Back in the day, she was considered by many to be a little too 'raunchy'. You can hear it here with the "...thinking bout your kiss and your lalalala..." She put it all out there in any live performance. There will never be another like her. All these newer artists can try, but nobody is her equal. I'm just sad that she never really got the respect that she deserved while she was here. Toward the end if her life she had dementia, but still performed. Her son stepped up to help her. RIP Etta. ❤❤❤
A real gem of a reaction 💎. She don't need music or a mic her voice is a musical instrument 😁 lol. This is where Janis Joplin got it from. Beyonce played her in the 2008 film: Cadillac Records. I'd Rather Go Blind was released as the B-side single to the A-side single: Tell Mama, from Etta James' 1968 album: Tell Mama. It was written by Etta James, Ellington "Fugi" Jordan and Billy Foster. It was produced by Rick Hall. The A-side single: Tell Mama, reached #10 on the R&B chart #23 on the Hot 100. Some music critics have regarded the song: "I'd Rather Go Blind", as of such emotional and poetic quality as to make that single release one of the greatest double-sided singles released from that time period. This performance was from the Montreux Jazz festival in 1975. Etta James wrote in her 2003 autobiography: "Rage To Survive: The Etta James Story", that she heard the song outlined by her friend Ellington Jordan when she visited him in prison during which he poured out his grief from being incarcerated not knowing when he would be released. Ellington Jordan recalled: "I got tired of losing and being down. I was in prison and didn't know when I was going to get out. I sat in a piano room and began to write". Etta James then wrote the rest of the song with Ellington Jordan, but for tax reasons gave her songwriting credit to her partner at the time, Billy Foster, a singer with Doo-Wop group The Medallions. It was a decision that she came to regret as the royalties accumulated over the years. Etta James recorded the song at the FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. David Hood, who played bass on the sessions, told us that they did the song in one take with FAME owner Rick Hall running the session. Said David Hood: "It was a pretty simple song, but her performance was great and apparently our performances were good. They may have gone back and re-done some vocals. In 1967, Rick was just going multi track. It had been mono prior to that. And so fixing things in those days was a whole lot harder than it is nowadays. Sometimes if there was a missed note or something like that, you wouldn't do anything about it, you'd let it go. Nowadays you fix everything". The near note-for-note rendition of the song's melody can be heard in Chris Stapleton's 2015 song: "Tennessee Whiskey". The song has been covered by many artists including 📻: Margie Joseph, Leela James, Beyonce, Sydney Youngblood, Mick Hucknall, Rod Stewart, Bettye Swann, Ruby Turner, Syleena Johnson, Joe Bonamassa and Beth Hart, Fleetwood Mac, Christine Perfect, Mary Coughlan, Paul Weller, Little Milton, Clarence Carter, BB King, Ellington Jordan, Chicken Shack, Barbara Lynn and more. Lyrics 🗒: Something told me it was over (yeah) When I saw you and her talking Something deep down in my soul said, "Cry girl" (cry, cry) When I saw you and that girl, walking now Ooh, I would rather, I would rather go blind boy Than to see you, walk away from me child, no Ooh, so you see, I love you so much That I don't want to watch you leave me babe Most of all, I just don't I just don't want to be free no, ooh ooh I was just, I was just, I was just sitting here thinking Of your kiss and your warm embrace, yeah When the reflection in the glass That I held to my lips now baby (yeah, yeah) Revealed the tears that was on my face, yeah, ooh And babe, baby (baby, baby, baby) I'd rather I'd rather be blind boy Than to see you walk away, see you walk away from me, yeah, ooh Baby, baby, baby (baby, baby, bay) I'd rather be blind now Etta James Info 📰: Jamesetta "Etta" Hawkins was born on January 25, 1938 in Los Angeles, California and passed away on January 20, 2012 in Riverside, California. She was a celebrated singer and songwriter who performed in various musical genres, including Gospel, Blues, Jazz, R&B, Rock 'n Roll and Soul. She had the vocal range of a contralto. Some of her biggest musical influences growing up included Ma Rainey, Sarah Vaughan, Ruth Brown, Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Billie Holiday and Big Mama Thornton. Although her father has never been positively identified, she speculated that she was the daughter of legendary pool player Rudolf "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone, whom she met briefly in 1987. The discography of Etta James consists of 29 studio albums, 3 live albums, compilations albums and 58 singles. Etta James frequently performed in Nashville's famed R&B clubs on the so-called "Chitlin' Circuit" in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Etta James's deep and earthy voice bridged the gap between R&B and Rock 'n Roll. Starting her singing career in 1954, she gained fame with hits songs including: "The Wallflower (Dance With Me, Henry)", "At Last", "Tell Mama", "Something's Got A Hold on Me" and "I'd Rather Go Blind". 