Etta James
Encyclopedia
Etta James is an American blues
, soul
, rhythm and blues
(R&B), rock and roll
, gospel
and jazz
singer. In the 1950s and 1960s, she had her biggest success as a blues and R&B singer. She is best known for her version of the Mack Gordon
and Harry Warren
song "At Last
", and for "I'd Rather Go Blind
", for which she claims she wrote the lyrics.
James was born and brought up in Los Angeles by a series of caregivers. At the age of five she received vocal training at her local Baptist Church choir where she became a popular singer. By the age of 14 she had formed a doo-wop group, and under the name the Peaches they recorded "The Wallflower (Dance with Me, Henry)
" which reached #1 on the rhythm and blues charts in 1955. A follow-up, "Good Rockin' Daddy", was also a hit. In 1960, James signed a recording contract with Argo Records
, a subsidiary label to Chess Records
, and released her two most acclaimed albums, At Last! and The Second Time Around. She has continued to record and perform, releasing 30 albums and 58 singles, though due to her heroin addiction during the 60s and 70s, her output was erratic. She kicked the habit in 1974, and slowly rebuilt her career, playing at small clubs and music festivals, then opening for the Rolling Stones in the mid 80s, before releasing her first album on a major label for seven years in 1989. The Seven Year Itch caught the attention of the music industry and she began receiving major industry awards from the Grammys and the Blues Foundation.
In recent years, she has been seen as bridging the gap between rhythm and blues and rock and roll. Rolling Stone
ranked James number twenty-two on their list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time and number sixty-two on the list of the 100 Greatest Artists. James has a contralto
vocal range. James is the winner of six Grammys and seventeen Blues Music Awards. She was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, the Blues Hall of Fame
in 2001, and the Grammy Hall of Fame in both 1999 and 2008.
, to Dorothy Hawkins, who was 14 years old at the time, and an unknown father, who was possibly white. James speculated that her father was the pool player, Rudolf "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone, and met him briefly in 1987. The young James was brought up by a series of caregivers, initially the owners of the boarding house where she lived, "Sarge" and "Mama" Lu, as her flirtatious mother spent little time at home raising her daughter, and was nicknamed by James, "the Mystery Lady". James received her first professional vocal training at the age of five from James Earle Hines, musical director of the Echoes of Eden choir, at the St. Paul Baptist Church in Los Angeles. She became a popular singing attraction at the church, and Sarge tried to pressure the church into paying him money for her singing, but they refused. During drunken poker games at home, he would wake James up in the early hours of the morning and force her through beatings to sing for his friends. As she was a bed-wetter, and often soaked with her own urine on these occasions, the trauma of being forced to sing meant she had a life-long reluctance to sing on demand.
In 1950 Mama Lu died, and James' real mother took her to San Francisco, where she formed a doo-wop
singing group, the Creolettes, with two other girls. When the girls were 14, they met bandleader Johnny Otis
. There are at least two versions of how Johnny Otis
met Etta James. Otis' version is that she came to his hotel room after one of his performances in San Francisco and persuaded him to audition her. Another frequently told story is that Otis spotted the girls performing in an L.A. nightclub, and, having conceived of an "answer song" to Hank Ballard
's "Work With Me, Annie
", arranged with the Bihari brothers
for Modern Records to record the song with the trio, now called the Peaches. Otis particularly liked the song and, without her mother's permission, the Peaches recorded it in Los Angeles in 1954. The song was released in 1955 on the Modern Records
label as "The Wallflower (Dance with Me, Henry)
". Richard Berry
, a Los Angeles doo-wop luminary, is featured on some of the group's records.
"The Wallflower" reached #1 on the rhythm and blues charts in February 1955. The first time she was recorded in studio, they used the first take she recorded, and it became #1 on the "Top 100" songs in the nation. Royalties from "The Wallflower" were divided among Ballard, James and Otis. Its huge success attracted the attention of the R&B world, resulting in James going on tour with Little Richard
in 1956.
Soon after the song's success, James left the Peaches. She continued to record and release albums throughout much of the decade, and enjoyed more success. Her follow-up, "Good Rockin' Daddy", became another hit in the fifties. Other songs however, such as "Tough Lover" and "W-O-M-A-N" failed to gain any significant success. In addition to Little Richard, James toured with Johnny "Guitar" Watson in the fifties and has cited Watson as the most significant influence on her style.
, on their subsidiary label, Argo Records
(she later also recorded for their other subsidiary label, Cadet
). James began her relationship with the label with five major hits, first with a pair of duets with singer, Harvey Fuqua
; "If I Can't Have You" and "Spoonful
". She had her first major solo hit with the R&B-styled tune, "All I Could Do is Cry". The song rose in the Billboard R&B Chart
, peaking at #2 in 1960. This was followed by the Top 5 R&B hit, "My Dearest Darling" the same year. Around the same time, James also sang background vocals on Chuck Berry
's hit, "Back in the USA
".
That same year, James released her debut album on Chess entitled, At Last!, which featured all of James' hits between 1960 and 1961, and also included a few standards, such as Lena Horne
's "Stormy Weather", "I Just Want to Make Love to You
", and "A Sunday Kind of Love
". The album showed James' varied choice in music.
Chess Records' head producer, Leonard Chess
, imagined James as a classic ballad stylist who had potential to cross over onto the pop charts. Chess began backing James on her recording sessions with violins and other string instruments, which was first heard on her 1961 hit, "At Last".
The song went to #2 on the Billboard R&B chart in 1961, and also peaked at #47 on the Billboard Pop Chart, ultimately becoming her signature song. Although it wasn't as successful as expected on the pop charts, it did become the most remembered version of the song.
In 1961, James had another major hit with "Trust in Me," which also featured string instruments. Also in 1961, James released a second studio album, The Second Time Around. The album took the same direction as her previous album, covering many jazz and pop standards, and using strings on many of the songs. The album spawned a Top 15 hit, "The Fool That I Am" and a minor hit on the pop chart, "Don't Cry Baby."
In 1962, James had three major hits, beginning with the gospel
-inspired, "Something's Got a Hold on Me," which peaked at #4 on the R&B chart, and also reached the Pop Top 40.
