45 RPMs 99: Etta James ~ At Last

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Today is the birthday of one of my very favorite female vocalists, American singer and songwriter, Etta James.     

 

James sang in various genres: gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, rock and roll and soul and gained fame with hits such as The Wallflower (1955), At Last (1960), Something's Got a Hold on Me (1962), Tell Mama and I'd Rather Go Blind (both 1967). For me,  At Last is at the top of my list! There's never been a song to match her intensity at the realization of having found a love to last a lifetime. It was Tom's and my song of love.     

 

At Last was written by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren for the musical film Sun Valley Serenade in 1941. Glenn Miller and his orchestra recorded the tune several times, with a 1942 version reaching number two on the US Billboard pop music chart. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.             

 

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  

 

       

Tracklist:

Side 1:

A - At Last, written by Warren*, Gordon* - 3:00

Side 2:

B - I Just Want To Make Love To You, written by W. Dixon* - 3:03

Companies, etc.

    Manufactured By – Chess Producing Corp.
    Published By – Leo Feist, Inc.
    Published By – Arc Music (2)

 

Notes:

From LP-4003
Side A: U-10498 Leo Feist ASCAP
Side B: U-10165 Arc Music BMI

Barcode and Other Identifiers        

 

    Matrix / Runout (Side A): 10498
    Matrix / Runout (Side B): 10165
    Rights Society: ASCAP
    Rights Society: BMI         

Etta James – At Last / I Just Want To Make Love To You
Label: Argo (6) – 5380
Format: Vinyl, 7", Single, 45 RPM
Country: US
Released: 1961
Genre: Funk / Soul
Style: Soul        

        

        

        

Viewfinder links:       

      

Mack Gordon         

Etta James          

Glenn Miller    

Styrous®      

Tom White         
Styrous®         

Harry Warren          
     
Net links:       

         

Good Stuff ~ How Etta James Became a Blonde          

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ~ Etta James         

        
     
YouTube links:      
        
Etta James ~.    

         At Last        

         I Just Want To Make Love To You  

        

      
        
       

Etta James 
photo by Sherry Rayn Barnett/Getty Images 

 

  

        

        

Styrous® ~ Monday, September 7, 2020

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Mack Gordon articles/mentions

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mentions:     

Etta James ~ At Last       

     

     

     

     

     

     

Mack Gordon 

date & photographer unknown 

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

 

 

 

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Music People

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Larry Blake's on Telegraph

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From 2003 to 2004 I shot a series of performances by the music duo, earRotator (link below). One of them was at the restaurant, bar and nightclub, Larry Blake's on Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley, California. 

Larry Blake's

photo by Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

Larry Blake's on Telegraph was more than a restaurant, bar and nightclub - it was an East Bay entertainment mecca. The club was initially called Larry Blake's and was founded in 1940 by Larry Blake who ran it for almost 20 years.

The restaurant's initial selling point was that it was the first establishment within a mile of campus to gain an alcohol license. Before this breakthrough, thirsty Cal students had to travel to Oakland, Albany or San Pablo Avenue to imbibe.

Larry Blake's second claim to fame was the salad dressing, a closely guarded recipe Blake reportedly devised while working as a cook in the military during World War II.

But mostly, Larry Blake's was prized as a comfortable place to share a beer with friends, listen to music and enjoy a Blake's Burger.

Larry Blake's

photo by Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

Having earned a reputation for providing good food in a comfortable, friendly atmosphere, Larry sold the business to a group of employees who envisioned expanding the occasional music venue into a full-fledged nightclub.        

Blakes initially booked talented local jazz acts such as Ed Kelly, Pete and Sheila Escovedo and Kitty Margolis alongside national acts like the great Cal Tjader, Mose Allison, and Joaquin Lievano. Eventually blues was incorporated into the mix, and within a short period of time, Blakes became the premiere blues club in the entire Bay Area.       

The list of blues luminaries who enjoyed a run at Blakes includes some of the most talented artists in blues history: John Lee Hooker, Etta James, Lowell Fulson, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Otis Rush, Johnny Heartsman, Brownie McGee, Irma Thomas, and Johnny Adams.       

World-famous blues guitarist Robert Cray, was recognized by booking agent, Tim Kaihatsu, as a tremendous talent, and was fostered throughout the years by Blakes. When the great Charles Brown decided to step back into the music world, his first comeback performance was at Blakes. Charlie Musselwhite, Lady Bianca, Tracy Nelson, Joe Louis Walker, Roy Rogers, Buckwheat Zydeco, Little Charlie and the Nightcats, Norton Buffalo, Rory Block, John Hammond, Boz Skaggs, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Amos Garrett, Maria Muldaur, Roomful of Blues, Elvin Bishop, and Greg Allman all graced the Blake's stage and entertained its customers. For nearly four decades, Blake's was THE blues hotspot in the East Bay.      

In 1993, Blake's recognized the need to become more contemporary and gave the club a facelift, officially changed the name to "Blakes on Telegraph," and started booking modern rock, punk, ska, jazz, funk and hip-hop. Since that time, Blakes has had the good fortune to discover Cake, Third Eye Blind, Box Set, Train and Stroke 9 before much of the rest of the world.

earRotator - 2003 

Larry Blake's, Berkeley, California 

photo by Styrous®

After 71 years, Larry Blake's, the funky Telegraph Avenue watering hole closed on Friday, February 4, 2011.       

