Etta James

Soul singer Etta James survived a decade-long heroin addiction to forge a career that has seen her turn out well over a dozen hits and was still going strong with concert appearances past the year 2000. Etta James was still in her early teens and singing with a vocal trio called the Peaches when legendary R&B bandleader Johnny Otis [see entry] discovered her. At Otis' L.A. home, he and Etta cowrote her first hit, “Roll With Me, Henry,” an answer to Hank Ballard and the Midnighters’ off-color “Work With Me, Annie.” Under the title “The Wallflower,” “Henry” became a #2 R&B hit in 1955. That year Georgia Gibbs had a #1 pop hit with a mild cover of the tune, called “Dance With Me, Henry.” Later, James’ version was retitled “Dance With Me, Henry.”

Through the mid-’50s James became a mainstay of Otis’ revue and scored another R&B hit with “Good Rockin’ Daddy” (#12, 1955). In 1960 she moved from Modern to Chess Records’ Argo subsidiary, and the R&B hits began coming again: “All I Could Do Was Cry” (#2 R&B), “My Dearest Darling” (#5 R&B), and a duet as Etta and Harvey (with Harvey Fuqua of Harvey and the Moonglows) entitled “If I Can’t Have You” (#52 pop, #6 R&B). She also sang background vocals on Chuck Berry’s “Almost Grown” and “Back in the U.S.A.”

James continued making R&B hits through the early ’60s. In 1961 she had more Top 10 R&B hits with “At Last” (#2 R&B) and “Trust in Me” (#4 R&B), and in 1962 with “Something’s Got a Hold on Me” (#4 R&B) and “Stop the Wedding” (#6 R&B). In 1963 she hit the pop chart with “Pushover” (#25 pop, #7 R&B), as well as “Pay Back” (#78), “Two Sides to Every Story” (#63), and “Would It Make Any Difference to You” (#64); 1964 brought “Baby, What You Want Me to Do?” (#82) and “Loving You More Every Day” (#65).

In the ’60s she developed a heroin addiction that lasted through 1974 and kept her much of the time in L.A.’s Tarzana Psychiatric Hospital. Still, she hit big with “Tell Mama” (#23 pop, #10 R&B, 1967), “Losers Weepers” (#26 R&B, 1970), and “I’ve Found a Love” (#31 R&B, 1972). Though she has not had any major hit records since ending her heroin addiction, James has remained a popular concert performer. She played the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1977 and opened some dates for the Rolling Stones’ 1978 U.S. tour. Seven Year Itch was produced by keyboardist Barry Beckett, house keyboardist at Alabama’s legendary Muscle Shoals studio, where James had recorded such ’60s R&B hits as “I’d Rather Go Blind.” She returned to Muscle Shoals to record The Right Time, which reunited her with Jerry Wexler (the longtime Aretha Franklin producer, who’d worked on James’ Deep in the Night album) and included a duet with Steve Winwood; shortly after the album’s release, James was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She won her first Grammy for 1994’s Mystery Lady: The Songs of Billie Holiday. In 1995 she published her autobiography (cowritten with David Ritz), Rage to Survive. James continues to record and perform to an ever-increasing audience and critical acclaim.

from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)