February is Black History Month, and this is a story about black female artists through history. Jamesetta Hawkins (January 25, 1938 - January 20, 2012), known professionally as Etta James, was an American singer and songwriter.
Etta James was born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles on January 25, 1938. Jamesetta Hawkins was born in Los Angeles to 14-year-old Dorothy Hawkins.
Her mother, Dorothy Hawkins, was 14 years old at the time. Although her father has never been identified, James speculated that she was the daughter of pool player Rudolf "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone, whom she met briefly in 1987. Her father was white and has never been identified, but James speculated that he was the pool player Rudolf "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone. Upon James’ death, Wanderone’s widow went to the press to say that the man denied being the singer’s biological father.
Her mother was frequently absent from their apartment in Watts, conducting relationships with various men, and James lived with a series of foster parents, most notably "Sarge" and "Mama" Lu. As a child, James lived with a series of caregivers.
Her mother always encouraged her to sing, telling her, “even if a song has been done a thousand times, you can still bring something of your own to it.” And that she did.
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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. He was the music director of the Echoes of Eden choir at the St. Paul Baptist Church in Los Angeles. She became a soloist in the choir despite her young age and performed with them on local radio stations.
By the time she was 5 years old, Etta James was already well known in the church and on the radio, as a gospel prodigy. She quickly gained attention for having a strong voice for a child.
In 1950, her caregiver, Mama Lu, died, and James' birth mother took her to the Fillmore district in San Francisco. At 12, she formed a singing trio and worked for bandleader Johnny Otis with the Otis Band. At the age of 14, she met musician Johnny Otis.
Stories on how they met vary. In Otis's version, she came to his hotel after one of his performances in the city and persuaded him to audition her. Another story was that Otis spotted the Creolettes performing at a Los Angeles nightclub and sought for them to record his "answer song" to Hank Ballard's "Work with Me, Annie".
James began listening to doo-wop within a couple of years and was inspired to form a girl group called the Creolettes. The 14-year-old girls met musician Johnny Otis. Otis took the Creolettes under his wing and helped them sign to Modern Records, at which point they changed their name to Peaches. Otis took the group under his wing, helping them sign with Modern Records and changing their name to the Peaches.
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At this time Otis also gave James her stage name, transposing "Jamesetta" (her given first name) into "Etta James." It wasn’t long before the determined vocalist launched her solo career.
She wrote and recorded a thumpin’ answer record called “Roll with Me, Henry.” Though it was about dancing, the song registered as too racy for some people’s taste, so it was re-titled “The Wallflower.” In 1954, James recorded and was credited as co-author for "The Wallflower" (a title change to the aforementioned song, "Work with Me, Annie"), which was released in early 1955. The original title of the song was actually "Roll with Me, Henry", but it had been changed to avoid censorship at the time (roll implying sexual activity).
As it took off, James did the same, traveling and singing with her doo wop girl group, The Peaches; initially called The Creolettes. The young ladies opened for Little Richard, making their mark on rhythm & blues as it was swapping spit with rock-n-roll.
After leaving the Peaches, James had another R&B hit with "Good Rockin' Daddy" but struggled with follow-ups. Musician Bobby Murray toured with James for over 20 years.
Later that year, the song reached number one on the Hot Rhythm & Blues Tracks chart, and the group had an opening spot on Little Richard's national tour. After leaving the Peaches, James had another R&B hit with "Good Rockin' Daddy." It wasn’t long before the determined vocalist launched her solo career with the hit "Good Rockin' Daddy" in 1955.
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James first hit singles with Fuqua were "If I Can't Have You" and "Spoonful". Her first solo hit was the doo-wop-styled rhythm-and-blues song "All I Could Do Was Cry", which was a number two R&B hit.
In 1960, she signed with Chess Records, shedding her former musical home, Modern Records. When her contract with Modern ended in 1960, she signed with Leonard Chess' namesake label, Chess Records.
Chess Records co-founder Leonard Chess envisioned James as a classic ballad stylist who had potential to cross over to the pop charts and soon surrounded the singer with violins and other string instruments. The first string-laden ballad James recorded was "My Dearest Darling" in May 1960, which peaked in the top five of the R&B chart.
On the cover of At Last, her 1960 debut album, her hair is as just as yellow as the background. Being Black and blonde, in those days, was rebellious. A one-way ticket to hell, depending on who you asked. Regardless of the era, blondness has social implications. Since roughly 2 percent of people on the planet can naturally call the yellow-ish hue their own, it’s highly desired-and sure to grasp a gaze. “A blonde head attracts attention,” Jena Pincott, the science writer and author of the book called Do Gentlemen Really Prefer Blondes? , said to The Cut in 2017. “Light colors catch the eye.”
In her biography, Rage to Survive: The Etta James Story, James explains how she came to be a blonde. Etta James’ debut album, At Last, photographed by Brooklyn White-Grier, 2022. She says first, her mother had dyed her hair red-orange and gave her curls that resembled finger waves. But that wasn’t her destined ‘do.
