Her Best - The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection

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, with Tommy Mercer doing the vocal.

But in my humble opinion 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 Billboard pop charts as the earlier versions [# 47 Hot 100] 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, billed to Etta James and "The Peaches" [hence the later nickname]. That same year Georgia Gibbs would have a # 1 Billboard Pop Top 100 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 Billboard Pop Hot 100 [# 33] charts. And from there right through to 1976 she would seldom be off the charts, racking up another 27 R&B hits and putting 26 more on the Hot 100 and one - Two Sides (To Every Story) - to # 16 on the Adult Contemporary charts. which weren't introduced until 1961. That great song, which is at track 11, also made it to # 63 Hot 100 in late 1963 and, except for the fact that the R&B charts had been suspended from late 1963 and for all of 1964, it would have been a major hit there.

This CD gives you the best of her many hits 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, and to the Blues Hall Of Fame in 2001.

Now just 69 years old, Etta is still wowing them in personal appearances. This is a must-have compilation for any true R&B fan.

I liked this cd there are a few good songs. Everyone knows the classic At Last and there are a couple others that are similar to that sound. If you like a bluesy soulful sound you will like this cd.

now i prefer her earlier stuff, but a lot of that later stuff is pretty enjoyable to listen to. if you wanna get into what etta did, i would recommend this one. however, if it was me, i would go for either her early albums when she was starting out and was hungry (ROLL WITH HENRY). however, if you become an instant fan by her more recent stuff, then check this out and see why people see her as an icon (who should get more credit along with ruth brown and baby washington).

probably the best album from Etta. She is a legend

Etta is in a class of her own and she tells a story with her music
Loved it

Nan