Etta James
Jamesetta Hawkins (January 25, 1938 – January 20, 2012), known professionally as Etta James, was an American singer who performed in various genres, including gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, rock and roll, and soul. Starting her career in 1954, she gained fame with hits such as "The Wallflower", "At Last", "Tell Mama", "Something's Got a Hold on Me", and "I'd Rather Go Blind".[1] She faced a number of personal problems, including heroin addiction, severe physical abuse, and incarceration, before making a musical comeback in the late 1980s with the album Seven Year Itch.[2]
Not to be confused with Etta Jones.
Etta James
Jamesetta Hawkins
January 25, 1938
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
January 20, 2012 (aged 73)
Riverside, California, U.S.
Singer
1954–2011
James's deep and earthy voice bridged the gap between rhythm and blues and rock and roll. She won three Grammy Awards for her albums (2005 - Best Traditional Blues Album for Blues to the Bone; 2004 - Best Contemporary Blues Album for Let's Roll; and 1995 - Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female for Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday) and 17 Blues Music Awards. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999, and the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001.[3] She also received a Grammy lifetime achievement award in 2003.[4] Rolling Stone magazine ranked James number 22 on its list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time; she was also ranked number 62 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[5][6] Billboard's 2015 list of "The 35 Greatest R&B Artists Of All Time" also included James, whose "gutsy, take-no-prisoner vocals colorfully interpreted everything from blues and R&B/soul to rock n’roll, jazz and gospel."[7]
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame called hers "one of the greatest voices of her century" and says she is "forever the matriarch of blues."[8]
James frequently performed in Nashville's famed R&B clubs on the so-called "Chitlin' Circuit" in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.[9]
Life and career[edit]
1938–1959: Childhood and career beginnings[edit]
James was born on January 25, 1938, in Los Angeles, California, to Dorothy Hawkins, who was 14 at the time. Although her father has never been identified,[10] James speculated that she was the daughter of pool player Rudolf "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone, whom she met briefly in 1987.[11] Her mother was frequently absent from their apartment in Watts, conducting relationships with various men, and James lived with a series of foster parents, most notably "Sarge" and "Mama" Lu. James referred to her mother as "the Mystery Lady".[10] James was raised by relatives and friends during her childhood, and she began regularly attending a Baptist church while in the care of her grandparents.[12]
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. She became a soloist in the choir despite her young age and performed with them on local radio stations. She quickly gained attention for having a strong voice for a child. Hines often punched her in the chest while she sang to force her voice to come from her gut.[13][12]
Sarge, like the musical director for the choir, was also abusive. During drunken poker games at home, he would awaken James in the early morning hours and force her with beatings to sing for his friends. The trauma of her foster father forcing her to sing under these humiliating circumstances caused her to have difficulties with singing on demand throughout her career.[14]
In 1950, Mama Lu died, and James's biological mother took her to the Fillmore district of San Francisco.[15] Within a couple of years, she began listening to doo-wop and was inspired to form a girl group, the Creolettes (so named for the members' light-skinned complexions).
At the age of 14, she met 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 Creolettes under his wing and helped them sign to Modern Records, at which point they changed their name to Peaches.[16] At this time Otis also gave James her stage name, transposing "Jamesetta" (her given first name) into "Etta James." In 1954, James recorded and was credited as co-author for "The Wallflower" (a title change to the aforementioned song, "Work with Me, Annie"), which was released in early 1955. The original title of the song was actually "Roll with Me, Henry", but it had been changed to avoid censorship at the time (roll implying sexual activity). In February 1955, the song reached number one on the Hot Rhythm & Blues Tracks chart.[17] Its success also gave the Peaches an opening spot on Little Richard's national tour.[18]
While James was on tour with Richard, pop singer Georgia Gibbs recorded a version of her song and released it under the again-altered title "Dance With Me, Henry." It became a crossover hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100, which angered James.
After leaving the Peaches, 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, with which she would go on to become one of the label's earliest stars.[4] Around this time, she became involved in a relationship with the singer Harvey Fuqua, the founder of the doo-wop group the Moonglows.
Musician Bobby Murray toured with James for over 20 years. He wrote that James had her first hit single when she was 15 years old and went steady with B.B. King when she was 16. James believed that King's hit single "Sweet Sixteen" was about her.[19] 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. Presley died a year later. Wilson went on to live for another ten years in the care center Presley found for him.
