I'm reading"The history of popular music" written by two Norwegian guys. In the chapter about soul music and they are listing some names of artists who got a carrier at Motown, and among them they are also naming Etta James. Did she ever do anything on Motown? I thought she was mostly a Chess artist.

I'm reading"The history of popular music" written by two Norwegian guys. In the chapter about soul music and they are listing some names of artists who got a carrier at Motown, and among them they are also naming Etta James. Did she ever do anything on Motown? I thought she was mostly a Chess artist.

Maybe she was on Motown in Norway

Seriously, I think that they're a bit confused over the fact that Harvey Fuqua was Etta's boyfiend for quite a while in the 50s, before he married Gwen Gordy of the Motown dynasty. Etta's early Modern and Chess recordings include a bunch of songs that were written by the likes of Berry Gordy Jr., Roquel Billy 'Tyran Carlo' Davis and the aforementioned Gwen, but that was about as far as any Motown connection went.

Etta, who was discovered by Johnny Otis, went from Modern (1954-58) to Argo/Cadet/Chess (1958-73 0r 74), thence to Warner Brothers and other labels, none of which were Motown related.

Her stuff appears to have come out on the following labels :

Argo

Chess

Cadet

Goldies

Kent

Modern

Oldies

Ripete

T-Electric

Trip

Etta's early Modern and Chess recordings include a bunch of songs that were written by the likes of Berry Gordy Jr., Roquel Billy 'Tyran Carlo' Davis and the aforementioned Gwen, but that was about as far as any Motown connection went.

This might be why they included her, thanks a lot guys!