Another single, "Stop the Wedding" followed and reached #6.
In 1963, James cut and released her first live album, Etta James Rocks the House
, recorded at the New Era Club in Nashville, Tennessee
. In the same year, James had another Top 10 R&B hit with "Pushover," which also made the Pop Top 25, and was ultimately one of her two biggest Billboard hits on the Hot 100. "Pushover" also hit #11 on influential pop music station WMCA
in New York during May 1963. It was followed by two other singles that year that were minor hits on the pop chart, "Pay Back" and "Two Sides (To Every Story)." That year she released her third album, Etta James Top Ten. Within the next year, James scored another Top 10 hit with "Loving You More Each Day" (which also reached #65 on the pop chart) and had a Top 40 hit with "Baby What You Want Me to Do
."
In the mid-1960s, James began to battle a heroin addiction, which would last up until 1974. For years, James would spend much time in and out of Los Angeles' Tarzana Psychiatric Hospital. She began recording again in 1967 with guitarist Paul C. Saenz, and achieved her biggest hit in years, "Tell Mama," which reached the R&B Top 10 and #23 on the Hot 100. An album of the same name, produced by Rick Hall
at his then-hot Fame studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, also featured a rendition of Otis Redding
's song, "Security" which peaked at #11 on the R&B chart. Although she wasn't as successful as she had been, James remained a large concert attraction. She continued to have R&B Top 40 hits up until the mid 1970s, with "Loser Weepers" (an album of the same name was released in 1971) and then with "I Found a Love" in 1972.
James released an eponymous album in 1973 that spawned two minor hits. Produced by Gabriel Mekler, who had previously worked with Steppenwolf and Janis Joplin, the album musically was an ambitious mix of soul, blues, jazz and rock and it was nominated for a Grammy award the following year. Mekler produced a follow-up album called "Out On The Street Again" in 1974. Again critically acclaimed, this also produced only minor hits.
Despite the death of Leonard Chess, James recorded for the label up until 1978, and began using more rock
-based songs in her albums. She released her final two albums for Chess in 1978, Etta Is Betta Than Evah and Deep in the Night. That year, James also opened tour dates in the United States for The Rolling Stones
and also played at the Montreal Jazz Festival.
For seven years during the 1980s James' career stalled, with the exception of the song, "You Want More", which was featured in an episode of the hit TV series, Miami Vice
. However, by 1989 she made her comeback with an album, Seven Year Itch, released by Island Records
; her first recording contract in that span of time. James found a way to bring back her older raw sound she had used on previous albums.
The album was produced by keyboardist Barry Beckett
, and was recorded at Alabama
's famous Muscle Shoals Sound Studio
, where James had recorded previous major hits, such as "I'd Rather Go Blind
". The album also helped James reunite with producer Jerry Wexler
, who worked on her 1978 release, Deep in the Night, and also produced many of Aretha Franklin
's records. James released a subsequent album in 1989 on Island records entitled, Stickin' to My Guns, where she once again recorded at the Muscle Shoals recording studio. The same year, James also collaborated with Delicious Vinyl
rap artist Def Jef for the song and hip hop dance classic "Droppin Rhymes on Drums". This record not only bridged the gap between the jazz musician and hip hop artist but also triggered the hip hop style of dance made popular by the Soul Brothers Dance Group during the golden era of hip hop from 1988 to 1994.
In 1992, The Right Time
was released on Elektra Records
, where she again worked with Jerry Wexler. James was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
, in 1993. James then released a tribute album in 1993, Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday dedicated to one of her musical inspirations, Billie Holiday
. The album was her first album for the Private Music label, and also set the trend for a few albums James would release within the decade that would go in a jazz direction. The album earned James her first Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance
in 1994. The following year, James published her autobiography co-written with David Ritz titled, A Rage to Survive. The same year, James released a Soul
-inspired studio album, Time After Time also produced with Jerry Wexler. In 1998, she released a holiday album, Etta James Christmas, on Private Music.
To a younger generation, James is known for the Muddy Waters
song "I Just Wanna Make Love to You", used in television commercials for Coca-Cola
and for John Smith
's bitter (beer)
. The Rolling Stones
, Chuck Berry
and Foghat
have also recorded the song. James's version was a Top 10 UK hit in 1996.
In 2001, she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame
. In 2003, she received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
. Her next album the following year, Blue Gardenia was another return to a jazz music style. That same year, she also released her third live album, Burnin' Down the House: Live at the House of Blues, which was recorded at the House of Blues in West Hollywood, California
. Two years later, she released her final album for Private Music, Let's Roll
, which won James another Grammy in 2005 for Best Contemporary Blues Album.
In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked her #62 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. James has performed at the top world jazz festivals in the world, such as the Montreux Jazz Festival
in 1977, 1989, 1990 and 1993, performed nine times at the legendary Monterey Jazz Festival
, and the San Francisco Jazz Festival
five times. She also performs often at free city outdoor summer arts festivals throughout the US.
James was portrayed by R&B singer and actress Beyoncé Knowles
in the 2008 film Cadillac Records
. The film is loosely based on the rise and fall of James' record label, Chess Records, and how producer Leonard Chess helped the career of James and her other counterparts at the label, although the film fails to reflect the fact that James was already a successful hit-recording artist before she joined Chess, and was not discovered by Leonard Chess as portrayed. In fact, James's songs performed worse on the charts after she joined Chess. Also, contrary to the impression created in the film, it is doubtful that James and Chess were lovers. Others portrayed in Cadillac Records include Chuck Berry
, Muddy Waters
, Howlin' Wolf
, Little Walter
and Willie Dixon
.
At a Seattle
concert on January 28, 2009, James expressed her displeasure with Knowles singing her song "At Last" at the first inaugural ball
for Barack Obama on January 20, 2009, exclaiming that she "can't stand Beyoncé" and that Knowles would "get her ass whipped". James later said that her remarks about Knowles were a joke, but was hurt that she was not invited to sing her song and that she could have performed it better.
