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Amazon.com essential recording: This is Etta James's first full-length album, recorded for Chess Records' Argo subsidiary in 1960. It taps all aspects of her then-blossoming talent. There's the crooning rock ballad "My Dearest Darling" and the elegantly symphonic "Sunday Kind of Love." Her classic, brokenhearted "All I Could Do Was Cry" follows the sweet title track and the bawdy blues stomper "I Just Want to Make Love to You." And there's a version of Harold Arlen's "Stormy Weather," which Lena Horne made famous. James's fine way with such a wide embrace of material wouldn't again be this well displayed on a single album until she was united with producer Jerry Wexler for 1977's Deep in the Night. --Ted Drozdowski Amazon.com: The R&B queen's classic collection is augmented this time around by a long-overdue digital remastering, plus a few bonus tracks, presumably for those who found the original album a little on the brief side. In addition to James's well-known hits, including "I Just Want to Make Love to You" and "Stormy Weather," there are four additional songs: "My Heart Cries," "Spoonful," "It's a Crying Shame," and "If I Can't Have You." Although one might cynically suggest that these were added to give Etta fans something to purchase besides The Essential Etta James, it's definitely true that these tracks are worth hearing. --Genevieve Williams Customer Reviews: Rating: 
Date: 2008-01-30
Gotta Get Etta, at last!
So glad I got this album! It's all here! Won't point out my fav cuts; if you're a blues/Etta lover you'll figure yours out - they're all there. If you're not(yet), this will be your epiphany - this stylist and the selections are astounding. [Note "Sunday Kind Of Love" and "Stormy Weather".]
Rating:
Date: 2008-01-26
Etta James at last!
The music quality had been fixed up,(do'nt know the word) to sound really great! I listened to the music when I was a teen, forty-five years ago. It sounded better now, even though I truly thought it was the best & loved the songs then! Rating:
Date: 2007-12-30
Etta James, National Treasure
This is one of the most pleasurable CDs on the market. This collection of Etta's songs showcases her considerable talent as a blues singer. Though the instrumentation is dated on some of the songs (the strings soar a little too high), her voice saves the day, alternately powerful and vulnerable.
Her version of "I Just Want to Make Love to You" rocks harder than the Rolling Stones version, and that is no small feat. 'At Last' is a great song, and her vocal interpretation is the best out of many artists who attempted it. 'Sunday Kind of Love' is another masterpiece, as is her rendition of 'Stormy Weather'. Not a bad song on the record.
Etta James is a national treasure. Thanks for the beautiful, heart-felt music.
As an aside, does anyone else see a resemblance between Etta's singing and Janis Joplin? Rating: 
Date: 2007-11-29
Etta James
I have 2 other Etta James cds and I love them. This cd left me cold...very 'pop' very little blues. I didn't like it at all...very
disappointed! Rating:
Date: 2007-10-05
AMAZING music
To hear the purity of Etta James is to be as close to perfection as is possible on this planet. "At Last" alone is worth the price of this phenomenal collection of soulful exuberant song collection. I cannot praise too highly when I tell you that this music has uplifted my very being, just from the deep feeling this woman has given to each note - each syllable. Whether she is rocking with Harvey Fuqua (of the Moonglows) on the song "It's A Crying Shame" or doing her own very special take on the classic "Stormy Weather" in a reach-right-into-your-gut variation, the ride you take is a thrilling one in so many ways.
I fell in love with this song all over again when I heard a singer at a favorite resort do this number and strangely enough when a ventriloquist through a puppet sang this title song that I just had to own this CD and I'm so glad I did. Etta James has joined Aretha Franklin for me as the royalty of soulful music. And that's saying something since I fell hard for Aretha while still in my teens so many years ago.
"Sunday Kind Of Love" is another cut that deserves high praise. The phrasing alone is superb, and if these songs don't touch you, I would seriously consider a soul transplant.
If you love music that moves you and makes you glad you're alive, this CD is a MUST. | 