“[I]n Detroit, a gay guy bleached it until it was practically white and took out the curls,” she said in her book. The style didn’t stick-she was going for a more fabulous, ready-made rock-n-roll look. She talks about taking beauty cues from by Joyce Bryant, the Bronze Bombshell who inspired Zendaya’s 2025 Golden Globes ensemble. (I wrote Bryant’s Essence obituary. Read it here.) Bryant had short, platinum hair. She slipped herself into formfitting evening gowns and made her public swoon, something James wanted to do, in her own way. Jayne Mansfield, the eye-popping movie star and Playmate, was also on her mood board. Of the two women, James said, “So I think what I did, it was kind of combine [them],” in a 1994 interview.
Jayne Mansfield, 1954.
James credits the construction of her overall look to gay men. “They were setting my style and I was happy to go along,” her book also reads. In all of the changes to her style, the jet black eyebrows stayed. “Oh no, honey,” ‘they’d say,” you leave the eyebrows dark. That’s how all the bad girls look.”
Her debut album, At Last!, was released in late 1960 and was noted for its varied selection of music, from jazz standards to blues to doo-wop and rhythm and blues (R&B). The album included the future classics "I Just Want to Make Love to You" and "A Sunday Kind of Love". It was with Chess that she recorded classics like “Trust in Me,” “I’d Rather Go Blind,” and “A Sunday Kind of Love,” the latter being one of the only songs on At Last written specifically for her.
In early 1961, James released what was to become her signature song, "At Last", a Glenn Miller tune, which reached number two on the R&B chart and number 47 on the Billboard Hot 100. Though the record was not as successful as expected, her rendition has become the best-known version of the song. In early 1961, James released her signature song, "At Last," which reached number two on the R&B chart and 47 on the Billboard Hot 100.
James followed this with "Trust in Me", which also included string instruments. Later that same year (1960), James released a second studio album, The Second Time Around. The album took the same direction as her first, covering jazz and pop standards and with strings on many of the songs. James started adding gospel elements in her music the following year, releasing "Something's Got a Hold on Me", which peaked at number four on the R&B chart and was a Top 40 pop hit.
That success was quickly followed by "Stop the Wedding", which reached number six on the R&B chart and also had gospel elements. In 1963, she had another major hit with "Pushover" and released the live album Etta James Rocks the House, recorded at the New Era Club in Nashville, Tennessee.
After a couple of years of minor hits, James's career started to suffer after 1965. After a period of isolation, she returned to recording in 1967 and reemerged with more gutsy R&B numbers thanks to her recording at the legendary FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. These sessions yielded her comeback hit "Tell Mama", co-written by Clarence Carter, which reached number ten on the R&B chart and number twenty-three for pop. An album of the same name was also released that year and included her take on Otis Redding's "Security". The B-side of "Tell Mama" was "I'd Rather Go Blind", which became a blues classic and has been recorded by many other artists.
Etta James is best known for her powerful, earthy vocals, belting out hits like "I'd Rather Go Blind" and "At Last." Following this success, James became an in-demand concert performer, though she never again reached the heyday of her early to mid-1960s success.
The back cover art of The Very Best of Etta James. Young millennials and Gen Z were likely introduced to the singer’s story through Cadillac Records, the 2008 musical drama uncovering the story of Chess Records. Beyoncé was the talented and tormented James-cropped hair, hips and all.
The story of the early days of Chess Records was brought to the big screen as Cadillac Records in 2008, with singer Beyoncè Knowles playing James in the film. The film included "At Last," performed by Beyoncé. Beyoncè also recorded her version of James's signature song, "At Last," for the soundtrack. Beyoncé was invited to perform the song at Barack Obama's inaugural ball.
The story’s grounding performance was her “At Last,” a rendition so strong that the fellow famous Black blonde was chosen to sing it during former president Barack Obama’s Inaugural Ball on this day in 2009.
Here James is in 1993, hair like honey, during the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
James' enduring relevance was affirmed in 2011 when the Swedish DJ Avicii achieved substantial chart success with the song "Levels", which samples her 1962 song "Something's Got a Hold on Me". The same sample was used by the east coast rapper Flo Rida in his 2011 hit single "Good Feeling". When you’re a girl helping set the groundwork for an entire genre, sometimes you glow up in more ways than one.
Her records continued to chart in the R&B Top 40 in the early 1970s, with singles such as "Losers Weepers" (1970) and "I Found a Love" (1972). Though James continued to record for Chess, she was devastated by the death of record executive Leonard Chess in 1969.
James ventured into rock and funk with the release of her self-titled album in 1973, with production from the famed rock producer Gabriel Mekler, who had worked with Steppenwolf and Janis Joplin. Joplin had admired James and had covered "Tell Mama" in concert. James continued to record for Chess (now owned by All Platinum Records), releasing one more album in 1976, Etta Is Betta Than Evvah! Her 1978 album Deep in the Night, produced by Jerry Wexler for Warner Bros., incorporated more rock-based music in her repertoire.