On April 7, 2009, Etta James appeared on Dancing with the Stars as a guest performer, singing her classic hit from 1961 "At Last" at age 71. In Memphis, Tennessee on May 7, 2009, the Blues Foundation awarded Etta James the 2009 Soul/Blues Female Artist of the Year—making Etta a nine–time winner of this prestigious award.
After signing with Chess Records in 1960, James broke through as a traditional pop-styled singer, covering jazz and pop music standards on her debut album, At Last!
James's voice has deepened and coarsened in the past ten years, moving her musical style in these later years into the genres of soul and jazz.
Etta James had once been considered one of the most overlooked blues and R&B musicians in American music history. It wasn't until the early 1990s when James began receiving major industry awards from the Grammys and the Blues Foundation
that she began to receive wide recognition. In recent years, she has been seen as bridging the gap between rhythm and blues and rock and roll. James has influenced a wide variety of American musicians including Diana Ross
, Beyoncé, Janis Joplin
, Bonnie Raitt
, Shemekia Copeland
, Christina Aguilera
, and Hayley Williams
of Paramore
as well as British artists The Rolling Stones
, Rod Stewart
, Elkie Brooks
, Amy Winehouse
, Paloma Faith
, Joss Stone
and Adele
.
She was also arrested around the same time for her drug addiction, accused of cashing bad checks, forgery and possession of heroin.
In 1974, James was sentenced to drug treatment instead of serving time in prison. She was in the Tarzana Psychiatric Hospital for 17 months, at age 35, and went through a great struggle at the start of treatment. She later stated in her autobiography that the time she spent in the hospital changed her life. However, after leaving treatment, her substance abuse continued into the 1980s, after she developed a relationship with a man who was also using drugs. In 1988, at the age of 50, she entered the Betty Ford Center
, in Palm Springs, California
, for treatment. In 2010, she received treatment for a dependency on painkillers.
Etta James was hospitalized in January 2010 to treat an infection caused by MRSA
. During her hospitalization, her son Donto revealed that James was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease
in 2009, and attributed her previous comments about Beyoncé Knowles
to "drug induced dementia
".
On January 14, 2011 it was announced that James had been diagnosed with leukemia
and was undergoing treatment. In May she was hospitalized with a urinary tract infection
and the blood infection sepsis
.
James has two sons, Donto and Sametto. Both started performing with their mother in 2003, Donto on drums and Sametto on bass guitar.
who organise the Grammys.
In 1989, the newly formed Rhythm and Blues Foundation
included James in their first Pioneer Awards for artists whose "lifelong contributions have been instrumental in the development of Rhythm & Blues music". The following year, 1990, she received an NAACP Image Award
, which is given for "outstanding achievements and performances of people of color in the arts"; an award she cherished as it "was coming from my own people".
Grammys
Etta James has received six Grammy Awards. Her first was in 1994, when she was awarded Best Jazz Vocal Performance for the album Mystery Lady, which consisted of covers of Billie Holiday
songs. Two other albums have also won awards, Let's Roll
(Best Contemporary Blues Album) in 2003, and Blues To The Bone (Best Traditional Blues Album) in 2004. Two of her early songs have been given Grammy Hall of Fame Award
s for "qualitative or historical significance": "At Last", in 1999, and "The Wallflower (Dance with Me, Henry)
" in 2008. In 2003, she was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
.
Blues Foundation
The members of the Blues Foundation
, a non-profit organization set up in Memphis, Tennessee
to foster the blues and its heritage, have nominated James for a Blues Music Award nearly every year since its founding in 1980; and she has received some form of Blues Female Artist of the Year award 14 times since 1989, continuously from 1999 to 2007. In addition, the albums Life, Love, & The Blues (1999), Burnin' Down The House (2003), and Let's Roll (2004) were awarded Soul/Blues Album of the Year, and in 2001 she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame
.
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
, rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
(R&B), rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
, gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
singer. In the 1950s and 1960s, she had her biggest success as a blues and R&B singer. She is best known for her version of the Mack Gordon
Mack Gordon
Mack Gordon was an American composer and lyricist of songs for the stage and film. He was nominated for the best original song Oscar nine times, including six consecutive years between 1940 and 1945, and won the award once, for "You'll Never Know"...
and Harry Warren
Harry Warren
Harry Warren was an American composer and lyricist. Warren was the first major American songwriter to write primarily for film. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song eleven times and won three Oscars for composing "Lullaby of Broadway", "You'll Never Know" and "On the Atchison,...
song "At Last
At Last
"At Last" is a 1941 song written by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren for the musical film Orchestra Wives, starring George Montgomery and Ann Rutherford. It was performed in the film and on record by Glenn Miller and his orchestra, with vocals by Ray Eberle and Pat Friday...
", and for "I'd Rather Go Blind
I'd Rather Go Blind
"I'd Rather Go Blind" is a Blues song written by Ellington Jordan and co-credited to Billy Foster. It was first recorded by Etta James in 1968, and has subsequently become regarded as a blues and soul classic.-Original version by Etta James:...
", for which she claims she wrote the lyrics.
James was born and brought up in Los Angeles by a series of caregivers. At the age of five she received vocal training at her local Baptist Church choir where she became a popular singer. By the age of 14 she had formed a doo-wop group, and under the name the Peaches they recorded "The Wallflower (Dance with Me, Henry)
The Wallflower (Dance with Me, Henry)
"The Wallflower" is a popular song. It was one of several answer songs to "Work With Me Annie" and has the same 12-bar blues melody....
" which reached #1 on the rhythm and blues charts in 1955. A follow-up, "Good Rockin' Daddy", was also a hit. In 1960, James signed a recording contract with Argo Records
Argo Records
Argo Records was started in December of 1955 to accommodate some of the rapidly growing recording activity at Chess Records. Originally the label was called Marterry, but bandleader Ralph Marterie objected, and within a couple of months the imprint was renamed Argo.Initially, Argo offered a...
, a subsidiary label to Chess Records
Chess Records
Chess Records was an American record label based in Chicago, Illinois. It specialized in blues, R&B, soul, gospel music, early rock and roll, and occasional jazz releases....
