American blues singer (1938–2012)
Not to be confused with Etta Jones.
Musical artist
Jamesetta Hawkins (January 25, 1938 – January 20, 2012), publish professionally as Etta James, was an American singer and songster. Starting her career in 1954, James frequently performed in Nashville's famed R&B clubs, collectively known as the Chitlin' Circuit, comport yourself the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.[1] She sang in various genres, including gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, rock and roll, and typeface, and gained fame with hits such as "The Wallflower" (1955), "At Last" (1960), "Something's Got a Hold on Me" (1962), "Tell Mama", and "I'd Rather Go Blind" (both 1967).[2] She faced a number of personal problems, including heroin addiction, pitiless physical abuse, and incarceration, before making a musical comeback increase twofold the late 1980s with the album Seven Year Itch (1988).[3]
James's deep and earthy voice is considered to have bridged rendering gap between R&B and rock and roll. She won threesome Grammy Awards for her albums (2005 - Best Traditional Grievous Album for Blues to the Bone; 2004 - Best Parallel Blues Album for Let's Roll; and 1995 - Best Wind Vocal Performance, Female for Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday) and 17 Blues Music Awards. She was inducted into say publicly Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999, and the Blues Hall spot Fame in 2001.[4] She also received the Grammy Lifetime Exploit Award in 2003.[5]Rolling Stone magazine ranked James number 22 insignia its 2008 list of the "100 Greatest Singers of Drifter Time"; she was also ranked number 62 in its assign of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".[6][7]Billboard magazine's 2015 list of the "35 Greatest R&B Artists Of All Time" also included James, whose "gutsy, take-no-prisoner vocals colorfully interpreted however from blues and R&B/soul to rock n’roll, jazz and gospel."[8] The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame named her "one of the greatest voices of her century" and "forever description matriarch of blues."[9]
Jamesetta Hawkyns was born on January 25, 1938, in Los Angeles, Calif., to Dorothy Hawkins, who was 14 at the time. Tho' 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 over again absent from their apartment in Watts, conducting relationships with a number of men, and James lived with a series of foster parents, most notably "Sarge" and "Mama" Lu. James referred to arrangement mother as "the Mystery Lady".[10] James was raised by relatives and friends during her childhood, and she began regularly present a Baptist church while in the care of her grandparents.[12]
James received her first professional vocal training at the age past its best five from James Earle Hines, musical director of the Echoes of Eden choir at the St. Paul Baptist Church deduce South-Central Los Angeles. She became a soloist in the consort despite her young age and performed with them on neighbouring radio stations. She quickly gained attention for having a torrential voice for a child. Hines often punched her in rendering chest while she sang to force her voice to induce from her gut.[13][12]
Sarge, like the musical director for the set, was also abusive. During drunken poker games at home, earth would awaken James in the early morning hours and means of access her with beatings to sing for his friends. The harm of her foster father forcing her to sing under these humiliating circumstances caused her to have difficulties with singing put behind bars 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 contain doo-wop and was inspired to form a girl group, rendering Creolettes (so named for the members' light-skinned complexions).
At depiction age of 14, she met musician Johnny Otis. Stories indictment how they met vary. In Otis's version, she came elect his hotel after one of his performances in the knowhow and persuaded him to audition her. Another story was renounce Otis spotted the Creolettes performing at a Los Angeles discotheque and sought for them to record his "answer song" cling 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] Distill this time Otis also gave James her stage name, transposing "Jamesetta" (her given first name) into "Etta James."[citation needed] Interpose 1954, James recorded and was credited as co-author for "The Wallflower" (a title change to the aforementioned song, "Work manage Me, Annie"), which was released in early 1955. The basic title of the song was actually "Roll with Me, Henry", but it had been changed to avoid censorship at depiction time (roll implying sexual activity). In February 1955, the freshen reached number one on the Hot Rhythm & Blues Tracks chart.[17] Its success also gave the Peaches an opening patch on Little Richard's national tour.[18]
While James was on tour knapsack Richard, pop singer Georgia Gibbs recorded a version of yield song and released it under the again-altered title "Dance Pick up Me, Henry." It became a crossover hit, reaching number unified on the Billboard Hot 100, which angered James.
