The daring and assured vocal model of Etta James wouldn’t result in her being described as a wallflower — however she first got here to fame with a document named after one. “The Wallflower,” a lot better often known as “Dance With Me Henry,” entered Billboard’s R&B chart a couple of weeks after Etta’s seventeenth birthday. A long time later, it discovered an inconceivable new viewers on the soundtrack of Again To The Future.
James had a writing credit score on the music together with Johnny Otis and Hank Ballard, the latter star listed as a result of he wrote the hit that impressed it. The bawdy “Work With Me, Annie” was an enormous R&B hit for Ballard and his group the Midnighters, topping the charts for seven weeks within the spring. It led to a number of follow-ups and reply data, together with one in all their very own, “Annie Had A Baby.”
Etta’s recording of the music that turned often known as “Dance With Me Henry” featured the unbilled male “responses” of R&B singer-writer Richard Berry. Recorded for the Trendy label, it was credited to Etta James and the Peaches, and made its chart debut on February 19, 1955.
The music appeared, in Billboard’s Rhythm & Blues part, on each the Finest Sellers In Shops chart and Most Performed By Jockeys; in June, the latter itemizing would change to Most Performed R&B By Jockeys. Her single went on to spend 4 non-consecutive weeks at No.1 in April and Could.
Take heed to uDiscover Music’s Etta James Finest Of playlist.
Sadly for Etta, there was the inevitable pop cowl of “The Wallflower” to cease her crossing over, so to talk. Georgia Gibbs, the singer from Worcester, Massachusetts who was already on the pop chart with a model of “Tweedle Dee,” stole in with “Dance With Me Henry (Wallflower),” as her Mercury single was referred to as, and topped the pop chart for 3 weeks. However, the voice of the teenage Etta James was now being heard on the nationwide stage.
Purchase or stream “The Wallflower” on the soundtrack of Again To The Future.
