Rock and soul singer Etta James, who succumbed to leukemia Friday morning, was a force of nature -- one of the most vivid personalities and compelling performers in pop music.

I'll never forget my first encounter with her, as a kid in the 1970s. My older brother was watching one of those late-night TV music shows like "Midnight Special." He grabbed me and said, "You've gotta see this." I can't recall the song, but I remember my astonishment at the way Etta looked -- built like the Crusher, with a huge Afro -- and the way she sounded: raw, powerful, riveting.

Every time I saw her after that was a treasure, from the first time I saw her in the flesh at Wilebski's Blues Saloon in St. Paul to a steamy performance at Tipitina's in New Orleans where I stood at the lip of the stage and her sweat rained down on us as she howled into the ecstatic crowd.

Here are a few performances that come close -- but not quite -- to the real thing:

Etta in 1962, performing her Top 40 hit "Something's Got a Hold on Me" in a TV clip ... but no lip-synching here!

"I'd Rather Go Blind" was often a climax of her live sets, a theater of passion and pain that showcased her sense of drama. Here she performs it as a duet with Dr. John, as part of B.B. King's 1987 "Blues Session."

She recorded Jimmy Reed's classic blues "Baby What You Want Me to Do" for Chicago's Chess label in the early 1960s. Here she performs it in 1982 with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, including former Rolling Stone Mick Taylor on guitar and Fleetwood Mac's John McVie on bass.

Her trademark torch song "At Last," in a 2005 appearance on "Austin City Limits" (with sons Donto on drums and Sametto on bass)