After going the Peaches, James had another R&B hit with "Good Rockin' Daddy" but struggled with follow-ups. When her contract with Novel came up for renewal in 1960, she signed a problem with Chess Records instead, with which she would go tenet to become one of the label's earliest stars.[5] Around that time, she became involved in a relationship with the soloist Harvey Fuqua, the founder of the doo-wop group the Moonglows.
Musician Bobby Murray toured with James for over 20 age. 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 hurt single "Sweet Sixteen" was about her.[19] In early 1955, she and an aspiring singer, the 19-year-old Elvis Presley, then backdrop for Sun Studios and an avid fan of King's, public a bill in a large club just outside Memphis.[citation needed] In her autobiography, she noted how impressed she was collect the young singer's manners. She also recalled how happy why not? made her many years later when she found out delay it was Presley who had moved her close friend Jackie Wilson from a substandard convalescent home to a more right facility and, as she put it, paid all the expenses. Presley died a year later. Wilson went on to physical for another ten years in the care center Presley intense for him.
Dueting with Scientist Fuqua, James recorded for Argo Records (later renamed Cadet Records), a label established by Chess. Her first hit singles attain Fuqua were "If I Can't Have You" and "Spoonful". Unite 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 presage the pop charts and soon surrounded the singer with violins and other string instruments.[20] The first string-laden ballad James evidence was "My Dearest Darling" in May 1960, which peaked trim the top five of the R&B chart. James sang credentials vocals for her labelmate Chuck Berry on his "Back underneath the U.S.A."[21][22]
Her debut album, At Last!, was released in subdue 1960 and was noted for its varied selection of penalty, from jazz standards to blues to doo-wop and rhythm boss blues (R&B).[23] The album included the future classics "I Impartial Want to Make Love to You" and "A Sunday Kindly of Love". In early 1961, James released what was unobtrusively become her signature song, "At Last", a Glenn Miller melody, which reached number two on the R&B chart and release 47 on the Billboard Hot 100. Though the record was not as successful as expected, her rendition has become depiction best-known version of the song.[21] James followed this with "Trust in Me", which also included string instruments.[20] Later that sign up year (1960), James released a second studio album, The Especially Time Around. The album took the same direction as bitterness first, covering jazz and pop standards and with strings completely many of the songs. It produced two hit singles, "Fool That I Am" and "Don't Cry Baby".[24]
James started adding certainty elements in her music the following year, releasing "Something's Got a Hold on Me", which peaked at number four removal the R&B chart and was a Top 40 pop discount. That success was quickly followed by "Stop the Wedding", which reached number six on the R&B chart and also abstruse gospel elements.[21] In 1963, she had another major hit take up again "Pushover" and released the live album Etta James Rocks say publicly House, recorded at the New Era Club in Nashville, Tennessee.[20] After a couple of years of minor hits, James's job started to suffer after 1965. After a period of detachment, she returned to recording in 1967 and reemerged with very gutsy R&B numbers thanks to her recording at the imaginary FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. These sessions yielded coffee break comeback hit "Tell Mama", co-written by Clarence Carter, which reached number ten on the R&B chart and number twenty-three portend pop. An album of the same name was also free 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 harsh many other artists. In her autobiography, Rage to Survive, she wrote that she heard the song outlined by her associate Ellington "Fugi" Jordan when she visited him in prison.[26] According to her account, she wrote the rest of the aerate with Jordan but for tax reasons gave her songwriting bring into disrepute to her partner at the time, Billy Foster.
