Something for fun...

Dear students,

I'm a little busy today. You know we have a few new students whom I have to test as soon as possible. It means today you have to study using a computer. 

Of course, you remember that I've given you a lot of handouts with written assignments, so you can do some of them - practice your pronunciation and listening, or work on grammar exercises. 

Those who are very fast and have finished latest assignments can do this one. This is just for fun and, of course, for learning more English.

Irena

You are going to hear a couple of songs by Etta James. Here is lyrics of her songs, and you can print them out for yourselves. You can watch the videos, learn the pronunciation and memorize the words of her songs, but first, I would like tell you a little about this singer.

She is an American blues, soul, rhythm and blues (R&B), rock and roll and jazz singer. She was very popular in the 1950s and 1960s and had her biggest success as a blues and R&B singer. She was born Jamesetta Hawkins on January 25, 1938 in Los Angeles. Later she changed her name to Etta James. 

She started singing as a little girl. At age 5 she sang at at the St. Paul Baptist Church and on the radio. Her family moved to San Francisco in 1950, and Etta soon teamed up with two other girls to form a singing group. When the girls were 14 years old, band leader Johnny Otis had them audition. They sang "Work With Me, Annie". James named her vocal group "The Peaches". 

Their song "The Wallflower" was a #1 hit on the R&B charts of 1955.

She had her first major solo hit, "All I Could Do Was Cry". The song quickly went up the R&B Chart as #2 in 1960.

Here are the words of this song. If you love singing, you can sing with her.

 

Artist : Etta James
Song : At Last
Written: Billy Davis, Berry Gordy and Gwen Gordy

I heard church bells ring
I heard a choir singing
I saw my love walk down the aisle
on her finger he placed a ring

Ohhhh oh

I saw them holding hands
She was standing there with my man
I heard them promise
Til death do us part
Each word
Was a pain
In my heart

All I could do was cry
All I could do was cry
I was losing the man that I love
and all I could do was cry

And now the wedding is over
Rice, rice has been thrown over their heads
For them life has just begun
but mine is ending

Etta James had once been considered one of the most overlooked Blues and R&B musicians in American music history. It wasn't until the early 1990s when James began receiving major industry awards from the Grammy and the Blues Foundation that she began to receive wide recognition. 

James has influenced a wide variety of American musicians including Janis Joplin, Diana Ross, Shemekia Copeland, Alex Mills, Rod Stewart, Christina Aguilera and even Hayley Williams of Paramore as well as British artists The Rolling Stones and Adele.

James married Artis Mills. She has two sons, Donto and Sametto James, and several grandchildren.

Artist : Etta James
Song : At Last
Album : Her Best
Written: Mack Gordon and Harry Warren


At Last

At last
My love has come along,
My lonely days are over,
And life is like a song

Oh, yeah, yeah...
At last

The skies above are blue,
My heart was wrapped up in clover
The night I looked at you.

I found a dream, that I could speak to
A dream that I can call my own.
I found a thrill to press my cheek to
A thrill that I have never known.

Oh, yeah, yeah...
You smiled, you smiled

Oh and then the spell was cast
And here we are in heaven
for you are mine....

At Last

Unfortunately, James had problems during the early '70s due to her heroin addiction. She was continuously in and out of rehabilitation centers, including the Tarzana Rehabilitation Center, in Los Angeles, California. Her husband Artis Mills, whom she married in 1969, took the fall when they were both arrested for heroin possession and served a 10 year prison sentence. He was released from prison in 1982 and the couple is still married today. James was also arrested around the same time for her drug addiction, accused of passing bad checks, forgery and drug possession of heroin. In 1974, James was sentenced to drug treatment instead of serving time in prison. James was in the Tarzana Psychiatric Hospital for 17 months, at age 35, and went through much struggle in the beginning of treatment. James later stated in her autobiography that the time she spent in the hospital changed her life.

 

On April 7, 2009, Etta James appeared on Dancing with the Stars as a guest performer, singing her classic hit from 1961 "At Last" at age 71. In Memphis, Tennessee on May 7, 2009, the Blues Foundation awarded Etta James the 2009 Soul/Blues Female Artist of the Year - making Etta a nine–time winner of this prestigious award. 

Etta James died Jan. 20 at age 73 after battling leukemia. She is a legend of American music.