James was born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles, California, on 25th January 1938, to an unmarried fourteen-year-old mother, Dorothy Hawkins. According to Etta, her mother claimed that her father was the white Rudolph "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone, and that they received financial support from him on the condition that they keep his paternity a secret. This seems unlikely, though it has not been definitively disproved. Etta was born in Los Angeles in 1938. At the time, Wanderone was known to be managing a pool hall in Washington, D.C. and had not yet become known to be the cross-country traveller he later became.
She received her first professional vocal training at five years old from James Earle Hines, musical director of the Echoes of Eden choir at St Paul Baptist Church in Los Angeles. Her family moved to San Francisco in 1950, and she teamed up with two other girls to form a doo-wop singing group. When the girls were fourteen, band leader Johnny Otis had them audition. They sang an answer to Hank Ballard's "Work with Me, Annie" called "Roll Wwth Me Henry". Otis particularly liked the song, and against her mother's wishes, James and the trio went to Los Angeles to record the song in 1954. The song was recorded on the label Modern Records. By this time, the trio renamed the song "The Wallflower (Dance with Me, Henry)" and released it in 1955. James named her vocal group The Peaches. Richard Berry, a Los Angeles doo-wop luminary, is featured on some of their records.
"The Wallflower" reached number two on the rhythm and blues charts in February 1955, but was undercut in the wider market by a rushed-out cover version by Georgia Gibbs on Mercury Records; in fact, the very first time Gibbs was recorded in studio, they used the first take recorded and it became number one on the top 100 songs nationally. The song's royalties were divided between Hank Ballard, Etta James, and Johnny Otis, and its huge success attracted the attention of the R&B world, resulting in James going on tour with Little Richard. On the tour, though, according to James, she witnessed and experienced situations to which minors are not usually privy, and she allegedly acquired a drug habit.
Soon after the success of "Wallflower", The Peaches and James parted company, but this did not halt her career. Shecontinued to record and release albums throughout much of the decade, and enjoyed more success. Her follow-up, "Good Rockin' Daddy", became another fifties hit. Other songs however, such as "Tough Lover" and "W-O-M-A-N" failed to gain any significant success. James toured with Johnny "Guitar" Watson and Otis Redding in the fifties, and has cited Watson as the most significant influence on her style..
In 1960, James signed a recording contract with Chess Records. She went on to have the biggest success of her career from this label, recording her biggest and most memorable hits. Chess went into high gear with James, releasing many duets with her then boyfriend, the married Harvey Fuqua, who was the lead singer of the Moonglows. One of her duets with Fuqua, "If I Can't Have You", became a hit on the R&B charts in 1960. As a solo artist however, she had more enduring success. One of her first singles released by Chess in 1960 was called "All I Could Do Was Cry"; this blues number became a big hit on the R&B charts in 1960. Leonard Chess, one of the founders of Chess Records, helped James along the way. He saw the potential for her to go in a more pop-oriented direction, and she started recording more pop tunes for the label.
The year 1961 became a year of great change for James. In 1961 came the release of one of her first pop-oriented tunes called "At Last". The song became a big hit in 1961, reaching number two on the R&B charts. The song even went as far as twenty-two on the pop charts that year. It became her signature song. Other songs, such as "Trust in Me", also became hits, and the 1962 tune "Something's Got a Hold On Me" showed more of James' gospel side, a genre she had sung since childhood.
She had other big hits in the 1960s, but mainly on the R&B charts: the song "Pushover" in 1963 and "Stop the Wedding", "Fool That I Am", and "Don't Cry Baby", were hits for her between 1961 and 1963. Her 1963 album Etta James Rocks the House, recorded at Nashville's "New Era" club, also gave her career a boost. James then became one of the most successful R&B artists of the 1960s, having many more top ten and top twenty hit singles. Performing in Memphis, Tennessee helped make her into a blues icon.
In 1967, James released her next hit single, "Tell Mama", and it became a top ten hit on the R&B charts. After a dry period of no hits for almost four years, the song once more made James a household name. The follow-up, "Security", was also a success, and proved that James had staying power on the charts again. Whilst less success came for James after this hit, she was still on the charts regularly and, despite the death of Leonard Chess, stayed with the Chess label into 1975. Towards the end of the Chess years though, she went into more rock-based songs. She recorded for many other labels, and continued to release albums, such as 1978's Deep In the Night on Atlantic Records.
