Etta James Biography, Death, Husband, Parents, Songs And Albums

Etta James Bio

Etta James was an American singer who performed in various genres, including blues, R&B, soul, rock, and roll, jazz and gospel. She was born on January 25, 1938, in Los Angeles, California, the U.S. with the name Jamesetta Hawkins.

Starting her career in 1954, Etta James 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”. 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.

Etta’s powerful, deep, earthy voice bridged the gap between rhythm and blues and rock and roll. She won six Grammy Awards and 17 Blues Music Awards. Etta James was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001, and the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. Rolling Stone magazine ranked Etta number 22 on its list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time; she was also ranked number 62 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Etta James possessed the vocal range of a contralto. Her musical style changed during the course of her career. At the beginning of her recording career, in the mid-1950s, Etta 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’s voice deepened and coarsened, moving her musical style in her later years into the genres of soul and jazz.

The deceased singer 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, Elkie Brooks, Paloma Faith, Joss Stone, Rita Ora, and Adele, and the Belgian singer Dani Klein.

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 Death

Etta was hospitalized in January 2010 to treat an infection caused by MRSA, a bacterium resistant to many antibiotics. During her hospitalization, her son Donto revealed that she had received a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease in 2008. She was diagnosed with leukemia in early 2011. The illness became terminal, and Etta James died on January 20, 2012, five days before her 74th birthday, at Riverside Community Hospital in Riverside, California. Her death came three days after that of Johnny Otis, the man who had discovered her in the 1950s. Thirty-six days after her death, her sideman Red Holloway died.

Etta 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, whom she married in 1969, accepted responsibility when they were both arrested for heroin possession and served a 10-year prison sentence. Artis Mills was released from prison in 1981 and was still married to James at her death.

In 1974, Etta was sentenced to drug treatment instead of serving time in prison. She was in the Tarzana Psychiatric Hospital for 17 months, at the age of 36, 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. However, after leaving treatment, her substance abuse continued after she developed a relationship with a man who was also using drugs. In 1988, at the age of 50, she entered the Betty Ford Center, in Rancho Mirage, 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 circa 2003. On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Etta James among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.

Etta James Parents

Etta was born on January 25, 1938, in Los Angeles, California, to Dorothy Hawkins, who was 14 at the time. Her father has never been identified. The deceased singer 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 Etta James lived with a series of foster parents, most notably “Sarge” and “Mama” Lu. She 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.

Sarge, like the musical director for the choir, was also abusive. During drunken poker games at home, he would awaken Etta 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.

In 1950, Mama Lu died, and Etta’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, because of the members’ light-skinned complexions.

Etta James Albums

Studio albums

» At Last: “Anything to Say You’re Mine”, “My Dearest Darling”, “Trust in Me”, “A Sunday Kind of Love”, “Tough Mary”, “I Just Want to Make Love to You”, “At Last”, “All I Could Do Was Cry”, “Stormy Weather”, and “Girl of My Dreams”.

» The Second Time Around: “Don’t Cry Baby”, “Fool That I Am”, “One for My Baby, “In My Diary”, “Seven Day Fool”, “It’s Too Soon to Know”, “Dream”, “I’ll Dry My Tears”, “Plum Nuts”, and “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore”.
» Etta James: “Waiting for Charlie to Come Home”, “Guess Again”, “A Lover’s Mourn”, “You Can Count on Me”, “If I Can’t Have You”, “Something’s Got a Hold on Me”, “My Dear”, “Nobody But You”, “Let Me Know”, “Spoonful”

» Etta James Sings for Lovers: “Don’t Take Your Love from Me”, “How Do You Speak to an Angel”, “Fools Rush In”, “Don’t Blame Me”, “Someone to Watch Over Me”, “Again”, “I Want to Be Loved”, “It Could Happen to You”, “These Foolish Things”, and “Prisoner of Love”.

» Etta James Top Ten: “Something’s Got a Hold on Me”, “My Dearest Darling”, “At Last”, “Fool That I Am”, “A Sunday Kind of Love”, “Pushover”, “All I Could Do Was Cry”, “Stop the Wedding”, “Trust in Me”, and “Would It Make Any Difference to You”.

» The Queen of Soul: “Bobby Is His Name”, “I Wish Someone Would Care”, “That Man Belongs Back Here with Me”, “Somewhere Out There”, “Breaking Point”, “Flight 101”, “Loving You More Every Day”, “Do Right”, “I Worry ‘Bout You”, and “Mello Fellow”.