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. 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. James Earle Hines often punched her in the chest while she sang to force her voice to come from her gut. As a teenager in San Francisco, California in the early 1950s, Etta James formed a singing trio: The Creolettes, which attracted the attention of Johnny Otis, who helped her sign a recording contract with Modern Records in 1954. Johnny Otis also gave Etta James her stage name, transposing her given first-name "Jamesetta" into "Etta James". She recorded the #1 R&B chart song: "The Wallflower (Dance With Me, Henry)", an answer song to The Midnighters' song: "Work With Me, Annie, with her vocal group who changed their name to: The Peaches, singing background vocals, which topped the R&B charts for four weeks in 1955. The Peaches eventually left the record label, and Etta James recorded as a solo act. She had a second Top 10 R&B hit: "Good Rockin' Daddy", in 1955. She recorded for Modern Records until the end of the decade, without much further music chart success. After beginning to date Harvey Fuqua, a singer for The Moonglows, Etta James signed with Argo Records, a subsidiary of Chess Records. Producer Leonard Chess believed Etta James had crossover potential in the Pop market and backed her material with orchestral arrangements. With this new style, many of Etta James' songs became hits on both the R&B and the Pop charts. They included the songs: "All I Could Do Was Cry", "At Last", and "Trust In Me". She released her debut solo album: At Last!, in 1960. It was followed by her album: The Second Time Around, in 1961. In 1967, Etta James recorded with a more Soul-inflected style and had her first Top 10 hit in three years: "Tell Mama", which was followed by an album of the same name. In the 1970s, her popularity declined on radio, but remained under Chess Records, recording five more albums for the record label with her final album on the record label being: Etta Is Betta Than Evvah, in 1975. After battling drug and alcohol addictions, Etta James returned with her first studio album in nine years called: Seven Year Itch (1989), on Island Records. Her two albums in the early 90s for Island and later Elektra Records, varied in style from Contemporary to Soul, but Etta James eventually settled in on the Private Music Records record label. Recording a total of ten albums for the record label between 1997 and 2002, her albums included variations of Contemporary Blues to Traditional Jazz, such as her 1997 tribute album to Billie Holiday titled: "Mystery Lady: Songs Of Billie Holiday". In 2004, she signed with RCA Victor and released the album: Blues To The Bone, that same year. She followed that up with a Pop standards cover album: All The Way, in 2006. In April 2009, at the age of 71, Etta James made her final television appearance, performing "At Last" on the program: Dancing With The Stars. In 2011, she released what would be her final album: The Dreamer, to wide spread critical praise from music critics. She has won three Grammy Awards 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. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame called her voice "one of the greatest voices of her century" and says she is "forever the matriarch of Blues". She also received a Grammy lifetime achievement award in 2003. Rolling Stone magazine ranked Etta 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. Billboard's 2015 list of "The 35 Greatest R&B Artists Of All Time" also included Etta James, whose "gutsy, take-no-prisoner vocals colorfully interpreted everything from Blues and R&B/Soul to Rock 'n Roll, Jazz and Gospel". Two books have been written on her life: Rage To Survive: The Etta James Story (2003) and American Legends: The Life Of Etta James (2014). ****CONTINUE BELOW****
