was co-written by Gwen Gordy.
In those early days, James, Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, and many other fledgling greats lived
in Chicago's low-budget Sutherland Hotel. "We were hungry, starving musicians," James
revealed in Rolling Stone. This changed abruptly, however, when James hit the mother
lode with ten chart-making hits from 1960 through 1963. In 1960 two of her songs made
the rhythm and blues charts. In 1961 four of her songs hit the charts, including the slow
and soulful number-two hit "At Last." In 1962 three of James's songs landed on the
charts, including "Something's Got a Hold on Me," which went to number four. The year
1963 saw another chart-topper and in 1966, James recorded the blues masterpiece
"Call My Name."
The following year she moved to Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. It was there
that she scored the biggest hits of her career: the self-penned, beautiful, aching "I'd
Rather Go Blind" and the raw, rollicking "Tell Mama," which San Francisco Chronicle
critic Joel Selvin called "one of the finest examples of Southern soul ever cut in Muscle
Shoals, Alabama." In spite of her popularity, however, James was never able to break
out of the black entertainment market in the 1960s. Ironically, her singing style of
purring, pointing, and little-girl pouting was copied by singer Diana Ross, who was able
to score hits in the white music market.
James endured a lengthy string of legal problems starting in the early 1970s, due to a
heroin addiction. "She was in and out of jails and rehabilitation programs, writing bad
checks, driving stolen cars," wrote Selvin. "Her husband, Artis Mills, took a 10-year fall
for her." She and Mills had met in 1969 and later married. Mills served seven years in
Texas's Huntsville State Prison. When he was released, James was in rehabilitation.
They eventually reunited and are still married.
Guido van Rijn, Clifton Chenier and Etta James Montreux 1973 by Robert Vanderschueren

Fell On Hard Times

In 1974 a judge sentenced her to a drug treatment program in lieu of serving time in
prison. She was in the Tarzana Psychiatric Hospital for 17 months, at age 35. "It took a
good-hearted judge to make me stop and examine myself. I was too stubborn, too willful,
too hooked on junk to make the decision on my own. It didn't take a genius to
understand how badly I needed therapy," James said in an excerpt from her 1995
autobiography, Rage to Survive. "Throughout L.A. County, The Family at Tarzana had a
reputation as the marines of rehab. Basic training was hell."
While she was still in rehab, her counselors allowed James to record. One of her first
songs was "Feeling Uneasy," which James said captured her at rock bottom. This would
later appear on the album Come a Little Closer. While still in treatment, she became
romantically involved with a man who had been in and out of rehab. Within a year of
leaving Tarzana, both were once again using drugs. Her problems with substance abuse
continued into the 1980s. "By the early '80s, she was scraping by, lucky to play
occasional gigs for her die-hard gay fans at the Stud on Folsom Street," wrote Selvin.
"She turned 50 in the Betty Ford Clinic and, this time, it worked. She found a new
manager, Lupe De Leon of Oakland, who trained for handling James by working as a
probation officer."
Photo by Claude Meyer
In 1988 James made The Seven Year Itch for Island Records; aptly titled, it marked her
first record contract in seven years. James sought to regain her raw sound for this
album, and she had another goal: "I wanted to make an album that was saying a woman
is no different than a man," she stated in the New York Times. "A woman can sing just
as strong songs. She can be just as raunchy and just as weak. And I like the whole
challenge of a woman standing up there and telling a man where to get off."
"For my money, Etta's one of the pioneers," wrote legendary producer Jerry Wexler in
the book Rhythm and the Blues: A Life in American Music. Wexler produced two of
James's albums, including 1992's The Right Time. Wexler wrote that James was "up
there with her label mates at Chess: Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Bo Diddley, and
Chuck Berry ... Like Aretha [Franklin], Etta is a church in herself, her voice a mighty
instrument, her musical personality able to express an extraordinary range of moods."
In a career retrospective of the artist, Billboard's Jim Bessman noted that "her drug
abuse didn't get in the way of her magnificent vocalizing, as demonstrated by her
recordings throughout the '70s and '80s." Mystery Lady was her first project for the
Private label. The collection of Billie Holiday songs earned James her first-ever Grammy
in 1994. In the same issue of Billboard, Don Waller tallied her impressive 50-year-career
as having produced "23 individual albums, a two-CD hits package, and a three-CD
boxed set ... 54 different compilation albums and 11 film and TV soundtrack discs."
James, along with David Ritz, wrote her autobiography, A Rage to Survive, in which she
chronicled her lifelong problems with drugs, men, and obesity. Booklist called the book
"a typical black pop-music as-told-to bio, though better than many of the others."
"Matriarch of the Blues"
James continued recording, and anything was fair game for interpretation as shown on
2001's Matriarch of the Blues. "This set pops from the speakers like you're right there,
funking in a packed nightclub as Etta growls and slow burns through songs by Al Green,
Bob Dylan, and the Stones," wrote Interview reviewer Vivien Goldman, of the album. "A
solid return to roots, Matriarch of the Blues finds Etta James reclaiming her throne---and
defying anyone to knock her off it," wrote Parke Puterbaugh in Rolling Stone.
Late in her career, James was struggling with her weight, once estimated at about 400
pounds. The excessive weight was impeding her ability to tour and was causing serious
health issues. James underwent a gastric bypass procedure and lost, according to some
accounts, about 200 pounds while continuing to work. She told Essence in 2004 that
she "didn't want to be fat anymore. I couldn't walk, and my doctor couldn't operate on my
knee until I lost some weight. I was thinking that pretty soon they were going to have to
bring me onstage with one of those harnesses they use for horses." For several years
she had performed on stage in a wheelchair. "I am so happy that I am alive and that I
can walk," she told Ebony in a 2003 interview. "I've gone through so much in my life. I
should have been dead a long time ago, but I am still here, and I am the happiest I've
ever been."
Steve Cushing and Etta James At The 1986 Chicago Blues Fest.

