Legendary singer Etta James dies
Posted January 20, 2012 11:40 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Three-time Grammy winner singer Etta James, a pioneer of 1950s rhythm-and-blues and rock music known for her show-stopping hit At Last.
James died in a Riverside, California hospital of complications from leukemia, her manager Lupe De Leon said. James was 73.
She would have turned 74 on Wednesday.
James was diagnosed with leukemia two years ago and had been in ill-health for the last few months.
James had numerous ups-and-downs in her career and personal life. She struggled with obesity and heroin addiction, ran a hot-check scheme and had troubled relationships with men, including some gangsters. In 2003 she underwent gastric bypass surgery and lost more than 200 pounds.
With songs like The Wallflower and Good Rockin’ Daddy, James was a key figure in the early days of rock ‘n’ roll, and her signature song, the 1961 ballad At Last, proved her a master of the blues.
James’ vocals had a mixture of power, pain and emotion and veteran musical producer Jerry Wexler called her “the greatest of all modern blues singers … the undisputed Earth Mother.”
James was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 but throughout her long career she diversified into mainstream blues, soul and R&B.
“Etta James is simply one of the best singers I’ve ever heard,” singer-guitarist Bonnie Raitt wrote in Rolling Stone magazine. “Etta is earthy and gritty, ribald and out-there in a way that few performers have the guts to be.”
She was born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles on Jan. 25, 1938, to an unmarried teenage mother who told her that her father was legendary pool shark Rudolph Wanderone, better known as Minnesota Fats. James told CNN she introduced herself to Wanderone in 1987 but was unable to confirm he was her father.
James sang gospel in the church choir and stood out even as a 5-year-old. By 1954, she recorded Roll With Me Henry with two other girls in a trio called The Peaches.
The trio was discovered by bandleader Johnny Otis, and their song, renamed The Wallflower, topped R&B charts in 1955. The Peaches split up but James continued recording and later that year Good Rockin’ Daddy also hit the charts.
In the 1960s, James signed with Chicago’s legendary Chess Records and songs like At Last and Trust in Me were backed by orchestras. But she never strayed too far from her gospel roots, as evidenced by 1962’s Something’s Got a Hold of Me.
Over the decades, James’ hit R&B charts with 30 singles, and placed nine of those songs in pop music’s top 40. She has often been cited as influencing singers including Tina Turner and Bonnie Raitt.
She won her first Grammy in 1995 for her album, Mystery Lady: The Songs of Billie Holiday. She also won Grammys in 2003 and 2005, as well as a lifetime achievement award in 2003 from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which gives out the Grammys.
Her sons Donto and Sametto played in James’ backing band.