» Call My Name: “Happiness”, “That’s All I Want from You”, “Have a Little Faith in Me”, “I’m So Glad,”You Are My Sunshine”, “It Must Be Your Love”, “842-3089 (Call My Name)”, “Don’t Pick Me for Your Fool”, “I Prefer You”, “Nobody Loves Me”, “It’s All Right”, “Nobody Like You”.

» Tell Mama: “Tell Mama”, “I’d Rather Go Blind”, “Watch Dog”, “The Love of My Man”, “I’m Gonna Take What He’s Got”, “The Same Rope”, “Security”, “Steal Away”, “My Mother-In-Law”, “Don’t Lose Your Good Thing”, “It Hurts Me So Much”, and “Just a Little Bit”.

» Etta James Sings Funk: “Tighten Up Your Own Thing”, “Sweet Memories”, “Quick Reaction and Satisfaction”,
“Nothing from Nothing Leaves Nothing”, “My Man Is Together”, “Are My Thoughts with You”, “The Man I Love”, “The Sound of Love”, “When I Stop Dreaming”, “What Fools We Mortals Be”, and “Your Replacement”.

» Losers Weepers: “Take Out Some Insurance”, “I Got It Bad And That Ain’t Good”, “I Think It’s You”
“Someone”, “Losers Weepers”, “Weepers”, “You’re The Fool”, “Hold Back My Tears”, “For All We Know”, “Look At The Rain”, “Ease Away A Little Bit At A Time”.
» Etta James: “All the Way Down”, “God’s Song”, “Only a Fool”, “Down So Low”, “Leave Your Hat On”, “Sail Away”
“Yesterday’s Music”, “Lay Back Daddy”, and “Just One More Day”.

» Come a Little Closer: “Out on the Street Again”, “Mama Told Me”, “You Give Me What I Want”, “Come a Little Closer”, “Let’s Burn Down the Cornfield”, “Power Play”, “Feeling Uneasy”, “St. Louis Blues”, “Gonna Have Some Fun Tonight”, “Sookie, Sookie”, “Lovin’ Arms”, and “Out on the Street Again (Single Edit)”.

» Etta Is Betta Than Evvah!: “Woman (Shake Your Booty)”, “A Love Vibration”, “Only a Fool”, “Little Bit of Love”
“Groove Me”, “Jump Into Love”, “Leave Your Hat On”, “I’ve Been a Fool”, “Blinded by Love”, and “Ain’t No Pity In The Naked City”.
» Deep in the Night: “Laying Beside You”, “Piece of My Heart”, “Only Women Bleed”, “Take It to the Limit”, “Deep In The Night”, “Lovesick Blues”, “Strange Man”, “Sugar On The Floor”, “Sweet Touch Of Love”, and “Blind Girl”.

» Changes: “Mean Mother”, “Donkey”, “Changes”, “Don’t Stop”, “Who’s Getting Your Love”, “Night By Night”, “It Takes Love to Keep a Woman”, “Wheel of Fire”, “Night People”, and “With You in Mind”.
» Seven Year Itch: “I Got the Will”, “Jump into My Fire”, “Shakey Ground”, “Come to Mama”, “Damn Your Eyes”, “Breakin’ up Somebody’s Home”, “The Jealous Kind”, “How Strong Is a Woman?”, “It Ain’t Always What You Do (It’s Who You Let See You Do It)”, and “One Night”.

» Stickin’ to My Guns
» The Right Time
» Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday
» Time After Time

» Love’s Been Rough on Me
» Life, Love & the Blues
» Heart of a Woman
» Matriarch of the Blues
» Blue Gardenia

» Let’s Roll
» Blues to the Bone
» All the Way
» The Dreamer

Live albums

» Etta James Rocks the House
» Blues From The Big Apple
» Etta, Red-Hot & Live
» Jazzvisions: Jump The Blues Away

» Blues in the Night Volume One: The Early Show
» The Late Show: Blues in the Night Volume Two
» Live from San Francisco
» Burnin’ Down the House: Live at the House of Blues

Compilation albums

» My Greatest Songs
» Her Best
» 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection
» The Chess Box
» The Best Of Etta James
» Love Songs
» Miss Etta James: The Complete Modern And Kent Recordings
» The Definitive Collection
» Gold
» Who’s Blue?: Rare Chess Recordings of the 60s and 70s
» Heart & Soul: A Retrospective

Etta James Beyonce

Etta James condemned her mentee Beyoncé Knowles for singing “her song” at Barack Obama’s inauguration. The veteran R&B singer had a hit with the song “At Last” in 1961. This might be the case why Etta James hit out at the 27-year-old singer for her rendition of the track in Washington DC last month. During a live show, the 71-year-old told the audience that she “can’t stand Beyoncé” and threatened that she would “get her ass whipped”.