Etta James

Etta James could sing anything, and she sang it with grit. Her voice moved from a raw, bluesy growl to a lush, soaring ballad style, and she worked across R&B, blues, soul, jazz and rock and roll without ever sounding like anyone else.

She cut 'Roll With Me Henry' as a teenager, then signed to Chess, where At Last! set her voice against sweeping strings. The title track became her signature, while 'Tell Mama' and 'I'd Rather Go Blind', recorded at Muscle Shoals, showed her gutsier side. Through decades of ups and downs she kept coming back, winning Grammys late in her career and recording until shortly before her death in 2012.