Etta James (January 25, 1938 - January 20, 2012) Passing 🙏🏼: Etta James 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 to the public that she had been previously diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2008. Etta James was diagnosed with leukemia in early 2011. The illness became terminal, and her husband Artis Mills was appointed sole conservator of the Etta James estate and to oversee her medical care. She passed away on January 20, 2012, five days before her 74th birthday, at Riverside Community Hospital in Riverside, California. Her passing came three days after that of Johnny Otis, the man who had discovered her in the 1950s. Thirty-six days after her passing, her long time sideman Red Holloway also passed away. Her funeral was presided over by the Reverend Al Sharpton and took place at Greater Bethany Community Church in Gardena, California, eight days after her passing. Stevie Wonder and Christina Aguilera gave musical tributes. She was laid to rest at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Los Angeles County, California. Honors And Awards 🏅: Since 1989, notably rather late in her career, after nearly thirty years of prior recording, Etta James has received over 30 awards and recognitions from eight different organizations, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences which organizes the Grammys. In 1989, the newly formed Rhythm and Blues Foundation included Etta James in their first Pioneer Awards for artists whose "lifelong contributions have been instrumental in the development of Rhythm & Blues music". The following year, 1990, she received an NAACP Image Award, which is given for "outstanding achievements and performances of people of color in the arts", it was an award she cherished as it "was coming from my own people". In 2020, Etta James was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame. In 1993, James was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame In 2001, James was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame In 2003, James received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7080 Hollywood Blvd In 2005, James was inducted into Hollywood's Rockwalk In 2006, James received the Billboard R&B Founders Award The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Etta James has received six Grammy Awards. Her first was in 1995, when she was awarded Best Jazz Vocal Performance for the album: Mystery Lady, which consisted of covers of Billie Holiday songs Two other albums have also won awards: Let's Roll (Best Contemporary Blues Album) in 2003, and Blues To The Bone (Best Traditional Blues Album) in 2004. Two of her early songs have been given Grammy Hall of Fame Awards for qualitative or historical significance: "At Last", in 1999, and "The Wallflower (Dance With Me, Henry)" in 2008. In 2003, she was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. The members of the Blues Foundation, a nonprofit organization set up in Memphis, Tennessee, to foster the Blues and its heritage, have nominated Etta James for a Blues Music Award nearly every year since its founding in 1980; and she received some form of Blues Female Artist of the Year award 14 times since 1989, continuously from 1999 to 2007. Her albums: Life Love & The Blues (1999), Burnin' Down The House (2003), and Let's Roll (2004) were awarded Soul/Blues Album of the Year, and in 2001 she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. Etta James Albums 📀: At Last! (1960) The Second Time Around (1961) Etta James (1962) Etta James Sings For Lovers (1962) Etta James Top Ten (1963) The Queen Of Soul (1965) Call My Name (1966) Tell Mama (1968) Etta James Sings Funk (1970) Losers Weepers (1971) Etta James (1973) Come A Little Closer (1974) Etta Is Betta Than Evvah! (1976) Deep In The Night (1978) Changes (1980) Seven Year Itch (1988) Stickin' To My Guns (1990) The Right Time (1992) Mystery Lady: Songs Of Billie Holiday (1994) Time After Time (1995) Love's Been Rough On Me (1997) Life, Love & the Blues (1998) Heart Of A Woman (1999) Matriarch Of The Blues (2000) Blue Gardenia (2001) Let's Roll (2003) Blues To The Bone (2004) All The Way (2006) The Dreamer (2011) Some more good Etta James songs 🎶: Tell Mama, My Dearest Darling, The Wallflower (Dance With Me, Henry), At Last, Trust In Me, My Dearest Darling, Something’s Got A Hold On Me, W-O-M-A-N, Hold Me Squeeze Me, If I Can't Have You, My Heart Cries, Next Door To The Blues, All I Could Do Is Cry, Stormy Weather, Be Mine, I Just Want To Make Love To You, Anything To Say You're Mine, Tough Mary, Sunday Kind Of Love, It's A Crying Shame, Girl Of My Dreams, Bobby Is His Name, Spoonful, That Man Belongs Back Here With Me, Flight 101, Breaking Point, Somewhere Out There, Mellow Fellow, Only Time Will Tell, Do Right, Pushover, (Baby Baby) Every Night, Loving You More Every Day, Be Honest With Me, Payback, You Can't Talk To A Fool, By the Light Of The Silvery Moon, Strange Things Happening, Down By The Riverside, Would It Make Any Difference To You, Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be), The Pick Up, Good Rockin' Daddy, Tears Of Joy, Stop The Wedding, Time After Time, Shortnin' Bread Rock, Willow Weep For Me, Ain't No Pity In The Naked City, We'll Fly You To The Promised Land, Misty, Come To Mama, Tough Lover, Power Play, Fools We Mortals Be, Ev'ry