The year was 1968. The Jackson 5 was the opening act for Etta’s Apollo Theater performance, Aretha Franklin received the cover of TIME magazine and Leonard Chess was looking for the right song to get Etta back on the charts. Created to pit against Aretha’s current success was the classic soul, blues, pop single, Tell Mama. While Etta received much acclaim for this song and it posed her first Top 10 on Billboard since 1964, it was a song Etta NEVER liked and NEVER liked singing. She personally thought the song gave her the association of being “the gal you come to for comfort and easy sex.” Despite Etta’s disdain, the song was greatly admired by artists like Janis Joplin who highly esteemed Etta and later rerecorded the single.
Hope West is a music enthusiast and music photographer who has captured artists like B.B. King, Janet Jackson, Teddy Riley and many others. A life long lover of music, Hope is a graduate of Full Sail University where she studied music engineering. She’s also a proud “Florida Girl” born and raised in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. and currently resides in Atlanta, GA as a “Georgia Peach”. Hope is known for her creativity, sense of humor and quirky perfectionism. Artist(s) that make her freak out as a music fan: Sheila E., Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Quincy Jones.
