Etta James

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Etta James (born Jamesetta Hawkins on January 25, 1938, died January 20, 2012) was an American blues, soul, R&B, rock & roll and jazz singer and songwriter. She is the winner of four Grammys, seventeen Blues Music Awards, and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (in 1993), the Blues Hall of Fame (in 2001), and the Grammy Hall of Fame (in both 1999 and 2008). Having her biggest success as a blues and R&B singer in the 1950s and 60s, she is best known for her 1961 ballad “At Last”, classified as a “timeless classic” and which has featured in many movies and television commercials.

Biography

Early life and career
Jamesetta was born in Los Angeles, California to an unmarried 14-year-old African-American mother, Dorothy Hawkins. According to Etta, her mother claimed that her father was the white Rudolph “Minnesota Fats” Wanderone, and that they received financial support from him on the condition that they keep his paternity a secret. This seems unlikely, though it has not been definitively disproved. Etta was born in Los Angeles in 1938. At the time, Wanderone was known to be managing a pool hall in Washington, D.C. and had not yet become known to be the cross-country traveller he later became.

She received her first professional vocal training at the age of five years old from James Earle Hines, musical director of the Echoes of Eden choir at St. Paul Baptist Church in Los Angeles.

Etta’s family moved to San Francisco in 1950 and she teamed up with two other girls to form a Doo-wop singing group.

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1		At Last			3,986
2		I'd Rather Go Blind			1,952
3		Something's Got A Hold On Me			1,519
4		I Just Want To Make Love To You			1,292
5		Stormy Weather			1,167
6		Trust In Me			1,067
7		A Sunday Kind Of Love			1,032
8		My Dearest Darling			962
9		At Last - Single Version			958
10		Tell Mama			845
11		Sunday Kind Of Love			789
12		All I Could do Was Cry			692
13		Anything To Say You're Mine			589
14		All I Could Do Is Cry			540
15		Don't Cry Baby			535

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