Etta James – Etta James Sings

With regard to the title – I mean, that’s what Etta James does, right? This is actually the only Etta James I have on vinyl, and it isn’t even, apparently, an official release. This seems to be a budget-label compilation of the earliest Etta James singles, released in 1961 when some of these songs were five or six years old. Custom Records also released this with two titles and various covers, so it’s one of those records.

Rather typical for the ’50s, the songs are more rhythm and blues, even early rock ‘n’ roll, than the blues we would later associate with Etta James. As a result, they fall into a style that isn’t all that interesting to me, though they sound great and I have to say I’m pretty surprised by the sound quality of a non-official album on a budget label. In fact, the back cover talks all about their disc-cutting process and not at all about the music within, so maybe Custom was devoted to quality.

In any case, I found this in the bins at Forever Changes in the summer of 2023 and thought it deserved a forever home, but I can’t say this will ever get a lot of spins.