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Etta James
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Etta James died aged seventy-three from leukemia on 20th January 2012 at 
Parkview Hospital in Riverside, California, U.S.A. She had been diagnosed with leukemia in early 2011 and the illness became terminal causing her to die just five days before her seventy-fourth birthday.
Etta's funeral, presided over by Reverend Al Sharpton, took place in Gardena, California eight days later. The singers Stevie Wonder and Christina Aguilera each gave a musical tribute. She was entombed at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Los Angeles County, California, U.S.A.
Etta was born Jamesetta Hawkins on January 25th 1938 in Los Angeles, California, to Dorothy Hawkins, who was fourteen at the time and her father has never been identified. Etta James speculated that she was the daughter of pool player Rudolf "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone, whom she met briefly in 1987. Her mother was frequently absent from their apartment in Watts, conducting relationships with various men, and Jamesetta lived with a series of foster parents, including Sarge. Etta James referred to her mother as "the Mystery Lady".
Etta 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 south-central Los Angeles. Under his tutelage, she suffered physical abuse during her formative years, with her instructor often punching her in the chest while she sang to force her voice to come from her gut. As a consequence, she developed an unusually strong voice for a child her age. She became a popular singing attraction.
Foster parent Sarge, like the musical director for the choir, was also abusive. During drunken poker games at home, he would awaken Jamesetta in the early morning hours and force her with beatings to sing for his friends. She was a bed-wetter and often soaked with urine on these occasions. The trauma of her foster father forcing her to sing under these humiliating circumstances led to difficulties for her to sing on demand throughout her career.
In 1950, Mama Lu died, and Etta James's biological mother took her to the Fillmore district of San Francisco. Within a couple of years, she began listening to doo-wop and was inspired to form a girl group, the Creolettes.
At the age of fourteen, she met the musician Johnny Otis. Stories on how they met vary. In Otis's version, she came to his hotel after one of his performances in the city and persuaded him to audition her. Another story was that Otis spotted the Creolettes performing at a Los Angeles nightclub and sought for them to record his "answer song" to Hank Ballard's "Work with Me, Annie". Otis took the group under his wing, helping them sign to Modern Records and changing their name from the Creolettes to the Peaches. He also gave Etta her stage name, transposing Jamesetta into Etta James. Etta James recorded the version, for which she was given credit as co-author, in 1954, and the record was released in early 1955 as "Dance with Me, Henry". The original title of the song was "Roll with Me, Henry", but it was changed to avoid censorship due to the off-color title (roll connoting sexual activity). In February of that year, the song reached number one on the Hot Rhythm & Blues Tracks chart. Its success gave the group an opening spot on Little Richard's national tour.
While Etta James was on tour with Little Richard, the pop singer Georgia Gibbs recorded a version of Etta James's song, which was released under the title "The Wallflower" and became a crossover hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100, which angered Etta James. After leaving the Peaches, Etta James had another R&B hit with "Good Rockin' Daddy" but struggled with follow-ups. When her contract with Modern came up for renewal in 1960, she signed a contract with Chess Records instead. Shortly afterwards she was involved in a relationship with the singer Harvey Fuqua, the founder of the doo-wop group the Moonglows.
The musician Bobby Murray, known as Taters, toured with Etta James for 20 years. He wrote that Etta had her first hit single when she was fifteen years old and went steady with B.B. King in Memphis when she was sixteen. Etta James believed that King's hit single "Sweet Sixteen" was about her. In early 1955, she and an aspiring singer, the 19-year-old Elvis Presley, then recording for Sun Studios and an avid fan of King's, shared a bill in a large club just outside Memphis. In her autobiography, she noted how impressed she was with the young singer's manners. She also recalled how happy he made her many years later when she found out that it was Presley who had moved her close friend Jackie Wilson from a substandard convalescent home to a more appropriate facility and, as she put it, paid all the expenses. Elvis Presley died a year later and Wilson went on to live for another ten years in the care center Elvis found for him.
Dueting with Harvey Fuqua, Etta James recorded for Argo Records (later renamed Cadet Records), a label established by Chess. Her first hit singles with Fuqua were "If I Can't Have You" and "Spoonful". Her first solo hit was the doo-wop–styled rhythm-and-blues song "All I Could Do Was Cry", which was a number two R&B hit. Chess Records co-founder Leonard Chess envisioned Etta James as a classic ballad stylist who had potential to cross over to the pop charts and soon surrounded the singer with violins and other string instruments. The first string-laden ballad Etta James recorded was "My Dearest Darling" in May 1960, which peaked in the top five of the R&B chart. Etta James also sang background vocals for her labelmate Chuck Berry on his "Back in the U.S.A."
