V1 Her Best

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Product Details

Artist : Etta James
Format : Best of
Binding : Audio CD
EAN : 0076732936726
Label : Universal Music Group
Number of Discs : 1
Product Group : Music
Release Date : 1997-03-25
UPC : 076732936726

ASIN : B000005KQE

Track Listings for

Disc-1
1. At Last
2. All I Could Do Is Cry
3. If I Can't Have You - Harvey Fuqua, Etta James
4. Sunday Kind of Love
5. My Dearest Darling
6. Something's Got a Hold on Me
7. Trust in Me
8. Next Door to the Blues
9. Don't Cry Baby
10. Fool That I Am
11. Two Sides to Every Story
12. Pushover
13. Stop the Wedding
14. In the Basement, Pt. 1 - Sugar Pie DeSanto, Etta James
15. Baby, What You Want Me to Do [Live]
16. I'd Rather Go Blind
17. Security
18. Loser's Weepers, Pt. 1
19. All the Way Down
20. Tell Mama

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Editorial Reviews

From Amazon.co.uk

Whether she sings string-laden pop ballads, lively soul, or gritty electric blues, James's high-powered, enormously expressive voice displays a knack for passionate blues inflections. Emotionally charged ballads including "At Last" and "All I Could Do is Cry" find James blasting through the orchestra with unearthly wails and moans. "If I Can't Have You", a duet with Harvey Fuqua, drops the orchestra in favour of horn-driven R&B and "Something's Got a Hold On Me" is a gospel-flavoured romp reminiscent of Ray Charles. A live version of Jimmy Reed's "Baby, What You Want Me to Do" shows her raunchiest Chicago-blues style, and "In the Basement", with Sugar Pie DeSanto, is a funky workout. Also here are three classics from her soul-drenched 1967 Muscle Shoals sessions. --Marc Greilsamer

Amazon.com essential recording

Whether she sings string-laden pop ballads, lively soul, or gritty electric blues, James's high-powered, enormously expressive voice displays a knack for passionate blues inflections. Emotionally charged ballads including "At Last" and "All I Could Do is Cry" find James blasting through the orchestra with unearthly wails and moans. "If I Can't Have You," a duet with Harvey Fuqua, drops the orchestra in favor of horn-driven R&B and "Something's Got a Hold On Me" is a gospel-flavored romp reminiscent of Ray Charles. A live version of Jimmy Reed's "Baby, What You Want Me to Do" shows her raunchiest Chicago-blues style, and "In the Basement," with Sugar Pie DeSanto, is a funky workout. Also here are three classics from her soul-drenched 1967 Muscle Shoals sessions. --Marc Greilsamer

Customer Reviews

Miss Peaches Stands Apart From The Crowd (2003-12-18)

When songwriters Harry Warren and Mack Gordon had their composition At Last become the B-side to the 1942 Glenn Miller # 1 hit (I've Got A Gal In) Kalamazoo, they probably thought they had died and gone to Heaven. Especially when it too charted at a respectable # 14 with Ray Eberle doing the vocals. A decade later they struck paydirt again when the song was resurrected in the movie Orchestra Wives and then taken to # 2 by Ray Anthony & his orchestra.

But the best was yet to come, and when a 23-year-old from Los Angeles by the name of Jamesetta Hawkins decided to record it in 1961 under her stage name Etta James, from that point on it became HER song. It may not have done as well on the pop charts as the earlier versions [# 47] but it did become a # 2 R&B and is, by any standard, the best version of that enduring love song.

Her career had actually commenced in 1955 when, at age 17, she recorded an "answer" song to the 1954 # 1 R&B hit Work With Me Annie by The Midnighters [Hank Ballard and crew]. Also known as Roll With Me Henry, and with Richard Berry providing the bass male vocal, it too reached # 1 R&B early in 1955 as The Wallflower as by Etta James and "The Peaches" [hence the later nickname]. That same year Georgia Gibbs would have a # 1 pop with it as Dance With Me Henry.

Later that year she would have her second hit single when Good Rockin' Daddy climbed to # 8 R&B with the backing of The Dreamers, a group that included the great Jesse Belvin, and Maxwell Davis & His Orchestra.

Personal problems then set in, and Etta would be off the charts until early 1960 when she returned with the stirring ballad All I Could Do Was Cry, which scored on both the R&B [# 2] and pop [# 33] charts. And from there right through to 1976 she would be seldom off the charts, racking up another 27 R&B hits and putting 26 more on the pop charts.

This CD gives you the best of those along with nine pages of liner notes by Peter Grendysa of Words On Music Ltd., a partial discography of the contents [no chart information], and two more nice photographs of Etta, who was inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame in 1993.

Just 65 years old, Etta is still wowing them in personal appearances. This is a must-have compilation for any true R&B fan.

The place to start (2003-11-22)

This is the bare essentials. For those wishing to sample Etta James Hawkins' classic period at Chess Records without going for the box set anthology, this single-disc is the perfect purchase.

Featuring 20 of the tracks that appear on the double-disc "The Essential Etta James", without anything literally essential left off, this is the one-stop, first-time purchase for those who wish to sample Etta's mixture of soul, R&B, blues and, well, pop.4 1/2 stars. There is no better starting place than this.

Etta rocks!! (2002-11-23)

This Cd is great.Etta can really wail out a tune and put so much emotion into every song.All the songs on this disc are great.I highly recommend it.

Essential to any R&B, pop or rock collection! (2002-09-07)

There's a wonderful story of "All I Could Do Was Cry" from an ancient book on musicians of the 50's and early 60's: paraphrasing Ms. Etta "That old Leonard Chess didn't know nothing about music. He'd see me patting my foot to a tune and holler 'That's it. That's the hit.' Sometimes I'd pat my foot to a piece of junk just to mess with him. He never caught on."

The story I won a bet with was how Leonard used to get into the audio booth at the Chess studio WITH Etta (tight squeeze, no doubt), would pinch, poke, tickle her at places in the song where he thought she ought to "squall." (If you don't know what "squall" is ...) With that background, "All I Could Do" makes much more musical sense. When Etta sings "and now, the wedding is over, rice ... RICE has been tossed over their heads ..." You can bet the farm that Leonard has just goosed Etta. "I'd come out of a session black and blue from all the hitting and pinching he'd done on me."

If you are a fan of Etta, you should also meet Big Maybelle, for my two cents the greatest female singer ever! Give some of her "torch songs" a listen, I've always thought of Etta as a latter-day Big Maybelle.

Girl...You Are HOT!!! (2002-09-04)

Miss James gets me to twitchin'!! I consider her one of the most versatile artists ever, and this collection has all her sounds. She croons a moody smooth ballad, or belts out a blues number, with equal skill and potency. There is not a more romantic song than "At Last", and, every time I hear her "Somethings Got A Hold On Me", I've gotta MOVE!!! "Her Best" is THE best!!

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