JAMES, ETTA

born Jan. 25, 1938, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S. original name Jamesetta Hawkins popular American rhythm-and-blues entertainer who in time became a successful ballad singer. With bandleader Johnny Otis, James as a teenager composed a reply song to Hank Ballard and the Midnighters' suggestive hits Work with Me, Annie and Annie Had a Baby; originally titled Roll with Me, Henry, The Wallflower became a rhythm-and-blues hit for James and then a million-seller in a sanitized cover version (Dance with Me, Henry) by Georgia Gibbs. A veteran of grueling tours on the rhythm-and-blues theatre circuit, James battled drug addiction for much of her career. Her highly dramatic qualities became evident on her 1960s ballads such as All I Could Do Was Cry, I'd Rather Go Blind, and the sensuous At Last. Over the years James's voice changedgrowing rougher and deeper and losing its little-girl qualityand she became one of the first women to sing in the style that became soul. She continued to perform and record in the 1990s.