Etta James - The Complete Modern and Kent Recordings

Time to tackle the other "Fillmore Girl", the great Etta James. Born January 25, 1938 as Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles to a 14 year old mother, Etta was subsequently fostered in often abusive homes for most of her early life; she was moved to The Fillmore with her mother at 12 years old. Like her older cousin Sugar Pie DeSanto, she spent her formative teen years in that cultural hotbed.

In Los Angeles she received some Gospel training from James Earle Hines of St. Paul Baptist Church in South Central. As a precocious young girl in San Francisco, she formed a girl doo wop group called The Creolettes (all the girls were mixed). The group got discovered by Johnny Otis who renamed the group The Peaches, and the then 16 year old lead (not 14 as often cited) became Etta James (a wise choice, Jamesetta Hawkins doesn't exactly roll off the tongue) and signed them to the Bihari's Modern Records.

Otis used the group to record his answer to Hank Ballard's hit 'Work With Me Annie', originally titled 'Roll With Me Henry', it was sanitized to 'Dance With Me Henry' then 'The Wallflower' shortly after release. The young singer apparently had enough input into the final product that she was given a co-writer's credit. The song climbed to #1 on the R&B charts and 'Good Rockin' Daddy' was a solid follow up. White singer Georgia Gibbs, in classic Pat Boone fashion, quickly covered the song and stole the potential crossover hit. Still, Etta was put on Little Richard's tour during the period that he was going nuclear and it was likely there that she first acquired the heroin habit that dogged the rest of her life.

The Biharis were clearly impressed by their singer because they recorded far more sides on her than are normally mentioned in most sources. The release dates actually cross over into the Chess era but they were recorded earlier in L.A. Of the 42 tracks here, 6 or so are dreadful, but the rest are fine West Coast R&B with bands assembled from members of Otis' band or from the Maxwell Davis Orchestra. There are even five songs recorded in New Orleans with Dave Bartholomew and the gang from J & M Studios (Side one, 12, 13, 14 Side two 3, 14). Despite their dogged persistence, the Bihari's never strike gold again with Etta, her next success came in 1960 after signing with Chess and moving to Chicago.

At least one longtime friend claimed that at 16 James was dating label mate B.B. King and that it was for her that King rewrote the lyrics to an earlier song to become the mega-hit 'Sweet Sixteen'. It was also during this time that she first met and sang with Harvey Fuqua, who would later be her steady beau and label mate at Chess.