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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.
Etta James
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Etta James
Age: 73 †
Born: 1938
Born: January 25
Died: 2012
Died: January 20
Jazz Musician
Musician
Recording Artist
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
LA
California
Jamesetta Hawkins
Miss Peaches
Always
Control
Recording
Time
Heard
Tunes
Start
Finish
Song
Album
Firsts
Albums
First
Entire
Years
Songs
Really
Loved
More quotes by Etta James
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!
Etta James
Even as a little child, I've always had that comedian kind of attitude.
Etta James
When Malcolm X was assassinated I was working at the Apollo. They brought his body to the Unity Funeral Home, which was around the corner.
Etta James
You know, YOUR President, the one with the big ears-he ain't my President - had that woman singing for him at his Inauguration. She's going to get her [expletive] whooped. How dare Beyonce sing MY song that I been singing forever. Now I'm going to sing it for y'all.
Etta James
I like to shop, but I don't like to go out to dances.
Etta James
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.
Etta James
I was originally like a punker, know what I mean, like the punks are today, I'd spit in a minute.
Etta James
My mother always wanted me to be glamorous. When I thought about that, it really fired me up, and once I lost all those pounds, I started to feel really good about myself.
Etta James
I figured I could do It's A Man's, Man's, Man's World because I believe it's the truth.
Etta James
I'm not starry eyed, and I'm not money crazy.
Etta James
I don't care who's playing. Even if it's my favorite artist, I'm probably not gonna go and see him.
Etta James
A lot of people think the blues is depressing but that's not the blues I'm singing. When I'm singing blues, I singing life. People can't stand to listen to the blues, they've got to be phonies.
Etta James
A few years ago, I thought, I'll never make it. I started to go to the doctor to help me lose weight.
Etta James
Bobby Womack is always very real, both with his music and as a person.
Etta James
I was a sloppy kid, wanted to be just wild.
Etta James
Jazz took too much discipline. You have to come in at the right place, which is different than me singing the blues, where I can sing, 'Oh, baby,' if there's a pause in the melody. With jazz, you better leave that space open, or put in something real cool.
Etta James
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.
Etta James
I've gone through so much in my life. I should have been dead a long time ago, but I am still here, and I'm the happiest I've ever been.
Etta James
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?
Etta James
It's not about battling the original artists when I record these songs, it's about paying tribute to them.
Etta James