Despite a dry period during the early to mid 1980s, James got back on track and began to record music again. She received accolades for her 1981 rendition of Randy Newman's "God's Song". Her 1988 album Seven Year Itch proved this comeback capability; the album showed more of her soul side. In 1989, she recorded the song "Avenue D" with David A. Stewart of Eurythmics. The song was featured on the soundtrack to the Robert Wise film Rooftops. She also performed with the Grateful Dead for two shows in 1982. In the 1990s she continued to record and perform. Her albums widely varied in styles and genres. Her 1992 album, The Right Time, was another soul album that was released by Elektra Records. She also began to record more jazz, which became the style for many of her 1990s albums.
Drug-related and romantic problems interfered with her career, but James managed to maintain a career throughout the latter half of the twentieth century. Later in life, she struggled with obesity, experiencing mobility and knee problems. In 2003, she underwent gastric bypass surgery.
In 2011, a vocal sample from Etta's "Something's Got a Hold on Me" was used in "Levels" by Avicii. "Levels" became a monster EDM hit, making Etta's "sometimes I get a good feeling" one of the most recognizable samples in 21st century music.
She died on 20th January 2012.
You Shook Me
Etta James Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You shook me all night long
You know you shook me, baby
You shook me all night long
You shook me so hard baby
Baby, baby, please come home
I have a bird that whistles
I have a bird that whistles
And I have birds that sing
I have a baby, won't do nothing oh!
Oh, oh, buy a diamond ring
You know you shook me, baby
You shook me all night long
I know you really, really, did baby
I said you shook me, baby
You shook me all night long
You shook me so hard, baby
You shook me all night long
In Etta James's song You Shook Me, we see a classic case of a woman who has been shaken and stirred by her lover all night long. She sings about how her partner has had a profound effect on her, describing how she has been shaken to the core. She uses the metaphor of birds to describe the various ways she experiences joy in her life. The line "I have a bird that whistles, and I have birds that sing," reflects on how having different kinds of pleasures in life makes her happy. The line "I have a baby, won't do nothing oh!" is perhaps one of the most poignant lines in the song. It's a comment on how her lover has taken control of her life, and she feels powerless to do anything about it.
Throughout the song, the repetition of the line "You know you shook me" serves to emphasize the impact that her lover has had on her. The use of repetition is a common feature of blues music and is used to convey the intensity of a particular emotion or feeling. The final line of the song, "Baby, baby, please come home," is a plea to her lover to return to her. In this way, the song highlights the deep emotional attachment that exists between the two lovers.
Overall, Etta James's You Shook Me is a powerful song that beautifully captures the blues genre's essence. Through its use of metaphor, repetition, and a soulful performance, it conveys the lover's impact on the song's protagonist. The lyrics speak to the universal experience of being deeply attached to someone and the intense emotions that come with it.
Line by Line Meaning
You know you shook me
You are aware that your actions have greatly affected me
You shook me all night long
Your impact on me lasted an extended period of time, without stopping
You shook me, baby
Your effect on me was so strong that I can only refer to you as 'baby'
You shook me so hard baby
Your impact on me was so intense that it felt like I was being physically shaken
Baby, baby, please come home
I need you to return home to me, as your presence is comforting and necessary
I have a bird that whistles
I have things in my life that bring me joy and happiness, but are not as significant as you
And I have birds that sing
I am surrounded by pleasant things, but they do not compare to the effect you have on me
I have a baby, won't do nothing oh!
I have something precious to me, but it cannot bring me the same satisfaction as having you
Oh, oh, buy a diamond ring
I am willing to go to great lengths to try and please you, including purchasing expensive gifts
I know you really, really, did baby
I am deeply aware of the extent to which you changed my life, and it was considerable
You shook me so hard, baby
Your impact on me was so staggering that I can only describe it as if I had been physically shaken
You shook me all night long
Your effect on me lasted the entirety of the night, and I was unable to escape it
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: Willie Dixon, J. B. Lenoir
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Erik brodland
on I Just Want to Make Love to You
Love this song so much, it makes me think of my son's Beautiful mommy jasmin and her amazing.voice.