That same year, James was the opening act for the Rolling Stones and performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Amid her hiatus from recording, James still performed on occasion through the early and mid-1980s, including two guest appearances at Grateful Dead concerts in December 1982. and was a guest on John Mayall's Blues Breakers 1982 reunion show in New Jersey.
In 1984, she contacted David Wolper and asked to perform in the opening ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics, at which she sang "When the Saints Go Marching In". In 1987, she performed "Rock and Roll Music" with Chuck Berry in the documentary film Hail! Hail! In 1989, she signed with Island Records and with them released the albums Seven Year Itch and Stickin' to My Guns, both of which were produced by Barry Beckett and recorded at FAME Studios.
Also in 1989 James was filmed in a concert at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles with Joe Walsh and Albert Collins for the film Jazzvisions: Jump the Blues Away. James participated with the rap singer Def Jef on the song "Droppin' Rhymes on Drums", which mixed James's jazz vocals with hip-hop. In 1992, she recorded the album The Right Time, produced by Jerry Wexler for Elektra Records.
James signed with Private Music Records in 1993 and recorded a Billie Holiday tribute album, Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday. The album set a trend of incorporating more jazz elements in James's music. The album won James her first Grammy Award, for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female, in 1994.
In 1995, her autobiography, Rage to Survive, co-written with David Ritz, was published. Also in 1995, she recorded the album Time After Time. By the mid-1990s, James's earlier music-by now considered classic-was being used in commercials, including "I Just Wanna Make Love to You", for example.
By 1998, with the release of Life, Love & the Blues, James had added as backing musicians her own sons, Donto and Sametto, on drums and bass, respectively. They were part of her touring band.
In 2001, she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, the latter for her contributions to the developments of both rock and roll and rockabilly. In 2003, she received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. On her 2004 release, Blue Gardenia, she returned to a jazz style.
James performed at the top jazz festivals in the world, such as the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1977, 1989, 1990 and 1993. She performed nine times at the legendary Monterey Jazz Festival and five times at the San Francisco Jazz Festival. She performed at the Playboy Jazz Festival in 1990, 1997, 2004, and 2007. She performed six times at the North Sea Jazz Festival, in 1978, 1982, 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1993. She performed at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in 2006 and 2009.
In April 2009, at the age of 71, James made her final television appearance, performing "At Last" on the program Dancing with the Stars. In May 2009, she received the Soul/Blues Female Artist of the Year award from the Blues Foundation, the ninth time she won that award. She carried on touring but by 2010 had to cancel concert dates because of her gradually failing health; by this time she was suffering from dementia and leukemia.
Billboard listed Etta James as one of The 35 Greatest R&B Artists Of All Time, stating that her "gutsy, take-no-prisoner vocals colorfully interpreted everything from blues and R&B/soul to rock n’ roll, jazz and gospel". James's deep and earthy voice is considered to have bridged the gap between R&B and rock and roll.
In November 2011, James released her final album, The Dreamer, to critical acclaim. James possessed the vocal range of a contralto. James 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 received wide recognition.
KVCR’s Interim General Manager Alfredo Cruz was a big fan of Etta James’ music, with Something’s Got a Hold of Me and A Sunday Kind of Love being a couple of his early favorites. He had the opportunity to interview her and attend her concert, once upon a time. Did you know that Etta James was a long-time resident of Riverside, residing in the Woodcrest area?
James's career began to soar after signing with Chicago's Chess Records in 1960. She knew how to rock a house and did so with such gospel-charged tunes as "Something's Got a Hold On Me" in 1962 and "In The Basement" in 1966. In 1967, Chess took her to the Fame studios to record with the Muscle Shoals house band. The collaboration resulted in the triumphant Tell Mama album.
James continued to work with Chess throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. 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. Her husband, Artis Mills, whom she married in 1969, accepted responsibility when they were both arrested for heroin possession and served a 10-year sentence. He was released from prison in 1982 and was still married to James. In 1974, James was sentenced to drug treatment instead of serving time jailed.
Through her mother, Dorothy, James was introduced to the Nation of Islam. Dorothy attended occasional meetings at Nation of Islam Temple No. 27 in Los Angeles and relayed the teachings to her daughter. Under the care of her grandparents, however, James was raised Baptist. In her adult years, James and a friend began attending a Nation of Islam temple in Atlanta, where she found comfort in the preaching of Minister Louis X and a sense of "racial pride".
By the mid-1960s, James suffered from an addiction to heroin. James was continuously in and out of rehabilitation centers, including the Tarzana Treatment Centers, in Los Angeles. In 1973, James was arrested for possession of heroin. In 1974, she was sentenced to drug treatment instead of prison. During this period, she became addicted to methadone and would mix her doses with heroin. She was in the Tarzana Psychiatric Hospital for 17 months, starting at the age of 36 and went through a great struggle. In her 1995 autobiography Rage to Survive, she said that the time she spent in the hospital changed her life.
James has two sons, Donto and Sametto. Both started performing with their mother in 2003 - Donto on drums and Sametto on bass guitar.
