Her Best - The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection

Her Best

“There’s plenty of bigger, badder collections of Etta James’ genre-bending blues growl out there, but if all you want is the cream of the crop from Miss Peaches then this collection is what you’re looking for. Her Best gathers up the essential moments from her Chess Records period, her most fertile, dynamic, and impactful era, into twenty songs of grit, bluesy turmoil, and triumph.   It all begins and ends with that voice. A thing that tremendous elasticity and power, at once capable of tenderly caressing as in the opening swoon of “At Last” as it is of storming in biblical might as in the climax of “Two Sides to Every Story.” James was never one for merely showing off her vocal dynamics just for the hell of it, no, she wanted to communicate the emotional truth of whatever ” read more

500 CDs You Must Own Before You Die! (500 music items)

"Rapturous, thanks to a voice that is a brick house one moment but kittenish the next. Her touch of innocence is essential – otherwise you’d never believe a singer this shattering could ever be vulnerable. Standout track: “At Last”"