#191 Etta James, 'At Last!' (1961)

Previously #119

The debut album by Etta James was released on Argo Records, the Jazz division of Blues label, Chess Records (we haven’t heard from them in a few hundred albums). It was also produced by its founders, Phil and Leonard Chess. James had a rocky start to life. She never knew her father and her mother 14 years old at the time of James’s birth. The teen mother was absent from her child’s upbringing and so James was forced to live with a foster family. She was abused physically by the choir director at her church, as well as her foster father, who would drunkenly beat her awake in the middle of the night to sing for his poker buddies. She, herself at 14, started making moves to become a professional singer, co-writing and performing the hit single, ‘Roll With Me, Henry’ at 16 years old. At 22 years old she signed with Chess and that brings us to this record.

The Chess brothers felt that James had major crossover pop appeal and so added orchestral arrangements alongside a lot of the tracks on this record. But the orchestra plays second fiddle to James’s incredible voice (that pun was truly not intended, but I’ll take it). Her voice is husky and powerful, full of emotion and sounds like it’s lived 20 lives by the time it made it to this record. The album really takes flight at track 5 with ‘Tough Mary,’ a sassy song that leads into one of the greatest songs of all time, the Willie Dixon classic, ‘I Just Want To Make Love To You.’ She adds such a new dimension to the song, singing obviously from the perspective of a woman. But then we get to track 7 and everything else in the world stops. ‘At Last,’ she croons to the accompaniment of dramatic strings. Originally performed by Glen Miller and his Orchestra, James literally made this song her own as ‘At Last’ became her signature song. It’s been used in countless films, adverts and weddings. The song crossed over to pop radio, fulfilling the Chess Brothers’ prophecy.

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