Etta James

The late Etta James' 1961 Chess debut, At Last!, marked the beginning of a 15-year relationship that would spawn more than two dozen hits. The title track was a dreamy cover of a Mack Gordon/Harry Warren waltz-tempo standard. Etta's duet with Motown producer/ex-Moonglow Harvey Fuqua on "If I Can't Have You" was a more sexually charged tale of yearning grinding up against a strip-club's honkin' sax backing. And while her cover of "Stormy Weather" maybe wasn't as world-weary as Billie Holiday's, hey, Etta was only 23.

The Eagles' Glenn Frey, Don Henley, and Randy Meisner obviously had no idea they'd written a gut-twisting blues tale when they recorded "Take It To the Limit," but Etta X-rayed right to the heart of the song with a performance that simply needs to be heard to be believed. Meanwhile, Etta's hormones were in full bloom as she strutted around Randy Newman's "You Can Leave Your Hat On," and she was still smoldering as she suggested "Let's Burn Down the Cornfield."

Sure, Etta had her risqué stage persona, but she also had a sacred side that was both potent and credible: Nobody's was persuasive when testifying as the sinner who has seen the light. Her cover of Dylan's "Gotta Serve Somebody" cut out the original's looming menace while injecting a caustic authenticity. Moving from the club to the church, Etta dueted with Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson on the Sunday School fave "He's Got the Whole World In His Hands," saving her tent-immolating version of "Oh Happy Day" for the revival meeting later that evening.

A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Blues Hall of Fame, and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame (!), Etta James even staked her claim as Queen of Soul three years before Aretha Franklin, and she had the musical goods to make that claim stick. Equally at home in the musk-scented back room of R&B, the front parlor of urbane jazz standards, or testifying to the sinners from the choir loft, James' full-throated alto commanded attention…and rewarded it many times over. For more than half-a-century, no matter where her artistic compass has pointed her, Etta remained one of the most inventive and soul-scorching performers in all of modern music.