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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
Time
Heard
Tunes
Start
Finish
Song
Album
Firsts
Albums
First
Entire
Years
Songs
Really
Loved
Always
Control
Recording
More quotes by Etta James
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.
Etta James
I was a sloppy kid, wanted to be just wild.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Long as I was riding in a big Cadillac and dressed nice and had plenty of food, that's all I cared about.
Etta James
It's not about battling the original artists when I record these songs, it's about paying tribute to them.
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
I want a Sunday kind of love A love to last past Saturday night And I’d like to know it’s more than love at first sight
Etta James
All the things I used to like - cookies, ice cream, gumbo - I don't like anymore.
Etta James
It feels so good to be happy.
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
What happens is, when I perform, I'm somewhere else. I go back in time and get in touch with who I really am. I forget my troubles, my worries.
Etta James
My mother used to play nothing but Billie Holiday.
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
Bobby Womack is always very real, both with his music and as a person.
Etta James