James was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003. The next year
she was awarded a Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album, for Let's Roll,
followed immediately by another Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album, for Blues to
the Bone in 2005.
"Etta James has earned an honored position in the canon of tough women soul singers
for her unaffected delivery and straightforward raunch," wrote Howard Mandel in a
Jazziz review of Let's Roll. "Whether purveying doo-wop, Chess blues, Memphis strut,
gospel classics, jazz standards, overblown studio productions, tributes to Billie Holiday,
or guitar-heavy rock ... she has seldom delivered less than her full-bodied all. And
though her voice, never a nuanced instrument, has now frayed and roughened ... James
remains a powerhouse."
==
Crazy Feeling : Etta James by J.C.Marion.
Jamesetta Hawkins was an aspiring gospel singer from Oakland, California. She also
began to dabble in R & B music and was part of a teenage girl trio called The Creolettes.
In the early nineteen fifties she moved to Los Angeles and was a student at Fremont
High School which produced a number of top R & B singers. By 1954 she was seen in
performance at a local talent show by Johnny Otis who felt that this was a young woman
with a lot to say and had the promise of being a force in the Rhythm & Blues world.
Otis also gave the young singer a new name by transposing her first name and so she
became Etta James. Otis got her a meeting with the Bihari Brothers who ran the Modern
Records label, and they soon set up a recording session for her. The result of this first
session resulted in one of the classic R & B tunes in history. Etta with two backup
singers named The Peaches, vocalist Richard Berry, and the Maxwell Davis combo
performed a number that was an answer record to The Midnighters huge hit "Work With
Me Annie". The song was called "Roll With Me Henry" and was released on Modern
#947 right after New Year's day of 1955. The flip side was a blues ballad called "Hold
Me Squeeze Me".
To avoid further controversy, the name of the song was changed to "The Wallflower" on
all future copies. By February, "The Wallflower" is one of the fastest selling R & B
records in the country. The demand is greater than Modern records can keep up with,
which is a good barometer of the new demand for R & B discs in 1955. In Cleveland,
station WJW Alan Freed's old home, is the only outlet in that city that does not go along
with the ban on the record which seems to boost its attraction even more. Etta James,
the new "blonde bombshell" of Rhythm & Blues, goes out on her first extended tour
along with The Peaches, Richard Berry, and Johnny "Guitar" Watson on what is called
the Modern Records Caravan. The show will tour the Midwest throughout the spring and
then head for the Southeastern states. In May Modern tries to go to the well one more
time with Etta James, The Peaches, and Richard Berry recording "Hey Henry" on #957.
The flip side is "Be Mine".
n July Etta and The Peaches are signed to the Top Ten R & B Revue to tour the country
for two months beginning in September. Also on the bill are Bo Diddley, Joe Turner, The
Clovers, Five Keys, Charlie & Ray, Gene & Eunice, and the paul "Hucklebuck" Williams
band. In late August, a new Modern Records release by Etta James is out on #962. The
songs are "Good Rockin' Daddy" and "Crazy Feeling".
In late October the Top Ten R & B Revue plays Carnegie Hall in New York, the first time
the big beat has been heard at the world famous concert location. In mid November Etta
appears at an all star R & B show at the Apollo Theater in New York with Dr. Jive
(Tommy Smalls). On the bill with Etta James are The Heartbeats, Flamingos, Jacks,
Harptones, Bo Diddley, Howlin' Wolf, Dakota Staton, Bill Doggett Trio, and the band of
Willis "Gatortail" Jackson. "Good Rockin' Daddy" is one of the top selling R & B records
in the country, especially popular on the West Coast. Late in the month Etta James
appears in Buffalo with George "Hound Dog" Lorenz as part of a show that features
Charlie & Ray, The Jacks, Wynonie Harris, and Roy Gaines.