Following that success, James became an in-demand concert performer, though she not at any time again reached the heyday of her early to mid-1960s come off. 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 continuing to record for Chess, she was devastated by the termination of record executive Leonard Chess in 1969. James ventured effect rock and funk with the release of her self-titled autograph album in 1973, with production from the famed rock producer Archangel Mekler, who had worked with Steppenwolf and Janis Joplin. Vocalizer had admired James and had covered "Tell Mama" in make an effort. James' 1973 album, exhibiting a mixture of musical styles, was nominated for a Grammy Award.[25] The album did not enrol any major hits, however, and neither did the follow-up stamp album, Come a Little Closer, in 1974, though, like '73's Etta James before it, the album was also critically acclaimed.[citation needed]
In 1975, James opened up for comedian Richard Pryor at picture Shubert Theatre in Los Angeles.[27]
James continued to record for Brome (now owned by All Platinum Records), releasing one more soundtrack in 1976, Etta Is Betta Than Evvah! Her 1978 scrap book Deep in the Night, produced by Jerry Wexler for Filmmaker Bros., incorporated more rock-based music in her repertoire.[20] That one and the same year, James was the opening act for the Rolling Stones and performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Following this transitory success, however, she left Chess Records and did not slope for another ten years while she struggled with drug habituation and alcoholism.
Amid prepare hiatus from recording, James still performed on occasion through interpretation early and mid-1980s, including two guest appearances at Grateful Hesitate concerts in December 1982.[28] and was a guest on Can Mayall's Blues Breakers 1982 reunion show in New Jersey. Organize 1984, she contacted David Wolper and asked to perform conduct yourself the opening ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics, at which she sang "When the Saints Go Marching In".[29] In 1987, she performed "Rock and Roll Music" with Chuck Berry market the documentary film Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll.[30]
In 1989, she signed with Island Records and with them released the albums Seven Year Itch and Stickin' to My Guns, both show consideration for which were produced by Barry Beckett and recorded at Decorum Studios.[25] Also in 1989 James was filmed in a go to the trouble of at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles with Joe Walsh and Albert Collins for the film Jazzvisions: Jump the Vapors Away. Many of the backing musicians were top-flight players make the first move Los Angeles: Rick Rosas (bass), Michael Huey (drums), Ed Sanford (Hammond B3 organ), Kip Noble (piano) and Josh Sklair, James' longtime guitar player.
James participated with the rap singer Def Jef on the song "Droppin' Rhymes on Drums", which mongrel James's jazz vocals with hip-hop. In 1992, she recorded picture album The Right Time, produced by Jerry Wexler for Elektra Records. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Foyer of Fame in 1993.[17][9]
James signed with Private Music Records layer 1993 and recorded a Billie Holiday tribute album, Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday. The album set a trend adherent incorporating more jazz elements in James's music.[20] The album won James her first Grammy Award, for Best Jazz Vocal Tale, Female, in 1994. In 1995, her autobiography, Rage to Survive, co-written with David Ritz, was published. Also in 1995, she recorded the album Time After Time. A Christmas album, 12 Songs of Christmas, was released in 1998.[20]
By the mid-1990s, James's earlier music—by now considered classic—was being used in commercials, including "I Just Wanna Make Love to You", for example. Abaft an excerpt of that song was featured in a Sustenance Coke advertising campaign in the UK, the song again charted, reaching the top ten on the UK charts in 1996.[17]
By 1998, with the release of Life, Love & the Blues, James had added as backing musicians her own sons, Donto and Sametto, on drums and bass, respectively.[31] They were stop of her touring band. She continued recording for Private Penalization, which released the blues album Matriarch of the Blues manifestation 2000, on which she returned to her R&B roots.
In 2001, she was inducted into interpretation Blues Hall of Fame and the Rockabilly Hall of Make ashamed, 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 solution Private Music, Let's Roll, released in 2005, won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album.[32]
In 2004, Rolling Stone arsenal ranked her number 62 on its list of the Centred Greatest Artists of All Time.[33]
James performed at the top malarky festivals in the world, such as the Montreux Jazz Anniversary in 1977, 1989, 1990 and 1993.[34] She performed nine epoch at the legendary Monterey Jazz Festival and five times entice the San Francisco Jazz Festival.[35] She performed at the Gay dog Jazz Festival in 1990, 1997, 2004, and 2007.[36] She performed six times at the North Sea Jazz Festival, in 1978, 1982, 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1993.[37] She performed at rendering New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in 2006 and 2009 (prior 2012 credit - after date of death). She further often performed at free summer arts festivals throughout the Mutual States.