Body's Somebody's Fool, I Don't Stand A Ghost Of A Chance (With You), Market Place, Born On The Bayou, Security, Imagination, Hickory Dickory Dock, We're In Love, In My Diary, Seven Day Fool, I'll Dry My Tears, Stormy Monday, Dust Your Broom, Night And Day, My Man, Out On The Streets Again, God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind), Try A Little Tenderness, Respect Yourself, Sugar On The Floor, Groove Me, Plum Nuts, I Hope You're Satisfied, A Love Vibration, St Louis Blues, Come Rain Or Come Shine, Feeling Uneasy, Come A Little Closer, My Funny Valentine, Body And Soul, Waiting For Charlie (To Come Home), Born Under a Bad Sign, Jump Into Love, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, Beware, I Only Have Eyes For You, Walking The Back Streets, Good Morning Heartache, Wayward Saints Of Memphis, How Strong Is A Woman, Blue Gardenia, In My Solitude, Don't Get Around Much Anymore, The Blues Is My Business, Would It Make Any Difference To You, A Change Is Gonna Do Me Good, My Old Flame, Guess Again, Dreamer, Woke Up This Morning, Old Weakness, Breakin' Up Somebody's Home, Running And Hiding Blues, Someone To Watch Over Me Again, I'm Gonna Take What He's Got, Almost Persuaded, Hey Henry, Good Lookin', Damn Your Eyes, On The 7th Day, Losers Weepers, In The Basement, Miss Pitiful, Champagne & Wine, Merry Christmas Baby, Too Tired, Hush Hush, Strung Out, Honey Don't Tear My Clothes, Hawg For Ya, Mean Mother, Do I Make Myself Clear, Hound Dog, (I'm Afraid) The Masquerade Is Over, Cigarettes & Coffee, Watch Dog, Misty Blue, Rhymes, Don't Lose Your Good Thing, I Can't Turn You Loose, You Can Leave Your Hat On, Let's Straighten It Out, Next Door To The Blues, 842-3089 (Call My Name), Life Love & The Blues, Oh Happy Day and How Do You Speak To An Angel. Fun Fact 🕵🏼♀: Beyoncé performed the song: "I'd Rather Go Blind", in the 2008 film: Cadillac Records, where she portrayed Etta James.
Girl , Etta was in a league of her own!! The most soul you will see in a while!!❤❤❤❤
Back in the day, she was considered by many to be a little too 'raunchy'. You can hear it here with the "...thinking bout your kiss and your lalalala..." She put it all out there in any live performance.
There will never be another like her. All these newer artists can try, but nobody is her equal.
I'm just sad that she never really got the respect that she deserved while she was here.
Toward the end if her life she had dementia, but still performed. Her son stepped up to help her.
RIP Etta. ❤❤❤
Good reaction
A real gem of a reaction 💎. She don't need music or a mic her voice is a musical instrument 😁 lol. This is where Janis Joplin got it from. Beyonce played her in the 2008 film: Cadillac Records. I'd Rather Go Blind was released as the B-side single to the A-side single: Tell Mama, from Etta James' 1968 album: Tell Mama. It was written by Etta James, Ellington "Fugi" Jordan and Billy Foster. It was produced by Rick Hall. The A-side single: Tell Mama, reached #10 on the R&B chart #23 on the Hot 100. Some music critics have regarded the song: "I'd Rather Go Blind", as of such emotional and poetic quality as to make that single release one of the greatest double-sided singles released from that time period. This performance was from the Montreux Jazz festival in 1975.
Etta James wrote in her 2003 autobiography: "Rage To Survive: The Etta James Story", that she heard the song outlined by her friend Ellington Jordan when she visited him in prison during which he poured out his grief from being incarcerated not knowing when he would be released. Ellington Jordan recalled: "I got tired of losing and being down. I was in prison and didn't know when I was going to get out. I sat in a piano room and began to write". Etta James then wrote the rest of the song with Ellington Jordan, but for tax reasons gave her songwriting credit to her partner at the time, Billy Foster, a singer with Doo-Wop group The Medallions. It was a decision that she came to regret as the royalties accumulated over the years.
Etta James recorded the song at the FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. David Hood, who played bass on the sessions, told us that they did the song in one take with FAME owner Rick Hall running the session. Said David Hood: "It was a pretty simple song, but her performance was great and apparently our performances were good. They may have gone back and re-done some vocals. In 1967, Rick was just going multi track. It had been mono prior to that. And so fixing things in those days was a whole lot harder than it is nowadays. Sometimes if there was a missed note or something like that, you wouldn't do anything about it, you'd let it go. Nowadays you fix everything".
The near note-for-note rendition of the song's melody can be heard in Chris Stapleton's 2015 song: "Tennessee Whiskey".
