~~Etta James is widely regarded as one of the finest female blues, R&B and soul singers of the modern era, second only in some eyes to Aretha Franklin - Atlantic's Jerry Wexler called her the greatest of all modern blues singers. After a chequered early life, she was discovered in Los Angeles singing with a vocal group at the age of 16 by Johnny Otis, who signed her to Modern, and she scored an R&B No. 1 in 1955 with her debut recording The Wallflower (Roll With Me Henry), a re-working of Hank Ballard's Work With Me, Annie, following it up with another Top 10 R&B hit Good Rockin' Daddy. After recording briefly for Modern subsidiary Kent, she signed to the Chess label, and began recording material that combined the intensity of R&B with the accessibility of pop and the polish of jazz, switching to the Chess sister label Argo in 1960, and hitting the pop and R&B charts with more than fifteen records between 1960 and '62, including Top 5 successes like All I Could Do Was Cry, My Dearest Darling, At Last, Trust In Me and Something's Got A Hold On Me, before aspects of her life began to unravel in subsequent years. This great-value 52-track 2-CD set comprises all her A & B sides during those first important years of her career, plus a bonus album version of Dance With Me Henry, so it's a comprehensive overview of her early work.
Track List:
Disc: 1 1. The Wallflower (Roll with Me Henry) 2. Hold Me Squeeze Me 3. Hey Henry 4. Be Mine 5. Good Rockin Daddy 6. Crazy Feeling 7. W-O-M-a-N 8. That’s All 9. Number One 10. I’m a Fool 11. Tears of Joy 12. Shortin’ Bread Rock 13. Tough Lover 14. Fools We Mortals Be 15. Good Lookin’ 16. Then I’ll Care 17. Market Place 18. The Pick-Up 19. By the Light of the Silvery Moon 20. Come What May 21. Sunshine of Love 22. Baby, Baby Every Night 23. I Hope You’re Satisfied 24. If It Ain’t One Thing 25. How Big a Fool 26. If I Can’t Have You
Disc: 2 1. My Heart Cries 2. Spoonful 3. It’s a Crying Shame 4. All I Could Do Was Cry 5. Boy of My Dreams 6. My Dearest Darling 7. Tough Mary 8. At Last 9. I Just Want to Make Love to You 10. Trust in Me 11. Anything to Say You’re Mine 12. Fool That I Am 13. Dream 14. Don’t Cry, Baby 15. Sunday Kind of Love 16. It’s Too Soon to Know 17. Seven Day Fool 18. Something’s Got a Hold on Me 19. Waiting for Charlie to Come Home 20. Stop the Wedding 21. Street of Tears 22. Next Door to the Blues 23. Fools Rush In 24. How Do You Speak to an Angel 25. Would It Make Any Difference to You 26. Dance with Me Henry