Her debut album, 'At Last!', was released in late 1960 and was noted for its varied selection of music, from jazz standards to blues to doo-wop and rhythm and blues. The album included the future classic "I Just Want to Make Love to You" and "A Sunday Kind of Love". In early 1961, Etta James released what was to become her signature song, "At Last", which reached number two on the R&B chart and number 47 on the Billboard Hot 100. Though the record was not as successful as expected, her rendition has become the best-known version of the song. Etta James followed that with "Trust in Me", which also included string instruments. Later that same year, Etta James released a second studio album, 'The Second Time Around'. The album took the same direction as her first, covering jazz and pop standards and with strings on many of the songs. It produced two hit singles, "Fool That I Am" and "Don't Cry Baby".
Etta James started adding gospel elements in her music the following year, releasing "Something's Got a Hold on Me", which peaked at number four on the R&B chart and was a Top forty pop hit. That success was quickly followed by "Stop the Wedding", which reached number six on the R&B chart and also had gospel elements. In 1963, she had another major hit with "Pushover" and released the live album 'Etta James Rocks the House', recorded at the New Era Club in Nashville, Tennessee. After a couple years of minor hits, Etta James's career started to suffer post 1965. After a period of isolation, she returned to recording in 1967 and reemerged with more gutsy R&B numbers thanks to her recording at the legendary FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. These sessions yielded her comeback hit "Tell Mama", co-written by Clarence Carter, which reached number ten R&B and number twenty-three pop. An album of the same name was also released that year and included her take on Otis Redding's "Security". The B-side of "Tell Mama" was "I'd Rather Go Blind", which became a blues classic and has been recorded by many other artists. In her autobiography, 'Rage to Survive', she wrote that she heard the song outlined by her friend Ellington "Fugi" Jordan when she visited him in prison. According to her account, she wrote the rest of the song with Jordan, but for tax reasons gave her songwriting credit to her partner at the time, Billy Foster.
Following this success, Etta James became an in-demand concert performer though she never again reached the heyday of her early to mid-1960s success. Her records continued to chart in the R&B Top 40 in the early 1970s, with singles such as "Losers Weepers" and "I Found a Love". Though Etta James continued to record for Chess, she was devastated by the death of Leonard Chess in 1969. Etta James ventured into rock and funk with the release of her self-titled album in 1973, with production from the famed rock producer Gabriel Mekler, who had worked with Steppenwolf and Janis Joplin, who had admired Etta James and had covered "Tell Mama" in concert. The album, known for its mixture of musical styles, was nominated for a Grammy Award. The album did not produce any major hits; neither did the follow-up, Come a Little Closer, in 1974, though, like Etta James before it, the album was also critically acclaimed. Etta James continued to record for Chess (now owned by All Platinum Records), releasing one more album in 1976 called 'Etta Is Betta Than Evvah!' Her 1978 album 'Deep in the Night', produced by Jerry Wexler for Warner Bros., incorporated more rock-based music in her repertoire. That same year, Etta James was the opening act for the Rolling Stones and performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Following this brief success, however, she left Chess Records and did not record for another ten years as she struggled with drug addiction and alcoholism.
Though she continued to perform, little was heard of Etta James until 1984, when she contacted David Wolper and asked to perform in the opening ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics, at which she sang "When the Saints Go Marching In". In 1987 she performed "Rock & Roll Music" with Chuck Berry in the documentary film 'Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll'.
In 1989, she signed with Island Records and released the albums 'Seven Year Itch' and 'Stickin' to My Guns', both of which were produced by Barry Beckett and recorded at FAME Studios. Also in 1989 Etta James was filmed in a concert at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles with Joe Walsh and Albert Collins for the film 'Jazzvisions: Jump the Blues Away'. Many of the backing musicians were top-flight players from Los Angeles: Rick Rosas (bass), Michael Huey (drums), Ed Sanford (Hammond B3 organ), Kip Noble (piano) and Josh Sklair, her longtime guitar player.
Etta James participated with the rap singer Def Jef on the song "Droppin' Rhymes on Drums", which mixed Etta James's jazz vocals with hip-hop. In 1992, she recorded the album 'The Right Time', produced by Jerry Wexler for Elektra Records. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
Etta James signed with Private Music Records in 1993 and recorded a Billie Holiday tribute album, 'Mystery Lady:Songs of Billie Holiday'. The album set a trend of incorporating more jazz elements in Etta James's music. The album won Etta James her first Grammy Award, for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female, in 1994. In 1995, her autobiography, 'A Rage to Survive', co-written with David Ritz, was published. Also in 1995, she recorded the album 'Time After Time'. A Christmas album, 'Etta James Christmas', was released in 1998.