 

Larry Blake's

photo by Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

 

 
Larry Blake's   
2367 Telegraph Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704
      

Viewfinder links:         

       

Gregg Allman     
earRotator       
Cal Tjader           
       
Net links:         

       

The Mercury News ~ Larry Blake’s restaurant a Berkeley tradition
                                ~ An era ends as Blake’s closes       
Berkeley Daily Planet ~ Larry Blake's on Telegraph in Berkeley Closes  
Berkeleyside ~ Blakes on Telegraph closes after 71 years       
SF Business Times ~ Berkeley institution Larry Blake’s shuts down 
SF Gate ~ Larry Blake's closes      
allmenus ~ Blake’s menu
sfbayshop ~ Blake's       

 
  

Styrous® ~ Saturday, December 8, 2018

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Music Notes Articles

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Etta James articles/mentions

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At Last    

 

  Etta James

New York City – ca 1965

photo by Manuel S. Fonseca

 

      

mentions:   

 Rick Hall, FAME & Muscle Shoals       

Jimi Hendrix Experience ~ Smash Hits        

Larry Blake's on Telegraph           

Julie London ~ Cry Me a River        

  

      

        

   

  
 
   

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Music Notes Articles
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Rick Hall, FAME & Muscle Shoals

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"I wanted so badly for all of us in Muscle Shoals to wake up one day and be much better than we ever thought we could possibly be.”   

~ Rick Hall

Rick Hall  - 2015

photo by Shane Rice

       

Rick Hall died a few days ago, January 2, 2018. He was born, Roe Erister "Rick" Hall on January 31, 1932. He was an American record producer, songwriter, music publisher, and musician best known as the owner and proprietor of FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. As the "Father of Muscle Shoals Music", he was influential in recording and promoting both country and soul music, and in helping develop the careers of such musicians as Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Duane Allman, Etta James, Candi Staton, Bobbie Gentry and The Osmonds among many others.             

  Rick Hall, FAME Studios - 1962 

photo by Hollis Bennett

Fame Recording Studios opened in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, in 1961 as a spin-off of a publishing company that worked with future studio legends Dan Penn, Billy Sherrill and Hall.   

The FAME Studios became one of the the most popular places for soul, R&B, and pop musicians to cut records in the '60s and '70s. While the studio was well run and equipped with the latest recording gear, the reason FAME was popular had less to do with the facilities and more to do with the in-house band, The Fame Gang.     

The Gang were the secret heroes of dozens of hit records, creating a sound that earned fans even if listeners rarely knew the names of the people who provided the backing for those hits. The first Fame house band featured David Briggs and Spooner Oldham on keyboards, Norbert Putnam on bass, Earl "Peanut" Montgomery and Terry Thompson on guitars, and Jerry Carrigan on drums.          

 

The Fame Gang 

Picture: Courtesy Fame Records

While the group's primary responsibility was backing the clients of FAME Studios, unlike the studio's other rhythm sections, the third band released records on its own, under the name the Fame Gang; Hall had launched a Fame Records label, and the Fame Gang became one of the label's artists.        

Gene 'Bowlegs' Miller, Billy Foster, Etta James, Rick Hall  

FAME Studios - 1967

photo: Michael Ochs Archives / Getty

FAME Studios is where Otis Redding recorded You Left the Water Running. The song was later released as a bootleg single, and did not appear legitimately until 1987 on the compilation album The Otis Redding Story.            

L to R: Junior Lowe, Jimmy Johnson, 

Otis Redding and Rick Hall - 1966 

Picture: Courtesy Fame Records

       
      

When the members of the second Fame house band struck out on their own to form The Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, Hall organized a new combo, the largest to date. The third Fame studio crew featured Junior Lowe on guitar, Jesse Boyce on bass, Clayton Ivey on keyboards and guitar, Freeman Brown on drums, Harrison Calloway on trumpet, Aaron Varnell on tenor and alto sax, Ronnie Eades on baritone sax, and Harvey Thompson on tenor sax and flute, with Mickey Buckins handling arrangements and production.       

  

Wilson Pickett, FAME Studios - 1966 

Picture: Courtesy Fame Records

The Muscle Shoals Sound Studio located at 3614 Jackson Highway, which the Swampers set up after their falling out with Rick Hall.      

Muscle Shoals Sound Studio 

photo by Hollis Bennett

Little Richard, Robert “Bumps” Blackwell & Rick Hall

FAME Studios - 1970

Hall was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1985 and also received the John Herbert Orr Pioneer Award. In 2014, he won the Grammy Trustees Award in recognition of his lengthy career.
In early 2018, Rolling Stone published a retrospective of Hall's career and included this evaluation.

"Hall's Grammy-winning production touched nearly every genre of popular music from country to R&B, and his Fame Studio and publishing company were a breeding ground for future legends in the worlds of songwriting and session work, as well as a recording home to some of the greatest musicians and recording artists of all time."     

Rick Hall died Tuesday, January 2, 2018, after a bout with cancer. He was 85 years old.   

Viewfinder links:      

      

Duane Allman      

Aretha Franklin      
Etta James       
Little Richard       
Otis Redding    

        

Net links:      

      
No Depression ~ "The Man from Muscle Shoals" interview
Rockingodshouse ~ The Man Who Produced Aretha Franklin interview     
Smashing Interviews ~ Genius Behind the Muscle Shoals Sound    

NY Times obit
New Yorker obit       
Rolling Stone obit      
Billboard obit       

Washington Post obit     
LA Times obit

NPR obit       

             

        

        

Rick Hall, FAME Studios, Muscle Shoals, Alabama - 1968

photo - House Of Fame LLC/Michael Ochs Archives / Getty

Styrous® ~ Sunday, January 7, 2018   

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In Memoriam 

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