, and released her two most acclaimed albums, At Last! and The Second Time Around. She has continued to record and perform, releasing 30 albums and 58 singles, though due to her heroin addiction during the 60s and 70s, her output was erratic. She kicked the habit in 1974, and slowly rebuilt her career, playing at small clubs and music festivals, then opening for the Rolling Stones in the mid 80s, before releasing her first album on a major label for seven years in 1989. The Seven Year Itch caught the attention of the music industry and she began receiving major industry awards from the Grammys and the Blues Foundation.
In recent years, she has been seen as bridging the gap between rhythm and blues and rock and roll. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
ranked James number twenty-two on their list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time and number sixty-two on the list of the 100 Greatest Artists. James has a contralto
Contralto
Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...
vocal range. James is the winner of six Grammys and seventeen Blues Music Awards. She was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, the Blues Hall of Fame
Blues Hall of Fame
The Blues Hall of Fame is a listing of people who have significantly contributed to blues music. Started in 1980 by the Blues Foundation, it honors those who have performed, recorded, or documented blues.-1980:*Big Bill Broonzy*Willie Dixon*John Lee Hooker...
in 2001, and the Grammy Hall of Fame in both 1999 and 2008.
Early life & career: 1938–1959
Jamesetta Hawkins was born January 25, 1938 in Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, to Dorothy Hawkins, who was 14 years old at the time, and an unknown father, who was possibly white. James speculated that her father was the pool player, Rudolf "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone, and met him briefly in 1987. The young James was brought up by a series of caregivers, initially the owners of the boarding house where she lived, "Sarge" and "Mama" Lu, as her flirtatious mother spent little time at home raising her daughter, and was nicknamed by James, "the Mystery Lady". James received her first professional vocal training at the age of five from James Earle Hines, musical director of the Echoes of Eden choir, at the St. Paul Baptist Church in Los Angeles. She became a popular singing attraction at the church, and Sarge tried to pressure the church into paying him money for her singing, but they refused. During drunken poker games at home, he would wake James up in the early hours of the morning and force her through beatings to sing for his friends. As she was a bed-wetter, and often soaked with her own urine on these occasions, the trauma of being forced to sing meant she had a life-long reluctance to sing on demand.
In 1950 Mama Lu died, and James' real mother took her to San Francisco, where she formed a doo-wop
Doo-wop
The name Doo-wop is given to a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music that developed in African American communities in the 1940s and achieved mainstream popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. It emerged from New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and...
singing group, the Creolettes, with two other girls. When the girls were 14, they met bandleader Johnny Otis
Johnny Otis
Johnny Otis is an American singer, musician, talent scout, disc jockey, composer, arranger, recording artist, record producer, vibraphonist, drummer, percussionist, bandleader, and impresario.He is commonly referred to as The Godfather Of Rhythm And Blues.-Personal life:Otis, the son of Alexander...
. There are at least two versions of how Johnny Otis
Johnny Otis
Johnny Otis is an American singer, musician, talent scout, disc jockey, composer, arranger, recording artist, record producer, vibraphonist, drummer, percussionist, bandleader, and impresario.He is commonly referred to as The Godfather Of Rhythm And Blues.-Personal life:Otis, the son of Alexander...
met Etta James. Otis' version is that she came to his hotel room after one of his performances in San Francisco and persuaded him to audition her. Another frequently told story is that Otis spotted the girls performing in an L.A. nightclub, and, having conceived of an "answer song" to Hank Ballard
Hank Ballard
Hank Ballard , born John Henry Kendricks, was a rhythm and blues singer and songwriter, the lead vocalist of Hank Ballard and The Midnighters and one of the first proto-rock 'n' roll artists to emerge in the early 1950s...
's "Work With Me, Annie
Work with Me, Annie
"Work With Me, Annie" is a 12-bar blues with words and music by Hank Ballard. It was recorded by Hank Ballard & the Midnighters in Cincinnati on the Federal Records label on January 14, 1954, and released the following month...
", arranged with the Bihari brothers
Bihari brothers
The Bihari Brothers, Lester, Jules, Saul and Joe, were American music entrepreneurs and the founders of Modern Records in Los Angeles and its subsidiaries such as Meteor Records based in Memphis.-Origins:...
for Modern Records to record the song with the trio, now called the Peaches. Otis particularly liked the song and, without her mother's permission, the Peaches recorded it in Los Angeles in 1954. The song was released in 1955 on the Modern Records
Modern Records
Modern Records was an American record label formed in 1945 in Los Angeles by the Bihari brothers. In the 1960s, Modern Records went bankrupt and ceased operations, but the catalogue went with the management into what became Kent Records. This back catalogue was eventually licensed to the UK label...
label as "The Wallflower (Dance with Me, Henry)
The Wallflower (Dance with Me, Henry)
"The Wallflower" is a popular song. It was one of several answer songs to "Work With Me Annie" and has the same 12-bar blues melody....
". Richard Berry
Richard Berry
Richard Berry was an African American singer, songwriter and musician, who performed with many Los Angeles doo-wop and close harmony groups in the 1950s, including The Flairs and The Robins....
, a Los Angeles doo-wop luminary, is featured on some of the group's records.
"The Wallflower" reached #1 on the rhythm and blues charts in February 1955. The first time she was recorded in studio, they used the first take she recorded, and it became #1 on the "Top 100" songs in the nation. Royalties from "The Wallflower" were divided among Ballard, James and Otis. Its huge success attracted the attention of the R&B world, resulting in James going on tour with Little Richard
Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman , known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and...
in 1956.
Soon after the song's success, James left the Peaches. She continued to record and release albums throughout much of the decade, and enjoyed more success. Her follow-up, "Good Rockin' Daddy", became another hit in the fifties. Other songs however, such as "Tough Lover" and "W-O-M-A-N" failed to gain any significant success. In addition to Little Richard, James toured with Johnny "Guitar" Watson in the fifties and has cited Watson as the most significant influence on her style.
The Chess years: 1960–1978
In 1960, James signed a recording contract with Chess RecordsChess Records
Chess Records was an American record label based in Chicago, Illinois. It specialized in blues, R&B, soul, gospel music, early rock and roll, and occasional jazz releases....