By the mid-1990's, Etta James's earlier classic music was being used in commercials, including "I Just Wanna Make Love to You". After the song was used in a UK commercial, it reached the top ten on the UK charts in 1996.
By 1998, with the release of 'Life, Love & the Blues', she had added as backing musicians her sons, Donto and Sametto, on drums and bass, respectively. They continued as part of her touring band. She went on recording for Private Music, which released the blues album 'Matriarch of the Blues' in 2000, on which she returned to her R&B roots. In 2001, she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, the latter for her contributions to the developments of both rock and roll and rockabilly. In 2003, she received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. On her 2004 release, 'Blue Gardenia', she returned to a jazz style. Her final album for Private Music, 'Let's Roll', released in 2005, won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album.
Etta James performed at the top jazz festivals in the world, such as the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1977, 1989, 1990 and 1993. She performed nine times at the legendary Monterey Jazz Festival and five times at the San Francisco Jazz Festival. She also often performed at free summer arts festivals throughout the United States.
In 2008, Etta James was portrayed by Beyoncé Knowles in the film 'Cadillac Records, a fictional account of Chess Records'. The film portrayed her pop hit "At Last". Etta James and Knowles were seen embracing at a red-carpet event following the film's release. Etta James later said that her previous critical remarks about Knowles for having performed "At Last" at the inauguration of Barack Obama were a joke stemming from how she felt hurt that she herself was not invited to sing her song. It was later reported that Alzheimer's disease and "drug induced dementia" had contributed to her negative comments about Knowles.
In April 2009, at the age of 71, Etta James made her final television appearance, performing "At Last" on the program 'Dancing with the Stars'. In May 2009, she received the Soul/Blues Female Artist of the Year award from the Blues Foundation, the ninth time she won the award. She carried on touring but by 2010 had to cancel concert dates because of her gradually failing health, after it was revealed that she was suffering from dementia and leukemia. In November 2011, Etta James released her final album, 'The Dreamer', which was critically acclaimed upon its release. She announced that this would be her final album. Her continuing relevance was affirmed in 2011 when the Swedish DJ Avicii achieved substantial chart success with the song "Levels", which samples her 1962 song "Something's Got a Hold on Me". The same sample was used by the rapper Flo Rida in his 2011 hit single "Good Feeling". Both artists issued statements of condolence upon Etta James's death.
Etta James possessed the vocal range of a contralto. Her musical style changed during the course of her career. At the beginning her recording career, in the mid-1950s, James was marketed as an R&B and doo-wop singer. After signing with Chess Records in 1960, Etta James broke through as a traditional pop-styled singer, covering jazz and pop music standards on her debut album, At Last! Etta James's voice deepened and coarsened, moving her musical style in her later years into the genres of soul and jazz.
Etta James was once considered one of the most overlooked blues and R&B musicians in the music history of the United States. It was not until the early 1990s, when she began receiving major industry awards from the Grammys and the Blues Foundation, that she began to receive wide recognition. In recent years, she was seen as bridging the gap between rhythm and blues and rock and roll. Etta James has influenced a wide variety of musicians, including Diana Ross, Christina Aguilera, Janis Joplin, Bonnie Raitt, Shemekia Copeland, and Hayley Williams of Paramore as well as British artists The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Elkie Brooks, Amy Winehouse, Paloma Faith, Joss Stone Rita Ora, and Ad
ele.
Her song "Something's Got a Hold on Me" has been recognized in many ways. Brussels music act Vaya Con Dios covered the song on their 1990 album Night Owls. Another version, performed by Christina Aguilera, was in the 2010 film Burlesque. Pretty Lights sampled the song in "Finally Moving", followed by Avicii's dance hit "Levels", and again in Flo Rida's single "Good Feeling".
Etta James encountered a string of legal problems during the early 1970's due to her heroin addiction. She was continuously in and out of rehabilitation centers, including the Tarzana Treatment Centers, 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 1981 and was still married to Etta James at her death.
In 1974, Etta James was sentenced to drug treatment instead of serving time in prison. She was in the Tarzana Psychiatric Hospital for seventeen months, at the age of thirty-six, and went through a great struggle at the start of treatment. In her autobiography, she said that the time she spent in the hospital changed her life. After leaving treatment, however, her substance abuse continued after she developed a relationship with a man who was also using drugs. In 1988, at the age of fifty, she entered the Betty Ford Center, in Palm Springs, California, for treatment. In 2010, she received treatment for a dependency on painkillers. Etta James had two sons, Donto and Sametto. Both started performing with their mother — Donto played drums at Montreux in 1993, and Sametto played bass guitar in 2003.
Etta James was hospitalized in January 2010 to treat an infection caused by MRSA, a bacterium resistant to most antibiotics. During her hospitalization, her son Donto revealed that she had received a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease in 2008.