[1] She sang in various genres, including gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, rock and roll, and soul, and gained fame with hits such as "The Wallflower" (1957), "At Last" (1960), "Something's Got a Hold on Me" (1962), "Tell Mama", and "I'd Rather Go Blind" (both 1977).

[2] She faced a number of personal problems, including heroin addiction, severe physical abuse, and incarceration, before making a musical comeback in the late 1980s with the album Seven Year Itch (1988).

[6][7] Billboard magazine's 2015 list of the "35 Greatest R&B Artists of All Time" also included James, whose "gutsy, take-no-prisoner vocals colorfully interpreted everything from blues and R&B/soul to rock n’roll, jazz and gospel.

Although her father has never been identified,[10] James speculated that she was the daughter of pool player Rudolf "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone, whom she met briefly in 1987.

[11] Her mother was frequently absent from their apartment in Watts, conducting relationships with various men, and James lived with a series of foster parents, most notably "Sarge" and "Mama" Lu.

[10] James was raised by relatives and friends during her childhood, and she began regularly attending a Baptist church while in the care of her grandparents.

During drunken poker games at home, he would awaken James in the early morning hours and force her with beatings to sing for his friends.

[15] Within a couple of years, she began listening to doo-wop and was inspired to form a girl group, the Creolettes (so named for the members' light-skinned complexions).

Another story was that Otis spotted the Creolettes performing at a Los Angeles nightclub and sought for them to record his "answer song" to Hank Ballard's "Work with Me, Annie".

"[citation needed] In 1954, James recorded and was credited as co-author for "The Wallflower" (a title change to the aforementioned song, "Work with Me, Annie"), which was released in early 1955.

[18] While James was on tour with Richard, pop singer Georgia Gibbs recorded a version of her song and released it under the again-altered title "Dance With Me, Henry."

[19] In early 1955, she and an aspiring singer, the 19-year-old Elvis Presley, then recording for Sun Studios and an avid fan of King's, shared a bill in a large club just outside Memphis.

She also recalled how happy he made her many years later when she found out that it was Presley who had moved her close friend Jackie Wilson from a substandard convalescent home to a more appropriate facility and, as she put it, paid all the expenses.

[24] James started adding gospel elements in her music the following year, releasing "Something's Got a Hold on Me", which peaked at number four on the R&B chart and was a Top 40 pop hit.

[21] In 1963, she had another major hit with "Pushover" and released the live album Etta James Rocks the House, recorded at the New Era Club in Nashville, Tennessee.

In her autobiography, Rage to Survive, she wrote that she heard the song outlined by her friend Ellington "Fugi" Jordan when she visited him in prison.

[26] According to her account, she wrote the rest of the song with Jordan but for tax reasons gave her songwriting credit to her partner at the time, Billy Foster.

Amid her hiatus from recording, James still performed on occasion through the early and mid-1980s, including two guest appearances at Grateful Dead concerts in December 1982.

In 1984, she contacted David Wolper and asked to perform in the opening ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics, at which she sang "When the Saints Go Marching In".

[17] By 1998, with the release of Life, Love & the Blues, James had added as backing musicians her own sons, Donto and Sametto, on drums and bass, respectively.

She carried on touring but by 2010 had to cancel concert dates because of her gradually failing health; by this time she was suffering from dementia and leukemia.

[20] After signing with Chess Records in 1960, James broke through as a traditional pop-styled singer, covering jazz and pop music standards on her debut album, At Last!

she has been hailed as a pioneer who helped bridge the gap between rhythm and blues and rock and roll and thereby contributed significantly to American musical history.

[45] James has influenced a wide variety of musicians, including, notably, Diana Ross, Christina Aguilera, Janis Joplin, Brandy, Bonnie Raitt, Shemekia Copeland, Beth Hart, Hayley Williams of Paramore[46] and Brent Smith of Shinedown[47] as well as British artists The Rolling Stones,[48] Elkie Brooks,[49] Paloma Faith,[50] Joss Stone,[51] Rita Ora, Amy Winehouse, and Adele,[52] and the Belgian singer Dani Klein.

Pretty Lights sampled the song in "Finally Moving", followed by Avicii's dance hit "Levels", and again in Flo Rida's single "Good Feeling".

[53] The single was successful enough that it garnered Christine McVie the Top Female Singer on the Melody Maker's Reader's Poll in 1969.

[12] In her adult years, James and a friend began attending a Nation of Islam temple in Atlanta, where she found comfort in the preaching of Minister Louis X and a sense of "racial pride".

[70] Her funeral was presided over by the Reverend Al Sharpton and took place at Greater Bethany Community Church in Gardena, California, eight days after her death.

Her first was in 1995, when she was awarded Best Jazz Vocal Performance for the album Mystery Lady, which consisted of covers of Billie Holiday songs.

Two of her early songs have been given Grammy Hall of Fame Awards for "qualitative or historical significance": "At Last", in 1999,[80] and "The Wallflower (Dance with Me, Henry)" in 2008.