At the end of a big year in 1955, Modern releases "W-O-M-A-N" and "That's All" on
#972. 1956 opens with Etta doing a number of shows on the West Coast, some with
Johnny Otis and others with name R & B performers. She does a week at the 5-4
Ballroom in Los Angeles with Amos Milburn and his band, and plays club dates with
Dolly Cooper and Johnny "Guitar" Watson. In March Modern Records releases the new
Etta James single - "Number One" and "I'm A Fool" on #984. The label lists her as Etta
"Miss Peaches" James. two months later "Shortnin' Bread Rock" (a cover of the record
by Kay Cee Jones) and "Tears Of Joy" are released on Modern #988.
Etta appears on Alan Freed's CBS network radio show in L.A. performing a cleaned up
"Dance With Me Henry" (the song is even the subject of an Abbot & Costello movie !)
and "Crazy Feeling". In September "Tough Lover" and "Fools We Mortals Be" are
released on Modern #998. The label still lists James as "Miss Peaches", and this time
the record begins to sell well in both L.A. and the Midwest especially Kansas City and
St. Louis. Late in the year Modern Records drops the "Miss Peaches" nickname and
does a recording session in New York with local musicians, a departure from the usual
James studio time. The result is the late November release of "Good Looking" and
"Then I'll Care" on #1007. In December an interesting pairing takes place at the Club
Baby Grand in Harlem as Etta James shares the stage with Big Maybelle.

Also on the bill are The Clovers and James Moody and his band. At year's end Modern
Records issues a R & B LP album featuring the label's performers including three tunes
by Etta. In March Etta (without The Peaches) embarks on a tour of one nighters with the
Buddy Griffin band throughout the South. That month "The Pickup" and "Market Place"
are released on Modern #1016. In April Etta hits the road again this time with Bo
Diddley, Clifton Chenier, and Larry Birdsong for one nighters in the Midwest. In June
James records "Come What May" and the pop oldie "By The Light Of The Silvery Moon"
on Modern #1022. "Moon" has also been recorded by Little Richard and Jimmy Bowen.
In October Etta plays the 5-4 Ballroom in L.A. with The Dells.

By mid 1957 the outlook for Etta James was not good as traditional Rhythm & Blues
performers were cast aside in favor of younger more pop music oriented styles. There
were a few exceptions such as Joe Turner and Fats Domino, but it was not a good time
for the pioneers of Rock. Soon Modern Records was discontinued and some of its artists
were kept on by the new company on the Kent label. Besides Etta, B.B. King and Jesse
Belvin were also signed to the new label. The company's other record label Crown
Records would concentrate on issuing LPs.
In the spring of 1958 Etta James is still at it hitting the road with another big traveling R
& B Revue, one of the last that would tour the country. On the bill with Etta are The
Midnighters, Bo Diddley, Little Willie John, Beulah Bryant, Tiny Topsy, and the cal Green
band. The show is called "The Big Rhythm & Blues Cavalcade of 1958". In July
"Sunshine Of Love" and "Baby Baby Every Night" is released on Kent #304. By mid
1959 the R & B years were over for James and now she pondered her future in music.
Then came one of the major re-inventions of a pioneer performer coming to terms with
changing times.
In early 1960 James signed with Leonard Chess in Chicago. He had a vision of
showcasing Etta James as an adult oriented blues singer with pop music potential. For
the next fifteen years she remained with Chess mostly recording on that company's Argo
and Cadet labels. For the first time Etta James hit the national pop charts beginning
almost immediately. "All I Could Do was Cry" (Argo #5359) and "My Dearest Darling"
(Argo #5368) both charted in 1960 followed by "Trust In Me" (Argo #5385) and "Don't
Cry Baby" (Argo #5393) the next year. In 1962 "Something's Got A Hold On Me" (Argo
#5409) and "Stop The Wedding" (Argo #5418) charted and in 1963 "Pushover" was her
biggest hit in years on Argo #5437. Personal problems plagued James during the mid
sixties, but then in 1967 Etta James was back with a big seller called "Tell Mama" on
Cadet #5578, and followed that with "Security" on Cadet #5594 in 1968.
That was the last single to chart for James as she now concentrated on recording
albums for Chess. Some of the better albums released over the years by James are
1964's live set called "Etta Rocks The House" for Chess, "Queen Of Soul" for Chess in
1965, and "Tell Mama" for Cadet in 1968. "Peaches" for Chess in 1973 and "Peaches
Part Two" fifteen years later, and "Live At Maria's Memory Lane" for Fantasy in 1986, led
into the 90s and "Stickin' To My Guns" for Island in 1991. Other albums of interest from
the 90s were "Mystery Lady : Songs Of Billie Holiday on the Private Music label, two live
albums for Rhino and On The Spot, three "Best Of . . ." on MCA (Chess masters) and
1998's "12 Songs Of Christmas" on Private Music. Etta James proved to the world that
she could change with the times and remain a viable force in modern American music.
This is no easy task and very few can pull it off, but - Etta James was more than equal to
the task and the world is better off for it.
==