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

More quotes by Etta James

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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.
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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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Bobby Womack is always very real, both with his music and as a person.
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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.
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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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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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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
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My mother always wanted me to be a jazz singer, but I always wanted to be raunchy.
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All the things I used to like - cookies, ice cream, gumbo - I don't like anymore.
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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.
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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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I like to shop, but I don't like to go out to dances.
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My mother used to play nothing but Billie Holiday.
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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.
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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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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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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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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