Etta James Biografía y Etta James Letras Información General
Etta James, born Jamesetta Hawkins, in Los Angeles, California, on January
25, 1938, is an American blues, soul, R&B, rock & roll, gospel and jazz
singer with a contralto range, and a songwriter. She is the winner of four
Grammy Awards 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 had
records inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in both 1999 and 2008. In
the 1950s and '60s, she had her biggest success as a blues and R&B singer.
She is best known for performing the song, "At Last," which has been
featured in many movies, television shows, commercials, and web-streaming
services since its release.
Born to an unmarried 14-year-old African-American, Dorothy Hawkins,
Jameseeta had a rough life growing up. However, she 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 where she was considered to be somewhat of a gospel
prodigy.
Then in 1950, Jamesetta's family moved to San Francisco, where she soon
teamed up with two other girls to form a doo-wop singing group, which
became known as Etta James & the Peaches. When the girls were 14 years
old, band leader Johnny Otis heard them sing an answer song a to Hank
Ballard's "Work With Me, Annie," called "Roll With Me Henry." Otis
particularly liked the song and, without their mothers' knowing, in 1954
Etta James & the Peaches went to Los Angeles to record it for Modern
Records.
"Roll with Me Henry" was renamed "The Wallflower" or sometimes called,
"Dance with Me, Henry", because the radio stations were reluctant to play
it due to the name's sexual connotations. It was released in 1955 and it
reached #2 on the rhythm and blues charts that year. Its huge success
attracted the attention of the R&B world.
Soon after the song's success, the Peaches and James parted company,
resulting in James going on tour with Little Richard. On the tour,
according to James, she witnessed and experienced situations to which
minors are not usually privy.
She continued to record and release albums throughout much of the '50s,
and enjoyed more success.
In 1960, James signed a recording contract with Chess Records and with
their subsidiary label, Argo Records. James began to have major hits off
the label, first with a pair of duets with her then husband and 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 Was Cry," which
quickly went up 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," and released her debut album entitled, At Last!.
At Last! featured all of James' hits, and also included a few standards,
such as "Stormy Weather," "I Just Want to Make Love to You," and "A Sunday
Kind of Love."
Chess Records' co-owner & 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 up on her recording sessions with
violins and other string instruments, which was first seen on her 1961 hit
single, "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, Although it wasn't as
successful as expected on the Pop charts, it did become the most
remembered version to receive airplay and ultimately it became her
signature song.
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
in the U.K. for John Smith's Bitter Beer. (Etta's version was a surprise
Top 10 UK hit in 1996.) The Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry and Foghat have
also recorded the song.
Between the balance of the '60s through the beginning of the millennium,
James continued to record albums with moderate to great sucess and she
performed live at many prestigeous events, such as the Montreux Jazz
Festival in 1977, 1989, 1990 and 1993, nine times at the legendary
Monterey Jazz Festival, and five times at the San Francisco Jazz Festival.
She still performs often at free city outdoor summer arts festivals
throughout the US.
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.
In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked her #62 on their list of the 100
Greatest Artists of All Time.
In 2008, James was portrayed by R&B singer and actress Beyoncé Knowles in
the film Cadillac Records, which was released to theatres on December 5,
2008. 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 the
film suggests. Also, contrary to the impression created in the film, it is
doubtful that James and Chess were lovers.
On April 7th, 2009, Etta James appeared on Dancing with the Stars as a
guest performer, singing her classic hit, "At Last," at age 71.
In Memphis Tennessee on May 7th, 2009, the Blues Foundation awarded Etta
James the 2009 Soul/Blues Female Artist of the Year - making Etta a nine
times winner of this prestigious award.
Personal life:
Despite all her successes, or perhaps because of them, few R&B singers
have endured travails on the monumental level that Etta James has and have
remained on earth to talk about it. Up until the early 1990s, when James
began receiving major industry awards from the Grammys and the Blues
Foundation, James wasn't taken very seriously. Much of it her own doing.
In the early 1970s, James encountered a string of legal problems due to
her heroin addiction. She was continuously in and out of rehabilitation
centers. Her husband, Artis Mills, whom she married in 1969, took the fall
when they were both arrested for heroin possession in 1972, and he served
a 10-year prison sentence for the offense.
While Mills was in prison, in 1974, James was arrested for passing bad
checks, forgery and possession of heroin. She was sentenced to drug
treatment instead of serving time in prison and spent 17 months in the
Tarzana Psychiatric Hospital, in Los Angeles, California. However after
leaving treatment, James' substance abuse continued into the 1980s. It
wasn't until 1988, at age 50, when James entered the Betty Ford Center, in
Palm Springs, California, that she conquered her drug problem. She claims
to have been sober ever since, though she has been known to drink wine
onstage at concerts.
Over the course of her career, James' musical style has changed in various
ways. 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. However
during the late 60s, her style took a different musical approach with with
upbeat soul-inspired songs. Over the past several years, James' voice has
deepened and coarsened, moving her musical style back to the genres of
soul and jazz.
In recent years, she has been recognized as instrumental in bridging the
gap between rhythm and blues and rock and roll. James has influenced a
wide variety of American musicians including Janis Joplin, Diana Ross,
Shemekia Copeland, Alex Mills, Rod Stewart, Christina Aguilera as well as
British artists The Rolling Stones and Adele.
James has two sons, Donto and Sametto, with Artis Mills, with whom she is
still married, and several grandchildren. Today, Ms. James lives in
Riverside, California. She's paid her dues many times over as an R&B and
soul pioneer. In concert, Etta James is a sassy, no-holds-barred performer
whose suggestive stage antics sometimes border on the obscene. Long may
she continue to shock the uninitiated!
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a An answer song (or answer record) is, as the name suggests, a song made
in answer to a previous song, normally by another artist. The concept
became widespread in blues and R&B recorded music in the 1930s through
1950s. Answer songs were also extremely popular in country music in the
1950s and 1960s, most often as female responses to an original hit by a
male artist. Today, this practice is most common in hip hop music,
especially as the continuation of a feud between performers. Sometimes an
answer record imitated the original very closely and occasionally a hit
song would be followed up by the same artist.