Come a Little Closer

Etta James | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 19, 1996)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Mca Special Products
• ASIN: B000002OCO
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #41,743 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Out on the Street Again

2. Mama Told Me

3. You Give Me What I Want

4. Come a Little Closer

5. Let's Burn Down the Cornfield

6. Power Play

7. Feeling Uneasy

8. St. Louis Blues

9. Gonna Have Some Fun Tonight

10. Sookie, Sookie

11. Lovin' Arms [*]

12. Out on the Street Again [Single Edit][*]

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Etta's second best recording, March 31, 2000

By 

jack Hist (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Come a Little Closer (Audio CD)

Whenever one is to discover Etta James...they first must complete the sampling of 2 recordings. Come a Little Closer and Deep in the Night. Without, you haven't heard what Miss James is really all about. Come a little closer captures her raw, with a deep delta feel that is enhanced by song writers, producing and as always, background singers.

Particular to this Cd is the title track, come a little closer....deep growls, fierce vocal affectation that is souly Etta and a production which is only slightly polished. It, at it's best lets Etta sing...after all that is what she does best. The orgasmic sound of Feeling Uneasy is the only true song the lets you know that a true lover hesitates at nothing to believe...and to believe in Etta James, one need to listen to no other recording to hear her at her most vulnerable and unigue best!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE FUNK DIVA HAS ARRIVED. ALL OTHERS MUST BOW DOWN., February 12, 2005

By 

NATHAN PRINCE "FUNK FANATIC" (NEW YORK, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Come a Little Closer (Audio CD)

I ORIGINALLY BOUGHT THIS CD BASED UPON HEARING ONE SONG: "OUT ON THE STREET AGAIN". THIS SONG IS A MASTERPIECE; MUCH LIKE THE SONG "MASTERPIECE" BY THE TEMPTATIONS, ONLY THIS SONG GOES MUCH MUCH DEEPER. THE FUNK IS UNMATCHED, AND COULD BE LISTENED TO A THOUSAND TIMES IN A ROW, AND YOU'D NEVER BE BORED. NEXT, THERE IS "FEELING UNEASY". THIS IS A BLUESY NUMBER THAT SNEAKS UP ON YOU, GRABS YOU BY THE GUT, AND DOES NOT LET YOU GO. THIS IS SONG WHICH HAS ETTA JAMES MOSTLY MOANING, BUT IT'S A GOOD MOAN. IT IS A BLUES CLASSIC THAT EVERY HUMAN BEING SHOULD LISTEN TO WHEN THEY'RE FEELING A LITTLE BIT DOWN AND OUT. IT WILL PICK YOU RIGHT BACK ON UP, AND MAKE YOU REALIZE THAT YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE--ETTA JAMES IS RIGHT THERE WITH YOU. THERE ARE 12 SONGS IN ALL IN THIS CD, AND 11 OF THEM ARE COMPLETE WINNERS. IN ADDITION TO DOWN IN THE VALLY GUTBUCKET BLUES, FANTASTIC RHYTHM AND BLUES, AND FUNK OVERLOADS, THERE IS ALSO A GREAT NEW ORLEANS STYLE JAM ("GONNA HAVE SOME FUN TONIGHT") ON IT, TOO. I REALLY CAN'T SAY ENOUGH GOOD THINGS ABOUT THIS CD, EXCEPT I PASSIONATELY LOVE IT, AND I'M SURE YOU WILL LOVE IT TOO. ETTA JAMES ALWAYS ROCKS THE HOUSE!!!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Etta James, August 16, 2011

By 

taperpowell - See all my reviews

This review is from: Come a Little Closer (Audio CD)

It was in college in the late 1980's that I first came across 1974's "Come A Little Closer" by Etta James. Working at the jazz-format campus radio station, we'd just been handed a new Etta James album called "Seven Year Itch" (new at that time, 1988) and had featured a few cuts on the air. I was already a fan of hers from the two records issued a year or two before that with Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, a pair of live albums recorded at Marla's Memory Lane supper club called "Blues In The Night" and "The Late Show". All this led me to check out what else we might have on Etta in the record library from earlier years (and yes, Virginia, in those days it really was full of old-school LP's...an honest-to-goodness RECORD library) where there was a copy of "Come A Little Closer" on the original Chess vinyl pressing. I'm sure this was long before any of the CD reissues now available. Unlike other online reviewers I've been reading about here on Amazon and elsewhere, I was drawn first to the St. Louis Blues/Gonna Have Some Fun Tonight medley. The opening to St. Louis Blues is Etta's naked a cappella voice, without even a pitch pipe. There's a little bit of echo, but except for that, it's so quiet between lines you can hear the print-through from the master tape. That is the most piercing performance on the album. I used it on some of my shows; it was bluesy, but it was jazzy enough. Next, it was probably the title cut that grabbed me. Eventually, I came to put the record on and just let it play. Let's Burn Down The Cornfield is another highlight I especially enjoy. Every cut is very believable; she sounds like she feels and believes everything she's singing. If you heard nothing but this album and "Seven Year Itch", you'd have a good idea of what Etta James is all about. There's more; don't stop there...but it's a great place to start.