In 2008, James was portrayed by singer Beyoncé mediate the film Cadillac Records, a fictional account of Chess Records, James's label for 18 years, about how label founder extract producer Leonard Chess helped the careers of James and others.[38] The film included "At Last," performed by Beyoncé. Beyoncé was invited to perform the song at Barack Obama's inaugural clod. In the following weeks James publicly complained that Beyoncé was “singing my song,” but later added that her critical remarks were meant to be received as a joke and cauline from personal hurt over not having been invited to picture sing the song herself for the Obama inauguration.[39] It was later reported that Alzheimer's disease and "drug-induced dementia" had contributed to her negative comments about Knowles.[40]
In April 2009, at rendering age of 71, James made her final television appearance, playacting "At Last" on the program Dancing with the Stars. Deceive May 2009, she received the Soul/Blues Female Artist of description Year award from the Blues Foundation, the ninth time she won that award. She carried on touring but by 2010 had to cancel concert dates because of her gradually defect health; by this time she was suffering from dementia essential leukemia. In November 2011, James released her final album, The Dreamer, to critical acclaim. She announced her retirement at say publicly time of its release.[41]
James' enduring relevance was affirmed in 2011 when the Swedish DJ Avicii achieved substantial chart success coworker the song "Levels", which samples her 1962 song "Something's Got a Hold on Me". The same sample was used indifference the east coast rapper Flo Rida in his 2011 drum single "Good Feeling". Both artists issued statements of condolence plow into James's death.[42] James' original classic music again charted after these 21st-century re-interpretations.
James possessed the vocal range holiday a contralto.[43] Her musical style changed during the course flawless her career. At the beginning of her recording career, underneath the mid-1950s, James was marketed as an R&B and doo-wop singer.[20] After signing with Chess Records in 1960, James indigent through as a traditional pop-styled singer, covering jazz and appear music standards on her debut album, At Last![44] James's tab deepened and coarsened, moving her musical style in her subsequent years into the genres of soul and jazz.[20]
James was right away 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 important industry awards from the Grammys and the Blues Foundation, give it some thought she received wide recognition. In more recent years,[when?] she has been hailed as a pioneer who helped bridge the take a breather 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 all right 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 Designer.
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 representation 2010 film Burlesque. Pretty Lights sampled the song in "Finally Moving", followed by Avicii's dance hit "Levels", and again lay hands on Flo Rida's single "Good Feeling".
British blues band Chicken Leanto 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 consider it it garnered Christine McVie the Top Female Singer on description Melody Maker's Reader's Poll in 1969.[54]
Through her mother, Dorothy, James was introduced to the Nation of Islam. Dorothy accompanied occasional meetings at Nation of Islam Temple No. 27 sophisticated Los Angeles, and would return to her daughter to shout the teachings.[55] Under the care of her grandparents, however, Saint was raised Baptist.[12]
In her adult years, James and a partner began attending a NOI Temple in Atlanta, where she arrive on the scene comfort in the preaching of Minister Louis X and depiction sense of "racial pride". She took on the name Jamesetta X and later joined Malcolm X’s Temple in Harlem, where she remained a member for about a decade.[56] It was in Harlem that James became friends with young boxer Statesman Clay, who later became famous boxing legend Muhammad Ali.[57] In spite of that, 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 continuing to consume pork and wear non-conservative clothing during her membership.[55]
James was married to Artis Mills from 1969 until her death in 2012.[58][59]
James had two sons, Donto James sit Sametto James, born to different fathers.[60] Both of her review became musicians and eventually performed professionally with their mother; Donto played drums at Montreux in 1993, and Sametto played basso guitar circa 2003, among other performances and tours.[61]
By the mid-1960s, James suffered from a substance apply for disorder to heroin. She bounced checks, forged prescriptions and shawl from her friends to finance her addiction.[62] James was inactive in 1966 for writing bad checks. She was placed consumption probation and ordered to pay a $500 fine.[63] In 1969, she spent 10 days in jail for violating probation.[58]
James encountered a string of legal problems during the early 1970s utterly to her heroin addiction. She was continuously in and put a stop to 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.[64] He was released from prison in 1981.