, on their subsidiary label, Argo Records
Argo Records
Argo Records was started in December of 1955 to accommodate some of the rapidly growing recording activity at Chess Records. Originally the label was called Marterry, but bandleader Ralph Marterie objected, and within a couple of months the imprint was renamed Argo.Initially, Argo offered a...
(she later also recorded for their other subsidiary label, Cadet
Cadet Records
Cadet Records was started as Argo Records in 1955 as the jazz subsidiary of Chess Records. Argo changed its name in 1965 to Cadet to avoid confusion with the similarly named label in the UK...
). James began her relationship with the label with five major hits, first with a pair of duets with singer, Harvey Fuqua
Harvey Fuqua
Harvey Fuqua, was an African-American rhythm and blues singer, songwriter, record producer, and record label executive.Fuqua founded the seminal R&B/doo-wop group the Moonglows in the 1950s...
; "If I Can't Have You" and "Spoonful
Spoonful
"Spoonful" is a blues standard written by Willie Dixon and first recorded in 1960 by Howlin' Wolf. It is loosely based on "A Spoonful Blues", a song recorded in 1929 by Charley Patton , itself related to "All I Want Is A Spoonful" by Papa Charlie Jackson and "Cocaine Blues" by Luke Jordan...
". She had her first major solo hit with the R&B-styled tune, "All I Could Do is Cry". The song rose in the Billboard R&B Chart
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...
, peaking at #2 in 1960. This was followed by the Top 5 R&B hit, "My Dearest Darling" the same year. Around the same time, James also sang background vocals on Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...
's hit, "Back in the USA
Back in the USA
Back in the USA is the 1970 debut studio album, and second album overall, by the American protopunk band MC5. The opening track is a cover of the classic hit "Tutti Frutti" by Little Richard, "Let Me Try" is a ballad, "The American Ruse" attacks what the Detroit quintet saw as the hypocritical idea...
".
That same year, James released her debut album on Chess entitled, At Last!, which featured all of James' hits between 1960 and 1961, and also included a few standards, such as Lena Horne
Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...
's "Stormy Weather", "I Just Want to Make Love to You
I Just Want to Make Love to You
In 1961, Etta James recorded the song for her debut album At Last!. Her rendition also served as the b-side to her hit "At Last." In 1996, Etta James' version became popular in the UK after featuring in a Diet Coke ad campaign. As a result, the single was re-released there...
", and "A Sunday Kind of Love
A Sunday Kind of Love
"A Sunday Kind of Love" is a popular song composed by Barbara Belle, Anita Leonard, Stan Rhodes, and Louis Prima, published in 1946.The song has become a pop and jazz standard, recorded by many artists.- Notable recordings :...
". The album showed James' varied choice in music.
Chess Records' head producer, Leonard Chess
Leonard Chess
Leonard Chess was a record company executive and the founder of Chess Records. He was influential in the development of electric blues.- Early life :...
, imagined James as a classic ballad stylist who had potential to cross over onto the pop charts. Chess began backing James on her recording sessions with violins and other string instruments, which was first heard on her 1961 hit, "At Last".
The song went to #2 on the Billboard R&B chart in 1961, and also peaked at #47 on the Billboard Pop Chart, ultimately becoming her signature song. Although it wasn't as successful as expected on the pop charts, it did become the most remembered version of the song.
In 1961, James had another major hit with "Trust in Me," which also featured string instruments. Also in 1961, James released a second studio album, The Second Time Around. The album took the same direction as her previous album, covering many jazz and pop standards, and using strings on many of the songs. The album spawned a Top 15 hit, "The Fool That I Am" and a minor hit on the pop chart, "Don't Cry Baby."
In 1962, James had three major hits, beginning with the gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
-inspired, "Something's Got a Hold on Me," which peaked at #4 on the R&B chart, and also reached the Pop Top 40.
Another single, "Stop the Wedding" followed and reached #6.
In 1963, James cut and released her first live album, Etta James Rocks the House
Etta James Rocks the House
Etta James Rocks The House is a 1964 live album by American R&B singer Etta James. This album was recorded live on the nights of September 27 and 28, 1963 at the New Era Club in Nashville, Tennessee....
, recorded at the New Era Club in Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
. In the same year, James had another Top 10 R&B hit with "Pushover," which also made the Pop Top 25, and was ultimately one of her two biggest Billboard hits on the Hot 100. "Pushover" also hit #11 on influential pop music station WMCA
WMCA
WMCA, 570 AM, is a radio station in New York City, most known for its "Good Guys" Top 40 era in the 1960s. It is currently owned by Salem Communications and plays a Christian radio format...
in New York during May 1963. It was followed by two other singles that year that were minor hits on the pop chart, "Pay Back" and "Two Sides (To Every Story)." That year she released her third album, Etta James Top Ten. Within the next year, James scored another Top 10 hit with "Loving You More Each Day" (which also reached #65 on the pop chart) and had a Top 40 hit with "Baby What You Want Me to Do
Baby What You Want Me to Do
"Baby What You Want Me to Do" is a blues song that was written and recorded by Jimmy Reed in 1959...
."
In the mid-1960s, James began to battle a heroin addiction, which would last up until 1974. For years, James would spend much time in and out of Los Angeles' Tarzana Psychiatric Hospital. She began recording again in 1967 with guitarist Paul C. Saenz, and achieved her biggest hit in years, "Tell Mama," which reached the R&B Top 10 and #23 on the Hot 100. An album of the same name, produced by Rick Hall
Rick Hall
Roe Erister "Rick" Hall is an American record producer, songwriter, music publisher and musician who is best known as the owner and proprietor of the FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.-Life and career:...
at his then-hot Fame studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, also featured a rendition of Otis Redding
Otis Redding
Otis Ray Redding, Jr. was an American soul singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger and talent scout. He is considered one of the major figures in soul and R&B...
's song, "Security" which peaked at #11 on the R&B chart. Although she wasn't as successful as she had been, James remained a large concert attraction. She continued to have R&B Top 40 hits up until the mid 1970s, with "Loser Weepers" (an album of the same name was released in 1971) and then with "I Found a Love" in 1972.
