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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.

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
Even
Bring
Something
Times
Always
Song
Think
Mother
Creativeness
Thinking
Stills
Singing
Like
Still
Creativity
Music
Thousand
Done
Told

More quotes by Etta James

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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 figured I could do It's A Man's, Man's, Man's World because I believe it's the truth.
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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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I don't care who's playing. Even if it's my favorite artist, I'm probably not gonna go and see him.
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Long as I was riding in a big Cadillac and dressed nice and had plenty of food, that's all I cared about.
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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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My mother always wanted me to be a jazz singer, but I always wanted to be raunchy.
Etta James
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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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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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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.
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I really turned into, you know, the real street kid. I was kind of like a runaway, but I had a mother, you know what I mean, and I had a place to stay.
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It feels so good to be happy.
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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.
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All the things I used to like - cookies, ice cream, gumbo - I don't like anymore.
Etta James
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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.
Etta James
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I'm not starry eyed, and I'm not money crazy.
Etta James
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It's not about battling the original artists when I record these songs, it's about paying tribute to them.
Etta James
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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.
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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
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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