Etta James, the singer who made “At Last” a
classic and became one of the last survivors
from early rock ‘n’ roll’s pantheon of
soaring divas, died Friday in California, her
manager said. She was 73.
She had been battling leukemia and
dementia. Her final stage performances
came in early 2010.
James died at Riverside Community Hospital
from complications of leukemia, with her
husband and two sons at her side, her
manager, Lupe De Leon said.
Over a 50-year career, James won four
Grammy Awards and 17 Blues Music
Awards. She was inducted into the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 and was the
recipeient of a Grammy Lifetime
Achievement Award.
A feisty and outspoken personality off-
stage, James was known for a singing style
that ranged from the lush elegance of “At
Last” to powerful rhythm and blues like
“Good Rockin’ Daddy,” “All I Could Do Is Cry”
and her first hit, “The Wallflower.”
She was admired by many of her fellow
female artists for her struggles against a
system that often undervalued and
underrated female performers.
The cost of that struggle was reflected in
her lifelong struggle against several
extended drug addictions.
“No one who wasn’t there could understand
how hard someone like Etta had to fight,”
the late Ruth Brown said in 1998. Brown,
Lavern Baker and Della Reese, along with
James, were some of the early female artists
who to this day remain downplayed in
early rock ‘n’ roll history.
Ironically, it was a car commercial that
ultimately helped secure James’s stature.
In the early 1990s, Jaguar licensed “At Last”
in a lavish, memorable television ad that
gave the song far wider popular exposure
than it had after its original release in 1961.
It was a No. 2 R&B hit then, but only
reached No. 47 on the pop charts.
James was still performing in the 1990s,
and the song’s resurgence enhanced her
stature.
She came into the spotlight again in 2008
when a James-like character was featured in
the 2008 movie “Cadillac Records.” The
movie was loosely based on Chess Records,
where James recorded in the 1960s, and it
featured Beyonce, as the James character,
singing “At Last.”
James said she enjoyed the movie, though it
“had some inconsistencies” and largely
ignored the success the real-life James had
on records and on black radio before she
came to Chess in 1960.
She praised Beyonce’s performance, though
in early 2009 she complained that Beyonce,
rather than James, was invited to sing “At
Last” at Barack Obama’s inauguration.
She also said Beyonce “should get her a—
whupped,” though she said later she meant
that as a joke.
In April 2009, James sang “At Last” on
“Dancing with the Stars.”
Born in Los Angeles, James did her early
singing in the church before joining
impresario Johnny Otis’s stable of Los
Angeles R&B singers in the mid-1950s. She
sang with Richard Berry, among others, and
“The Wallflower” was an answer to the
Midnighters’ hit “Work With Me Annie.”
She is survived by her husband of 41 years,
Artis Mills, and two sons.