James released an eponymous album in 1973 that spawned two minor hits. Produced by Gabriel Mekler, who had previously worked with Steppenwolf and Janis Joplin, the album musically was an ambitious mix of soul, blues, jazz and rock and it was nominated for a Grammy award the following year. Mekler produced a follow-up album called "Out On The Street Again" in 1974. Again critically acclaimed, this also produced only minor hits.
Despite the death of Leonard Chess, James recorded for the label up until 1978, and began using more rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
-based songs in her albums. She released her final two albums for Chess in 1978, Etta Is Betta Than Evah and Deep in the Night. That year, James also opened tour dates in the United States for The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
and also played at the Montreal Jazz Festival.
Later career: 1988–1999
Miami Vice
Miami Vice is an American television series produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series starred Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as two Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami. It ran for five seasons on NBC from 1984–1989...
. However, by 1989 she made her comeback with an album, Seven Year Itch, released by Island Records
Island Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
; her first recording contract in that span of time. James found a way to bring back her older raw sound she had used on previous albums.
The album was produced by keyboardist Barry Beckett
Barry Beckett
Barry Edward Beckett was a keyboardist who worked as a session musician with several notable artists on their studio albums...
, and was recorded at Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
's famous Muscle Shoals Sound Studio
Muscle Shoals Sound Studio
The Muscle Shoals Sound Studio was formed in Muscle Shoals, Alabama,in 1969 when musicians Barry Beckett , Roger Hawkins , Jimmy Johnson and David Hood left FAME Studios to create their own studio...
, where James had recorded previous major hits, such as "I'd Rather Go Blind
I'd Rather Go Blind
"I'd Rather Go Blind" is a Blues song written by Ellington Jordan and co-credited to Billy Foster. It was first recorded by Etta James in 1968, and has subsequently become regarded as a blues and soul classic.-Original version by Etta James:...
". The album also helped James reunite with producer Jerry Wexler
Jerry Wexler
Gerald "Jerry" Wexler was a music journalist turned music producer, and was regarded as one of the major record industry players behind music from the 1950s through the 1980s...
, who worked on her 1978 release, Deep in the Night, and also produced many of Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
's records. James released a subsequent album in 1989 on Island records entitled, Stickin' to My Guns, where she once again recorded at the Muscle Shoals recording studio. The same year, James also collaborated with Delicious Vinyl
Delicious Vinyl
Delicious Vinyl is an American independent record label founded by Matt Dike and Michael Ross in 1987 and based in Los Angeles. Throughout its history, the label has had distribution deals with [Island Records/[PolyGram]], Warner Music Group, EMI, Red Ant, Rhino and Universal Music Group.-Early...
rap artist Def Jef for the song and hip hop dance classic "Droppin Rhymes on Drums". This record not only bridged the gap between the jazz musician and hip hop artist but also triggered the hip hop style of dance made popular by the Soul Brothers Dance Group during the golden era of hip hop from 1988 to 1994.
In 1992, The Right Time
The Right Time (Etta James Album)
The Right Time is a R&B album by singer Etta James, released in 1992.- Track listing :# "I Sing the Blues" # "Love and Happiness" # "Evening of Love"...
was released on Elektra Records
Elektra Records
Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009....
, where she again worked with Jerry Wexler. James was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
, in 1993. James then released a tribute album in 1993, Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday dedicated to one of her musical inspirations, Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...
. The album was her first album for the Private Music label, and also set the trend for a few albums James would release within the decade that would go in a jazz direction. The album earned James her first Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance
Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female
The Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to female recording artists for quality jazz vocal performances...
in 1994. The following year, James published her autobiography co-written with David Ritz titled, A Rage to Survive. The same year, James released a Soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
-inspired studio album, Time After Time also produced with Jerry Wexler. In 1998, she released a holiday album, Etta James Christmas, on Private Music.
To a younger generation, James is known for the Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...
song "I Just Wanna Make Love to You", used in television commercials for Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
and for John Smith
John Smith's Brewery
John Smith's is a brewery founded in 1758 by Backhouse & Hartley at Tadcaster in North Yorkshire, England. John Smith bought the brewery in 1847. John Smith's is the sixth highest selling beer brand in the United Kingdom, and the highest selling ale brand. The brewery is currently owned by...
's bitter (beer)
Bitter (beer)
Bitter is an English term for pale ale. Bitters vary in colour from gold to dark amber and in strength from 3% to 7% alcohol by volume.-Brief history:...
. The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
, Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...
and Foghat
Foghat
Foghat are a British rock band that had their peak success in the mid- to late-1970s. Their style can be described as "blues-rock," or boogie-rock dominated by electric and electric slide guitar. The band has achieved five gold records...
have also recorded the song. James's version was a Top 10 UK hit in 1996.
Modern era: from 2000
James continued to record for Private Music into the new millennium, finding her next release to be Matriarch of the Blues. It was given much praise from music articles and magazines, such as Rolling Stone Magazine, which said, "A solid return to roots, Matriarch of the Blues finds Etta James reclaiming her throne—and defying anyone to knock her off it."In 2001, she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame
Rockabilly Hall of Fame
The Rockabilly Hall of Fame was established on the internet on March 21, 1997, to present early rock and roll history and information relative to the artists and personalities involved in this pioneering American music genre....
. In 2003, she received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded by the Recording Academy to "performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording."...
. Her next album the following year, Blue Gardenia was another return to a jazz music style. That same year, she also released her third live album, Burnin' Down the House: Live at the House of Blues, which was recorded at the House of Blues in West Hollywood, California
West Hollywood, California
West Hollywood, a city of Los Angeles County, California, was incorporated on November 29, 1984, with a population of 34,399 at the 2010 census. 41% of the city's population is made up of gay men according to a 2002 demographic analysis by Sara Kocher Consulting for the City of West Hollywood...
. Two years later, she released her final album for Private Music, Let's Roll
Let's Roll (album)
Let's Roll is a 2003 blues album by Etta James. It won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album in 2003 and also won the Soul/Blues Album of the Year from the Blues Foundation in 2004.-Track listing:...
, which won James another Grammy in 2005 for Best Contemporary Blues Album.