The song has been covered by many artists including 📻: Margie Joseph, Leela James, Beyonce, Sydney Youngblood, Mick Hucknall, Rod Stewart, Bettye Swann, Ruby Turner, Syleena Johnson, Joe Bonamassa and Beth Hart, Fleetwood Mac, Christine Perfect, Mary Coughlan, Paul Weller, Little Milton, Clarence Carter, BB King, Ellington Jordan, Chicken Shack, Barbara Lynn and more.
Lyrics 🗒:
Something told me it was over (yeah)
When I saw you and her talking
Something deep down in my soul said, "Cry girl" (cry, cry)
When I saw you and that girl, walking now
Ooh, I would rather, I would rather go blind boy
Than to see you, walk away from me child, no
Ooh, so you see, I love you so much
That I don't want to watch you leave me babe
Most of all, I just don't
I just don't want to be free no, ooh ooh
I was just, I was just, I was just sitting here thinking
Of your kiss and your warm embrace, yeah
When the reflection in the glass
That I held to my lips now baby (yeah, yeah)
Revealed the tears that was on my face, yeah, ooh
And babe, baby (baby, baby, baby) I'd rather
I'd rather be blind boy
Than to see you walk away, see you walk away from me, yeah, ooh
Baby, baby, baby (baby, baby, bay)
I'd rather be blind now
Etta James Info 📰:
Jamesetta "Etta" Hawkins was born on January 25, 1938 in Los Angeles, California and passed away on January 20, 2012 in Riverside, California. She was a celebrated singer and songwriter who performed in various musical genres, including Gospel, Blues, Jazz, R&B, Rock 'n Roll and Soul. She had the vocal range of a contralto. Some of her biggest musical influences growing up included Ma Rainey, Sarah Vaughan, Ruth Brown, Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Billie Holiday and Big Mama Thornton. Although her father has never been positively identified, she speculated that she was the daughter of legendary pool player Rudolf "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone, whom she met briefly in 1987.
The discography of Etta James consists of 29 studio albums, 3 live albums, compilations albums and 58 singles. Etta James frequently performed in Nashville's famed R&B clubs on the so-called "Chitlin' Circuit" in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Etta James's deep and earthy voice bridged the gap between R&B and Rock 'n Roll. Starting her singing career in 1954, she gained fame with hits songs including: "The Wallflower (Dance With Me, Henry)", "At Last", "Tell Mama", "Something's Got A Hold on Me" and "I'd Rather Go Blind".
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. 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. James Earle Hines often punched her in the chest while she sang to force her voice to come from her gut.
As a teenager in San Francisco, California in the early 1950s, Etta James formed a singing trio: The Creolettes, which attracted the attention of Johnny Otis, who helped her sign a recording contract with Modern Records in 1954. Johnny Otis also gave Etta James her stage name, transposing her given first-name "Jamesetta" into "Etta James". She recorded the #1 R&B chart song: "The Wallflower (Dance With Me, Henry)", an answer song to The Midnighters' song: "Work With Me, Annie, with her vocal group who changed their name to: The Peaches, singing background vocals, which topped the R&B charts for four weeks in 1955. The Peaches eventually left the record label, and Etta James recorded as a solo act. She had a second Top 10 R&B hit: "Good Rockin' Daddy", in 1955. She recorded for Modern Records until the end of the decade, without much further music chart success.
After beginning to date Harvey Fuqua, a singer for The Moonglows, Etta James signed with Argo Records, a subsidiary of Chess Records. Producer Leonard Chess believed Etta James had crossover potential in the Pop market and backed her material with orchestral arrangements. With this new style, many of Etta James' songs became hits on both the R&B and the Pop charts. They included the songs: "All I Could Do Was Cry", "At Last", and "Trust In Me".
She released her debut solo album: At Last!, in 1960. It was followed by her album: The Second Time Around, in 1961. In 1967, Etta James recorded with a more Soul-inflected style and had her first Top 10 hit in three years: "Tell Mama", which was followed by an album of the same name. In the 1970s, her popularity declined on radio, but remained under Chess Records, recording five more albums for the record label with her final album on the record label being: Etta Is Betta Than Evvah, in 1975.
