Friday, January 20, 2012
Etta James (1938-2012)
Etta James died today, four years to the date from when one of her most famous songs was uploaded onto Youtube. "I Just Wanna Make Love To You," has become a firm favourite of ad men (it was used in the U.K in Diet Coke ads), television directors and the people responsible for the compilations of blues records/cd's.
Jamesette Hawkins, as she was born in 1938, had one of the truly great voices of recorded music, a voice that was placed by the magazine Rolling Stone at number twenty two on their all time list of singers.
Her voice and range spanned so many musical styles and genres that calling her a blues singer could upset a gospel aficionado or a soul fan or anyone of the half a dozen varieties of music that she sang. She leaves a lasting legacy, not just in her recordings but also her influences which have ranged from Mary Wilson (of the Supremes) through to Amy Winehouse and most obviously, given her current success, Adele.
Etta James was ill for the last year of her life and I don't really want to make this tribute a long list of medical terms.
The song "I Just Want to Make Love To You," was written by Willie Dixon one of the founders of the Chicago blues sound and a man responsible for some really great songs: Little Red Rooster, I Ain't Superstitious and Back Door Man being the most famous in the U.K. James version of a song previously recorded by Muddy Waters appears on her debut album At Last! and it seems only fitting that it was produced by the Chess brothers, Leonard and Phil.
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3 comments:
Yes, great voice, power is the first word that springs to mind. Love the change of name that must be one of the few to "make sense": Jamesette > Etta James
...not sure about willy dicks-on though (sorry, I'm such a child)
It does doesn't it, moving swiftly past the Willie gag.
I don't have much knowledge of Etta or many of her songs in my music collection(perhaps I need to do something about that)
But I do have I Just Want To Make Love To You and At Last...
And some Christmas songs, funnily enough...The Little Drummer Boy and Merry Christmas Baby.
Her voice is the main driving force but there is also something about the arrangements and those sweeping strings taht back her vocals.
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