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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 - Atlantics 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 Ballards 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 53-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 its a comprehensive overview of her early work.
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