Etta James: Soul Diva With Big Voice And Life Full of Travail - WSJ.com

Etta James: Soul Diva With Big Voice And Life Full of Travail - WSJ.com:

By STEPHEN MILLER

Etta James was one of the great soul divas, with a huge voice that could grind or soar, and a life full of travail, much of it self-produced.

Ms. James, who died Friday at age 73 of complications of leukemia, produced standards such as the up-tempo "Tell Mama" and the anthem-like "At Last."



Michael Ochs Archive/Getty Images

Etta James rehearses at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala., circa 1967.

Bedeviled by addictions, Ms. James perhaps never quite lived up to her potential. But in the 1960s she vied with Aretha Franklin as the Queen of Soul.

Born Jamesetta Hawkins, Ms. James was raised by relatives and acquaintances and never knew for sure who her father was. (She long suspected it was Rudolf Wanderone, the professional pool player known as Minnesota Fats.)

Ms. James hung out with girl gangs and sang on street corners and at sock hops as a teenager in San Francisco. Performing with a group called the Creolettes, she got noticed by R&B impresario Johnny Otis (who died Tuesday). Mr. Otis changed her name to Etta James, the group's name to The Peaches, and hired her for his touring revue.

Her first hit, in 1955, was "The Wallflower (Dance With Me Henry)," an answer to Hank Ballard's "Work With Me Annie"—both bawdy rock numbers. A sanitized version sung by Georgia Gibbs later topped charts. "I was happy to have any success, but I was enraged to see Georgia singing the song on 'The Ed Sullivan Show' while I was singing it in some funky dive in Watts," Ms. James wrote in a 2003 memoir, "Rage to Survive."

Ms. James became an early female star at the Chess Records label, home to Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters. Chess issued her album "At Last!" in 1960 and it was followed by a series of records that saw Ms. James's style evolve into a sophisticated mix of pop, soul and jazz.

In legendary recordings at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala., Ms. James produced "Tell Mama" and "I'd Rather Go Blind," a slow lament that was later a hit for Rod Stewart.

But her life spun out of control with drugs and tangles with the law. Her husband ended up in prison for a decade after a drug bust. Finally, in 1974, Ms. James had the first of several trips to rehab—first for heroin and later cocaine and codeine.

Despite the distractions, Ms. James won several Grammy Awards, the first in 1994 for best jazz vocal performance in a tribute to Billie Holiday.

In 2001, she had gastric bypass surgery after her weight topped 400 pounds on a 5'3" frame. She dropped more than 200 pounds and resumed performing.

—Email remembrances@wsj.com

Write to Stephen Miller at stephen.miller@wsj.com




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