1960–1978: Chess and Warner Brothers years[edit]
Dueting with Harvey Fuqua, 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.[20] Chess Records co-founder Leonard Chess envisioned 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.[20] The first string-laden ballad James recorded was "My Dearest Darling" in May 1960, which peaked in the top five of the R&B chart. James sang background vocals for her labelmate Chuck Berry on his "Back in the U.S.A."[21][22]
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 (R&B).[23] The album included the future classics "I Just Want to Make Love to You" and "A Sunday Kind of Love". In early 1961, James released what was to become her signature song, "At Last", a Glenn Miller tune, 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.[21] James followed this with "Trust in Me", which also included string instruments.[20] Later that same year (1960), 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".[24]
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 40 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.[21] 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.[20] After a couple of years of minor hits, James's career started to suffer after 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 on the R&B chart and number twenty-three for pop. An album of the same name was also released that year and included her take on Otis Redding's "Security".[25] 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.[26] 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, 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" (1970) and "I Found a Love" (1972). Though James continued to record for Chess, she was devastated by the death of record executive Leonard Chess in 1969. 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. Joplin had admired James and had covered "Tell Mama" in concert. James' 1973 album, exhibiting a mixture of musical styles, was nominated for a Grammy Award.[25] The album did not produce any major hits, however, and neither did the follow-up album, Come a Little Closer, in 1974, though, like '73's Etta James before it, the album was also critically acclaimed.
In 1975, James opened up for comedian Richard Pryor at the Shubert Theatre in Los Angeles.[27]
James continued to record for Chess (now owned by All Platinum Records), releasing one more album in 1976, 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.[20] That same year, 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 while she struggled with drug addiction and alcoholism.
Style and influence[edit]
James possessed the vocal range of a contralto.[43] Her musical style changed during the course of her career. At the beginning of her recording career, in the mid-1950s, James was marketed as an R&B and doo-wop singer.[20] 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![44] James's voice deepened and coarsened, moving her musical style in her later years into the genres of soul and jazz.[20]
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 received wide recognition. In more recent years, she has been hailed as a pioneer who helped bridge the gap between rhythm and blues and rock and roll and thereby contributed significantly to American musical history.[45] James has influenced a wide variety of musicians, including, notably, Diana Ross, Christina Aguilera, Janis Joplin, Brandy, Bonnie Raitt, Shemekia Copeland, Beth Hart, Hayley Williams of Paramore[46] and Brent Smith of Shinedown[47] as well as British artists The Rolling Stones,[48] Elkie Brooks,[49] Paloma Faith,[50] Joss Stone,[51] Rita Ora, Amy Winehouse, and Adele,[52] and the Belgian singer Dani Klein.
In particular, 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".
British blues band Chicken Shack recorded Etta James’ 1967 single "I'd Rather Go Blind", which ended up becoming very successful for the band, with Christine McVie singing lead vocals.[53] The single was successful enough that it garnered Christine McVie the Top Female Singer on the Melody Maker's Reader's Poll in 1969.[54]
Personal life[edit]
Religion[edit]
James was raised Baptist.[12] She later met Malcolm X and was a member of the Nation of Islam for around a decade, taking the name Jamesetta X.[55] However, she confessed she didn't strictly follow their beliefs, later reflecting that it was "something of a fad" and the "radical, the 'in' thing to do" at the time. She continued to consume pork and wear non-conservative clothing during her membership.[56]
Marriage and children[edit]
James was married to Artis Mills from 1969 until her death in 2012.[57][58]
James had two sons, Donto James and Sametto James, born to different fathers.[59] Both were musicians and eventually performed professionally with their mother; Donto played drums at Montreux in 1993, and Sametto played bass guitar circa 2003, among other performances and tours.[60]
Legal difficulties and drug addiction[edit]
By the mid-1960s, James was addicted to heroin. She bounced checks, forged prescriptions and stole from her friends to finance her addiction.[61] James was arrested in 1966 for writing bad checks. She was placed on probation and ordered to pay a $500 fine.[62] In 1969, she spent 10 days in jail for violating probation.[57]
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 Treatment Centers, in Los Angeles, California. Her husband Artis Mills accepted responsibility when they were both arrested for heroin possession, and served a 10-year prison sentence.[63] He was released from prison in 1981.
In 1973, James was arrested for possession of heroin.[64] In 1974, James was sentenced to drug treatment instead of serving time in prison. During this period, she became addicted to methadone and would mix her doses with heroin.[57] She was in the Tarzana Psychiatric Hospital for 17 months, starting at the age of 36, and went through a great struggle at the start of treatment. In her 1995 autobiography Rage to Survive, she said that the time she spent in the hospital changed her life. After leaving treatment, however, her substance abuse continued, particularly after she developed a relationship with a man who was also using drugs.
In 2010, James received treatment for a dependency on painkillers.[65]
Sources