In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked her #62 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. James has performed at the top world jazz festivals in the world, such as the Montreux Jazz Festival
Montreux Jazz Festival
The Montreux Jazz Festival is the best-known music festival in Switzerland and one of the most prestigious in Europe; it is held annually in early July in Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva...
in 1977, 1989, 1990 and 1993, performed nine times at the legendary Monterey Jazz Festival
Monterey Jazz Festival
The Monterey Jazz Festival is one of the longest consecutively running jazz festivals. It debuted on October 3, 1958 and was founded by San Francisco jazz radio broadcaster Jimmy Lyons.-History:...
, and the San Francisco Jazz Festival
San Francisco Jazz Festival
Debuting in 1983, the San Francisco Jazz Festival is an annual three-week celebration of today's best music, with over 30 concerts. Produced by SFJAZZ, a non-profit organization dedicated to jazz and jazz education...
five times. She also performs often at free city outdoor summer arts festivals throughout the US.
James was portrayed by R&B singer and actress Beyoncé Knowles
Beyoncé Knowles
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles , often known simply as Beyoncé, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she enrolled in various performing arts schools and was first exposed to singing and dancing competitions as a child...
in the 2008 film Cadillac Records
Cadillac Records
Cadillac Records is a 2008 musical biopic written and directed by Darnell Martin. The film explores the musical era from the early 1940s to the late 1960s, chronicling the life of the influential Chicago-based record-company executive Leonard Chess, and the musicians who recorded for Chess...
. The film is loosely based on the rise and fall of James' record label, Chess Records, and how producer Leonard Chess helped the career of James and her other counterparts at the label, although the film fails to reflect the fact that James was already a successful hit-recording artist before she joined Chess, and was not discovered by Leonard Chess as portrayed. In fact, James's songs performed worse on the charts after she joined Chess. Also, contrary to the impression created in the film, it is doubtful that James and Chess were lovers. Others portrayed in Cadillac Records include Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...
, Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...
, Howlin' Wolf
Howlin' Wolf
Chester Arthur Burnett , known as Howlin' Wolf, was an influential American blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player....
, Little Walter
Little Walter
Little Walter, born Marion Walter Jacobs , was an American blues harmonica player, whose revolutionary approach to his instrument has earned him comparisons to Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix, for innovation and impact on succeeding generations...
and Willie Dixon
Willie Dixon
William James "Willie" Dixon was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. A Grammy Award winner who was proficient on both the Upright bass and the guitar, as well as his own singing voice, Dixon is arguably best known as one of the most prolific songwriters...
.
At a Seattle
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
concert on January 28, 2009, James expressed her displeasure with Knowles singing her song "At Last" at the first inaugural ball
Inauguration of Barack Obama
The inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States took place on Tuesday, January 20, 2009. The inauguration, which set a record attendance for any event held in Washington, D.C., marked the commencement of the four-year term of Barack Obama as President and Joe...
for Barack Obama on January 20, 2009, exclaiming that she "can't stand Beyoncé" and that Knowles would "get her ass whipped". James later said that her remarks about Knowles were a joke, but was hurt that she was not invited to sing her song and that she could have performed it better.
On April 7, 2009, Etta James appeared on Dancing with the Stars as a guest performer, singing her classic hit from 1961 "At Last" at age 71. In Memphis, Tennessee on May 7, 2009, the Blues Foundation awarded Etta James the 2009 Soul/Blues Female Artist of the Year—making Etta a nine–time winner of this prestigious award.
Style and influence
James's musical style has changed during the course of her career. When beginning her recording career in the mid-50s, James was marketed as an R&B and doo wop singer.After signing with Chess Records in 1960, James broke through as a traditional pop-styled singer, covering jazz and pop music standards on her debut album, At Last!
James's voice has deepened and coarsened in the past ten years, moving her musical style in these later years into the genres of soul and jazz.
Etta James had once been considered one of the most overlooked blues and R&B musicians in American music history. It wasn't until the early 1990s when James began receiving major industry awards from the Grammys and the Blues Foundation
Blues Foundation
The Blues Foundation is an American nonprofit corporation, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, that is affiliated with more than 175 Blues organizations from various parts of the world....
that she began to receive wide recognition. In recent years, she has been seen as bridging the gap between rhythm and blues and rock and roll. James has influenced a wide variety of American musicians including Diana Ross
Diana Ross
Diana Ernestine Earle Ross is an American singer, record producer, and actress. Ross was lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that included successful ventures into film and Broadway...
, Beyoncé, Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
, Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...
, Shemekia Copeland
Shemekia Copeland
Shemekia Copeland is an American electric blues vocalist.-Career:Copeland was born in Harlem, New York City, United States. She is the daughter of Texas blues guitarist and singer Johnny Copeland...
, Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera
Christina María Aguilera is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993–1994...
, and Hayley Williams
Hayley Williams
Hayley Nichole Williams is an American singer, songwriter, and the lead vocalist of the band Paramore.- Life and career :...
of Paramore
Paramore
Paramore is an American rock band from Franklin, Tennessee, formed in 2004. The band consists of lead vocalist Hayley Williams, bassist Jeremy Davis, and guitarist Taylor York...
as well as British artists The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
, Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
, Elkie Brooks
Elkie Brooks
Elkie Brooks is an English singer, formerly a vocalist with Vinegar Joe, and later a solo artist. Elkie has been nominated twice for Brit Awards' top female singer. She is known for her powerful husky voice...
, Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse
Amy Jade Winehouse was an English singer-songwriter known for her powerful deep contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres including R&B, soul and jazz. Winehouse's 2003 debut album, Frank, was critically successful in the UK and was nominated for the Mercury Prize...
, Paloma Faith
Paloma Faith
Paloma Faith is a British singer-songwriter and actress. In 2009, she released her debut single "Stone Cold Sober", then her debut album, Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?, which was certified Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry. Her debut album stayed within the top 40 album...
, Joss Stone
Joss Stone
Jocelyn Eve Stoker , better known by her stage name Joss Stone, is an English soul singer-songwriter and actress. Stone rose to fame in late 2003 with her multi-platinum debut album, The Soul Sessions, which made the 2004 Mercury Prize shortlist...
and Adele
Adele (singer)
Adele Laurie Blue Adkins , known professionally as Adele, is an English singer-songwriter. She was the first recipient of the Brit Awards Critics' Choice and was named the number-one predicted breakthrough act of 2008 in an annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2008...
