Sirius/XM 60s Gold Top 1000 Countdown Chapter 3: Etta beyond ‘At Last’ b/w Carla Who?

 

I love crossword puzzles, especially the ones published in the New York Times. I have worked through enough of them to realize that puzzle editor Will Shortz is asleep at the wheel when it comes to the clue ‘Jazzy Etta’. The answer is always ‘James’. 

Has he never listened to her music? I always ask myself. 

Etta is one of the best soul singers of the 1960s, with a voice nearly as powerful as Aretha Franklin’s, though without the Queen of Soul’s range. Perhaps, like most of the 60s Gold listeners who participated in the Top 1000 Countdown, he’s only heard her cover version of “At Last”, which to my ears is more soulful than jazzy. And she’s shows off her mastery of the blues with “Something’s Got a Hold on Me”.

AllMusic staff writer Mark Deming provides a concise and informative biography, an excerpt from which is shared here:

Few female R&B stars enjoyed the kind of consistent acclaim Etta received throughout a career that spanned six decades; the celebrated producer Jerry Wexler once called her “the greatest of all modern blues singers,” and she recorded a number of enduring hits, including “At Last”, “Tell Mama”, “I’d Rather Go Blind”, and All I Could Do Was Cry”. At the same time, despite possessing one of the most powerful voices in music, James only belatedly gained the attention of a mainstream audience, appearing rarely on the pop charts despite scoring 30 R&B hits, and she lived a rough-and-tumble life that could have inspired a dozen soap operas, battling drug addiction and bad relationships while outrunning a variety of health and legal problems.

 

Etta’s lack of commercial success is underscored by the fact that of her more than 100 singles released from 1955 to 1970 – probably closer to 150 based on some of the sources I checked – only 30 charted on the Billboard Hot 100. None of them made a dent prior to 1960. And of these 30, only 10 made it into the top 40, none into the top 10. 

Her highest charting single, “Tell Mama” (1967), is her best, in my estimation, and should found its way onto the 60s Gold Top 1000 Countdown. (Ahead of “At Last”.) I’m also partial to “Pushover”, which has a more traditional, i.e., pop-oriented, Top 40 groove. 

And now to make the case for Carla Thomas. 

Born in Memphis, Carla is the daughter of singer/songwriter/disc jockey Rufus Thomas, who is best known for his 1963 single “Walking the Dog”, which spent 14 weeks on the Hot 100, peaking at #10. (Not on the Top 1000.) By that time, Carla had beat her dad to the punch. Her first single, “Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes)”, a lush R&B ballad, also reached #10 in early 1962 and also spent 14 weeks on the chart. She was just 19 at the time. All told, 20 of Carla’s singles charted on the Hot 100 during the 1960s, at least one in each year of the decade. Only 3 reached the top 40, one of them being “B-A-B-Y”, which had a 16-week run starting in the late summer of 1966. It peaked at #14. 

 The third is a 1967 duet with Otis Redding, the funk classic “Tramp”, a raucous and playful back-and-forth that peaked at #26. Otis and Carla recorded an album together, King and Queen – as in the king and queen of Memphis soul – released in early 1967. It had a pretty good run on the Top 200 Albums chart – peaking at #38 during its 31 weeks. 

Since 1970, Carla has spent her life in relative obscurity, so her snubs for “Gee Whiz” and “B-A-B-Y” are understandable, I suppose. I imagined her records still get airplay in Memphis, where she still lives, but not so much elsewhere.

Related posts:

Sirius/XM 60s Gold TOP 1000 Countdown Chapter 2:  "Ain't No Way” snubbed.  (2/8/2023)

Weekend of White-bread Wistfulness: 60sGold Top 1000 Countdown.  (2/6/2023)

Sirius/XM 60s Gold listeners give Barrett Strong's "Money" the short shrift. (2/1/2023)