Etta James

Musician

1938-01-25 – 2012-01-20

Etta James was an American singer whose work spanned blues, rhythm and blues, soul, and jazz. She is best known for songs including At Last and Tell Mama and for her powerful vocal style. She received multiple Grammy Awards and broad critical recognition.

Quotes by Etta James

I wanna show that gospel, country, blues, rhythm and blues, jazz, rock —n' roll are all just really one thing. Those are the American music and that is the American culture.
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I wanna show that gospel, country, blues, rhythm and blues, jazz, rock —n' roll are all just really one thing. Those are the American music and that is the American culture.
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I was a sloppy kid, wanted to be just wild.
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I was originally like a punker, know what I mean, like the punks are today, I'd spit in a minute.
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I'm not starry eyed, and I'm not money crazy.
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My mother always told me, even if a song has been done a thousand times, you can still bring something of your own to it. I'd like to think I did that.
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See, I don't like places where people can't dance - don't like clubs or theatres where a bunch of bourgeois people sit around tip, tip, tipping their fingers.
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Johnny Guitar... just one of my favorite singers of all time. I met him when we were both on the road with Johnny Otis in the '50s when I was a teenager. We traveled the country in a car together. I would hear him sing every night.
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It's not about battling the original artists when I record these songs, it's about paying tribute to them.
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This is an album of songs that I've always loved, tunes that I heard. For the first time in 53 years of recording, I really had control over an entire album, start to finish.
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My mother was a jazz fanatic and she wanted me to play the piano so I could play jazz tunes. I wish I had learned but I was too busy getting into trouble!
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When I sing for myself, I probably sing for anyone who has any kind of hurt, any kind of bad feelings, good feelings, ups and downs, highs and lows, that kind of thing.
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To me, country music is like the blues, but it's something very hip and - I don't want to say commercial - but it's very worldly and good listening.
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When I look out at the people and they look at me and they're smiling, then I know that I'm loved. That is the time when I have no worries, no problems.
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When I'm performing for the people, I am me, then. I am that little girl who, when she was five years old, used to sing at church. Or I'm that 15-year-old young lady who wanted to be grown and wanted to sing and couldn't wait to be smokin' a cigarette, you know?
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