.
Personal life
James encountered a string of legal problems during the early 1970s due to her heroin addiction. She was continuously in and out of rehabilitation centers, including the Tarzana Rehabilitation Center, in Los Angeles, California. Her husband Artis Mills, whom she married in 1969, accepted responsibility when they were both arrested for heroin possession and served a 10-year prison sentence. He was released from prison in 1982 and is still married to James.She was also arrested around the same time for her drug addiction, accused of cashing bad checks, forgery and possession of heroin.
In 1974, James was sentenced to drug treatment instead of serving time in prison. She was in the Tarzana Psychiatric Hospital for 17 months, at age 35, and went through a great struggle at the start of treatment. She later stated in her autobiography that the time she spent in the hospital changed her life. However, after leaving treatment, her substance abuse continued into the 1980s, after she developed a relationship with a man who was also using drugs. In 1988, at the age of 50, she entered the Betty Ford Center
Betty Ford Center
The Betty Ford Center , is a non-profit, separately licensed residential chemical dependency recovery hospital in Rancho Mirage, California, that offers inpatient, outpatient, and day treatment for alcohol and other drug addictions as well as prevention and education programs for family and children...
, in Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...
, for treatment. In 2010, she received treatment for a dependency on painkillers.
Etta James was hospitalized in January 2010 to treat an infection caused by MRSA
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterium responsible for several difficult-to-treat infections in humans. It is also called multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and oxacillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus...
. During her hospitalization, her son Donto revealed that James was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
in 2009, and attributed her previous comments about Beyoncé Knowles
Beyoncé Knowles
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles , often known simply as Beyoncé, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she enrolled in various performing arts schools and was first exposed to singing and dancing competitions as a child...
to "drug induced dementia
Dementia
Dementia is a serious loss of cognitive ability in a previously unimpaired person, beyond what might be expected from normal aging...
".
On January 14, 2011 it was announced that James had been diagnosed with leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
and was undergoing treatment. In May she was hospitalized with a urinary tract infection
Urinary tract infection
A urinary tract infection is a bacterial infection that affects any part of the urinary tract. Symptoms include frequent feeling and/or need to urinate, pain during urination, and cloudy urine. The main causal agent is Escherichia coli...
and the blood infection sepsis
Sepsis
Sepsis is a potentially deadly medical condition that is characterized by a whole-body inflammatory state and the presence of a known or suspected infection. The body may develop this inflammatory response by the immune system to microbes in the blood, urine, lungs, skin, or other tissues...
.
James has two sons, Donto and Sametto. Both started performing with their mother in 2003, Donto on drums and Sametto on bass guitar.
Awards
Since 1989, Etta James has received over 30 awards and recognitions from eight different organisations, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, and the National Academy of Recording Arts and SciencesNational Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc., known variously as The Recording Academy or NARAS, is a U.S. organization of musicians, producers, recording engineers and other recording professionals dedicated to improving the quality of life and cultural condition for music and its...
who organise the Grammys.
In 1989, the newly formed Rhythm and Blues Foundation
Rhythm and Blues Foundation
The Rhythm and Blues Foundation is an independent American nonprofit organization dedicated to the historical and cultural preservation of rhythm and blues music....
included James in their first Pioneer Awards for artists whose "lifelong contributions have been instrumental in the development of Rhythm & Blues music". The following year, 1990, she received an NAACP Image Award
NAACP Image Award
An NAACP Image Award is an accolade presented by the American National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to honor outstanding people of color in film, television, music, and literature....
, which is given for "outstanding achievements and performances of people of color in the arts"; an award she cherished as it "was coming from my own people".
- 1993, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
- 2001, Rockabilly Hall of FameRockabilly Hall of FameThe Rockabilly Hall of Fame was established on the internet on March 21, 1997, to present early rock and roll history and information relative to the artists and personalities involved in this pioneering American music genre....
- 2003, Hollywood Chamber of Commerce Hollywood Walk of Fame, star at 7080 Hollywood Blvd, and Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) Lifetime Achievement Award
- 2006, Billboard R&B Founders Award
Grammys
Etta James has received six Grammy Awards. Her first was in 1994, when she was awarded Best Jazz Vocal Performance for the album Mystery Lady, which consisted of covers of Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...
songs. Two other albums have also won awards, Let's Roll
Let's Roll (album)
Let's Roll is a 2003 blues album by Etta James. It won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album in 2003 and also won the Soul/Blues Album of the Year from the Blues Foundation in 2004.-Track listing:...
(Best Contemporary Blues Album) in 2003, and Blues To The Bone (Best Traditional Blues Album) in 2004. Two of her early songs have been given Grammy Hall of Fame Award
Grammy Hall of Fame Award
The Grammy Hall of Fame Award is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old and that have "qualitative or historical significance"...
s for "qualitative or historical significance": "At Last", in 1999, and "The Wallflower (Dance with Me, Henry)
The Wallflower (Dance with Me, Henry)
"The Wallflower" is a popular song. It was one of several answer songs to "Work With Me Annie" and has the same 12-bar blues melody....
" in 2008. In 2003, she was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded by the Recording Academy to "performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording."...
.
Blues Foundation
The members of the Blues Foundation
Blues Foundation
The Blues Foundation is an American nonprofit corporation, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, that is affiliated with more than 175 Blues organizations from various parts of the world....
, a non-profit organization set up in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
to foster the blues and its heritage, have nominated James for a Blues Music Award nearly every year since its founding in 1980; and she has received some form of Blues Female Artist of the Year award 14 times since 1989, continuously from 1999 to 2007. In addition, the albums Life, Love, & The Blues (1999), Burnin' Down The House (2003), and Let's Roll (2004) were awarded Soul/Blues Album of the Year, and in 2001 she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame
Blues Hall of Fame
The Blues Hall of Fame is a listing of people who have significantly contributed to blues music. Started in 1980 by the Blues Foundation, it honors those who have performed, recorded, or documented blues.-1980:*Big Bill Broonzy*Willie Dixon*John Lee Hooker...
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