Etta James: Rest in Peace

Legendary blues singer, Etta James, passed away on Friday, January 20, 2012, just 5 days short of her 74th birthday. The cause of death is leukemia.

In addition to several health scares, the singer was in the news in recent years for expressing her distaste at Beyonce Knowles singing her signature song, “At Last” at the Presidential Inauguration. Knowles played the singer in the 2008 film, Cadillac Records.

The three-time Grammy winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer was revered for such outstanding hits as I’d Rather Go Blind and Tell Mama. Rolling Stone magazine honored Ms. James in 2004 among its 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Singer Bonnie Raitt wrote, “Etta has clearly influenced people like Janis Joplin and me, and now people like Susan Tedeschi and Joss Stone. Anybody who has a bluesy side to what they do can point to Etta James as the bridge between R&B, blues and pop singing. You can’t overestimate her influence.”

James was born on January 25, 1938 as Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles to unwed 14-year-old Dorothy Hawkins, who never officially revealed the father. James often said her father was famed pool hustler Rudolph “Minnesota Fats” Walderone.

Discovered at 14 by Johnny Otis (“Willie and the Hand Jive”), he made her stage name out of her real first name. Etta had a hit with her first recording Roll With Me Henry after the title was changed to The Wallflower. It topped the R&B charts in 1955 and was later covered by white singer Georgia Gibbs, who had a No. 1 pop hit with it as Dance With Me Henry.

James also scored the same year with Good Rockin’ Daddy, but she would have to wait 5 years for another hit. Signing with Argo, a subsidary of Chess Records, Ms. James did two duets with her then-boyfriend, Harvey Fuqua (of Moonglows’ fame). And that was the start of a string of R&B hits, that included Something’s Got a Hold on Me, Stop the Wedding, Trust in Me, Tell Mama, At Last and I’d Rather Go Blind.

An addiction to heroin and other personal problems plagued James for the next two decades, but she popped up on tours and in the studio from time to time. Conquering her demons, James came back in the 80s to resume her career full speed ahead.

In her 1995 autobiography (written with David Ritz), Rage To Survive, James wrote about Harvey Fuqua, whom she called “my first full-fledged boyfriend.”

“Harvey was a cool character,” she said, “He could come on like a Kentucky gentleman. Other times he had the crafty conman moves of a pimp.” She also noted that he was no more immune than she was from being outsold by white artists of the day, after they copied theirs and other black artists hits:

“Just as Georgia Gibbs had copied some of my songs and Pat Boone had copied Fats Domino and Little Richard, the McGuire Sisters ripped off the Moonglows’ “Sincerely” and outsold the original four to one.”

Etta James is survived by her husband Artis Mills and sons, Donto and Sametto.

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