After battling drug and alcohol addictions, Etta James returned with her first studio album in nine years called: Seven Year Itch (1989), on Island Records. Her two albums in the early 90s for Island and later Elektra Records, varied in style from Contemporary to Soul, but Etta James eventually settled in on the Private Music Records record label. Recording a total of ten albums for the record label between 1997 and 2002, her albums included variations of Contemporary Blues to Traditional Jazz, such as her 1997 tribute album to Billie Holiday titled: "Mystery Lady: Songs Of Billie Holiday". In 2004, she signed with RCA Victor and released the album: Blues To The Bone, that same year. She followed that up with a Pop standards cover album: All The Way, in 2006.
In April 2009, at the age of 71, Etta James made her final television appearance, performing "At Last" on the program: Dancing With The Stars.
In 2011, she released what would be her final album: The Dreamer, to wide spread critical praise from music critics.
She has won three Grammy Awards 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. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame called her voice "one of the greatest voices of her century" and says she is "forever the matriarch of Blues".
She also received a Grammy lifetime achievement award in 2003. Rolling Stone magazine ranked Etta 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. Billboard's 2015 list of "The 35 Greatest R&B Artists Of All Time" also included Etta James, whose "gutsy, take-no-prisoner vocals colorfully interpreted everything from Blues and R&B/Soul to Rock 'n Roll, Jazz and Gospel".
Two books have been written on her life: Rage To Survive: The Etta James Story (2003) and American Legends: The Life Of Etta James (2014).
****CONTINUE BELOW****
Etta James (January 25, 1938 - January 20, 2012) Passing 🙏🏼:
Etta James 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 to the public that she had been previously diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2008.
Etta James was diagnosed with leukemia in early 2011. The illness became terminal, and her husband Artis Mills was appointed sole conservator of the Etta James estate and to oversee her medical care. She passed away on January 20, 2012, five days before her 74th birthday, at Riverside Community Hospital in Riverside, California. Her passing came three days after that of Johnny Otis, the man who had discovered her in the 1950s. Thirty-six days after her passing, her long time sideman Red Holloway also passed away.
Her funeral was presided over by the Reverend Al Sharpton and took place at Greater Bethany Community Church in Gardena, California, eight days after her passing. Stevie Wonder and Christina Aguilera gave musical tributes. She was laid to rest at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Los Angeles County, California.
Honors And Awards 🏅:
Since 1989, notably rather late in her career, after nearly thirty years of prior recording, Etta James has received over 30 awards and recognitions from eight different organizations, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences which organizes the Grammys.
In 1989, the newly formed Rhythm and Blues Foundation included Etta James in their first Pioneer Awards for artists whose "lifelong contributions have been instrumental in the development of Rhythm & Blues music". The following year, 1990, she received an NAACP Image Award, which is given for "outstanding achievements and performances of people of color in the arts", it was an award she cherished as it "was coming from my own people". In 2020, Etta James was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.
In 1993, James was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
In 2001, James was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame
In 2003, James received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7080 Hollywood Blvd
In 2005, James was inducted into Hollywood's Rockwalk
In 2006, James received the Billboard R&B Founders Award
The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Etta James has received six Grammy Awards. Her first was in 1995, when she was awarded Best Jazz Vocal Performance for the album: Mystery Lady, which consisted of covers of Billie Holiday songs Two other albums have also won awards: Let's Roll (Best Contemporary Blues Album) in 2003, and Blues To The Bone (Best Traditional Blues Album) in 2004. Two of her early songs have been given Grammy Hall of Fame Awards for qualitative or historical significance: "At Last", in 1999, and "The Wallflower (Dance With Me, Henry)" in 2008. In 2003, she was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
The members of the Blues Foundation, a nonprofit organization set up in Memphis, Tennessee, to foster the Blues and its heritage, have nominated Etta James for a Blues Music Award nearly every year since its founding in 1980; and she received some form of Blues Female Artist of the Year award 14 times since 1989, continuously from 1999 to 2007. Her albums: Life Love & The Blues (1999), Burnin' Down The House (2003), and Let's Roll (2004) were awarded Soul/Blues Album of the Year, and in 2001 she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.