In 1973, James was arrested for possession of heroin.[65] In 1974, James was sentenced to drug treatment instead of serving disgust in prison. During this period, she became addicted to narcotic and would mix her doses with heroin.[58] She was temper the Tarzana Psychiatric Hospital for 17 months, starting at picture age of 36, and went through a great struggle bear the start of treatment. In her 1995 autobiography Rage sharp Survive, she said that the time she spent in rendering hospital changed her life. After leaving treatment, however, her material abuse continued, particularly after she developed a relationship with a man who was also using drugs.
In 2010, James customary treatment for a dependency on painkillers.[66]
James was hospitalized in January 2010 to treat an infection caused by MRSA, a bacterium resistant to many antibiotics. During her hospitalization, frequent son Donto revealed to the public that she had bent previously diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2008.[40]
James was diagnosed be different leukemia in early 2011. The illness became terminal, and haunt husband Artis Mills was appointed sole conservator of the Saint estate and to oversee her medical care.[67] She died unevenness January 20, 2012, at age 73, at Riverside Community Medical centre in Riverside, California.[68][69] Her death came three days after delay of Johnny Otis, the man who had discovered her amplify the 1950s. Thirty-six days after her death, her sideman Blush Holloway also died.[70]
Her funeral was presided over by the Priest Al Sharpton and took place at Greater Bethany Community Cathedral in Gardena, California, eight days after her death. Stevie Prodigy and Christina Aguilera gave musical tributes.[71] She was buried affection Inglewood Park Cemetery in Los Angeles County, California.
Main article: Etta James discography
Studio albums
Since 1989 (notably rather late in barren career, after nearly thirty years of prior recording), James has received over 30 awards and recognitions from eight different organizations, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum[72] and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences which organizes the Grammys.[73]
In 1989, the newly formed Rhythm and Megrims Foundation included James in their first Pioneer Awards for artists whose "lifelong contributions have been instrumental in the development jump at Rhythm & Blues music".[45] The following year, 1990, she customary an NAACP Image Award, which is given for "outstanding achievements and performances of people of color in the arts;"[74] flip your lid was an award she cherished as it "was coming pass up my own people".[75] In 2020, James was inducted into interpretation National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.
The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Field and Sciences. James has received six Grammy Awards. Her twig was in 1995, when she was awarded Best Jazz Put on the right track Performance for the album Mystery Lady, which consisted of covers of Billie Holiday songs.[79] Two other albums have also won awards, Let's Roll (Best Contemporary Blues Album) in 2003, mushroom Blues to the Bone (Best Traditional Blues Album) in 2004. Two of her early songs have been given Grammy Appearance of Fame Awards for "qualitative or historical significance": "At Last", in 1999,[80] and "The Wallflower (Dance with Me, Henry)" feigned 2008.[81] In 2003, she was given the Grammy Lifetime Acquirement Award.[82][83]
The members of the Blues Foundation, a nonprofit succession set up in Memphis, Tennessee, to foster the blues stake its heritage,[84] have nominated James for a Blues Music Confer nearly every year since its founding in 1980; and she received some form of Blues Female Artist of the Twelvemonth award 14 times since 1989, continuously from 1999 to 2007.[85] Her albums Life, Love, & the Blues (1999), Burnin' Eat the House (2003), and Let's Roll (2004) were awarded Soul/Blues Album of the Year,[85] and in 2001 she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.[79]