From:   Flippar 
Date:  Fri Jan 25, 2002  4:08 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You - Etta James
 
ETTA JAMES

Born Etta James (some say Jamesetta) Hawkins on January 25th, 1938 in Los
Angeles California.

Her mother was a black teenager and her father an Italian, she was raised by
foster parents, being reunited with her mother in San Francisco when her
foster mother died. After singing in church she`d formed a group with two
sisters Abbey and Jean Mitchell. They wrote Roll With Me Henry in response to
Hank Ballard`s Annie series of hits. Johnny Otis heard them sing it when he
played locally and took the young girls with him to record at ModernRecords
in Culver City in 1954.

Richard Berry was called to help on the session by Maxwell Davis. Berry
rearranged the song into a duet between Etta and himself, retitling the song
as The Wallflower (a more radio friendly title). It reached number 2 on the r
&b charts before the dreaded Georgia Gibbs (a female Pat Boone) covered it as
a more sedate Dance With Me Henry. Etta toured with Little Richard, Nappy
Brown and Bill Doggett.

Later Modern recorded her second hit Good Rockin` Daddy, reaching 12 in
October 55.In early 56 she recorded at Cosimo Matassa`s J & M studio in New
Orleans with Jimmy Beasley, Lee Allen, Dave Bartholomew and Earl Palmer.
Amongst the fine songs cut were the outstanding Tough Lover and The Pick Up.
Her last session for Modern featured her boyfriend Harvey Fuqua of the
Moonglows who took her to Chicargo to record for Argo.

She had a whole string of r & b hits in the 60s for Argo/Cadet label with
scorchers like Tell Mama and I`d Rather Go Blind. She also had 9 top 40 pop
hits, eat your heart out Miss Nibbs!!!

Etta beat addiction problems in the 70s and was invited to sing at the
opening of the 1984 Olympics in LA. She had a belated UK number 5 hit in 1996
with I Just Want To Make Love To You which was used in a memorable Coke tv
advert and the resultant compilation cd Genuine Article (of Chess/Argo
material) also charted. She still cuts fine music to this day (like the Right
Time cd onWarners) but personally nothing matches up to those early
Modern/Kent gems. She was rightly elected into the R n R Hall Of Fame in 1993
Her great cameo performance duetting with Chuckiepoos on Rock N Roll
Music in the Hail Rock n Roll movie proves she`s still got the chops.

Recommended Reading
Rage To Survive -Etta James
Recommended Listening
R&B Dynamite - Ace
Hickory Dickory Dock- Ace mid price (Modern label)
Genuine Article - Chess/MCA
The Right Time Warner/Elektra