Etta James Albums 📀:
At Last! (1960)
The Second Time Around (1961)
Etta James (1962)
Etta James Sings For Lovers (1962)
Etta James Top Ten (1963)
The Queen Of Soul (1965)
Call My Name (1966)
Tell Mama (1968)
Etta James Sings Funk (1970)
Losers Weepers (1971)
Etta James (1973)
Come A Little Closer (1974)
Etta Is Betta Than Evvah! (1976)
Deep In The Night (1978)
Changes (1980)
Seven Year Itch (1988)
Stickin' To My Guns (1990)
The Right Time (1992)
Mystery Lady: Songs Of Billie Holiday (1994)
Time After Time (1995)
Love's Been Rough On Me (1997)
Life, Love & the Blues (1998)
Heart Of A Woman (1999)
Matriarch Of The Blues (2000)
Blue Gardenia (2001)
Let's Roll (2003)
Blues To The Bone (2004)
All The Way (2006)
The Dreamer (2011)
Some more good Etta James songs 🎶: Tell Mama, My Dearest Darling, The Wallflower (Dance With Me, Henry), At Last, Trust In Me, My Dearest Darling, Something’s Got A Hold On Me, W-O-M-A-N, Hold Me Squeeze Me, If I Can't Have You, My Heart Cries, Next Door To The Blues, All I Could Do Is Cry, Stormy Weather, Be Mine, I Just Want To Make Love To You, Anything To Say You're Mine, Tough Mary, Sunday Kind Of Love, It's A Crying Shame, Girl Of My Dreams, Bobby Is His Name, Spoonful, That Man Belongs Back Here With Me, Flight 101, Breaking Point, Somewhere Out There, Mellow Fellow, Only Time Will Tell, Do Right, Pushover, (Baby Baby) Every Night, Loving You More Every Day, Be Honest With Me, Payback, You Can't Talk To A Fool, By the Light Of The Silvery Moon, Strange Things Happening, Down By The Riverside, Would It Make Any Difference To You, Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be), The Pick Up, Good Rockin' Daddy, Tears Of Joy, Stop The Wedding, Time After Time, Shortnin' Bread Rock, Willow Weep For Me, Ain't No Pity In The Naked City, We'll Fly You To The Promised Land, Misty, Come To Mama, Tough Lover, Power Play, Fools We Mortals Be, Ev'ry Body's Somebody's Fool, I Don't Stand A Ghost Of A Chance (With You), Market Place, Born On The Bayou, Security, Imagination, Hickory Dickory Dock, We're In Love, In My Diary, Seven Day Fool, I'll Dry My Tears, Stormy Monday, Dust Your Broom, Night And Day, My Man, Out On The Streets Again, God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind), Try A Little Tenderness, Respect Yourself, Sugar On The Floor, Groove Me, Plum Nuts, I Hope You're Satisfied, A Love Vibration, St Louis Blues, Come Rain Or Come Shine, Feeling Uneasy, Come A Little Closer, My Funny Valentine, Body And Soul, Waiting For Charlie (To Come Home), Born Under a Bad Sign, Jump Into Love, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, Beware, I Only Have Eyes For You, Walking The Back Streets, Good Morning Heartache, Wayward Saints Of Memphis, How Strong Is A Woman, Blue Gardenia, In My Solitude, Don't Get Around Much Anymore, The Blues Is My Business, Would It Make Any Difference To You, A Change Is Gonna Do Me Good, My Old Flame, Guess Again, Dreamer, Woke Up This Morning, Old Weakness, Breakin' Up Somebody's Home, Running And Hiding Blues, Someone To Watch Over Me Again, I'm Gonna Take What He's Got, Almost Persuaded, Hey Henry, Good Lookin', Damn Your Eyes, On The 7th Day, Losers Weepers, In The Basement, Miss Pitiful, Champagne & Wine, Merry Christmas Baby, Too Tired, Hush Hush, Strung Out, Honey Don't Tear My Clothes, Hawg For Ya, Mean Mother, Do I Make Myself Clear, Hound Dog, (I'm Afraid) The Masquerade Is Over, Cigarettes & Coffee, Watch Dog, Misty Blue, Rhymes, Don't Lose Your Good Thing, I Can't Turn You Loose, You Can Leave Your Hat On, Let's Straighten It Out, Next Door To The Blues, 842-3089 (Call My Name), Life Love & The Blues, Oh Happy Day and How Do You Speak To An Angel.
Fun Fact 🕵🏼♀: Beyoncé performed the song: "I'd Rather Go Blind", in the 2008 film: Cadillac Records, where she portrayed Etta James.
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Yeah she did! I love this song. No one will ever do it better.
Beyoncé played Etta James in Cadillac Records.
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Loved your reaction. The amazement in your eyes and body movement! Fun to watch. Thanks❤
Etta was something else, what a voice. Love your reactions, you are wonderful!