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I love Ethel Waters singing anything, but this song is her signature, and she makes it new every time. The quality of her voice is just marvelous, but its her skill at communicating that makes her unique. I LOVE "and children!...."

Every performance is magic and new. You can post a hundred different performances of Miss Waters singing this song, and there will be something new in each one...

Violinist391 - agree with everything you said. What a cast. What a show!

For those who talk about her being angry or overacting, this is just one segment of the song. She sings it with a dramatic arch, and in person, her performance of the whole song is AMAZING. I saw her yesterday, and she tore down the roof of that theater. She's one of the few performers to have th...

Saw her on B'way yesterday. Fantastic performance of I'm Still Here. With all that star power on stage, she still kind of stole the show any time she was on - she has incredible charisma. Hope she finally gets a Tony for this.

I just saw this last night. I'm so grateful for the clip, but you HAVE to see her in person to experience the full impact of this performance. Mindfulness gurus talk about being "fully present", and that's what Bernadette Peters was for this song. The effect was so shattering that there was relat...

Love everything about this - Waters is FIERCE and her dancing shows that she still had it in spades - magnificent. "Brown! Ain't it time for you to go into your cooch dance?"

I cannot get enough of these Crusade videos of Ethel Waters - no one ever sang or just simply communicated feeling the way she did - at all stages of her career. In Christian music, no one else has had the combination of gospel feeling, jazz finesse and Broadway polish that Waters had. Who couldn...

Thanks for posting this - it shows why Miss Waters is still considered one of the greatest actresses ever - what an extraordinary ability to communicate feeling without the slightest suggestion of acting - she was living the moment and the song. Moved me to tears.

Yup, it's Kay Starr - beautiful, and she should be appropriately credited - why doesn't the poster change the credits. This does have similarities to Ella, but the drawn out vowels are very atypical for Ella.

She introduced it and no one ever sang it better than the one and only Miss Ethel Waters - the depth of feeling is remarkable.

@MisterCrazyLegs You nailed it - 9th Wonder of the World indeed. It's why the State of Michigan declared her voice a natural resource of the state. We are all still in awe when we see a performance like this.

Holy Aretha! She is on FIRE in this performance! Wow! Thanks so much for posting.

Just saw her at Mystic Lake. This song and the absolutely heaven-sent rendition of Bridge Over Troubled Water were the highlights of a wonderful performance. No, she does not have the voice of her glorious youth. Yes, she is still Aretha, and there is only one Aretha, and no one else can sing lik...

What a treat - the one the three great altos of the seventies sings tribute to the greatest pop alto of all time, the one and only Karen Carpenter. Debby Boone is one of the few who could pull the song off this well. Still singing beautifully.

This doesn't have the precision or brilliance of her '70's version (also posted by arethafan2006) and yet it is still better than anything by anyone else. There is no one else even remotely close, and her piano playing is also divine. Thank God for Aretha!

She just sings it as she feels it at the moment, so no two performances are the same. And almost all are like some sort of miracle.

What a moment! And President Obama chose EXACTLY the right person to sing the inaugural song for his presidency - the greatest singer the United States (and probably the world) has ever heard. You can quibble that Aretha isn't in her absolute prime in this performance, but even at her second best...

LOVE IT when Aretha sits down at the piano and plays that thing - as if that volcanic voice wasn't enough - performances like this make you believe that there has to be a God, who blessed us with the Queen of Soul.

How true - Ethel Waters touched so many of us - what Della says is exactly right - whether she was Sweet Mama Stringbean or the plus-size woman singing at the Graham Crusades, she always reached you, right where you were. Amen, Della!

I love this song, and this particular version of the song. Did anyone ever really feel the song, or have the ability to put such variety into intonation, rhythm, ad libs, scatting all in service of the song? So much character - I love the Mae West-ian she says "I couldn't take it baby" at the end...

Love the photos - which should put an end to the usual "she was so plain as compared to Lena Horne" comments - she was a stunning beauty in her youth - and to me, remained so beautiful all her life - that wonderful face, so full of character. Great version of West End Blues - when she says, "I me...

There's not enough Waters on film, but what there is is glorious. I agree with fairfax17 - there is no performer I more would love to have seen more than Ethel Waters. What's more, from her Sweet Mama Stingbean to her Billy Graham days, from the 1920's to the 1970's, she was never less than magni...

I've wanted to see this forever. Thanks so much for posting.

She sang this one differently every time she sang it - and all the versions were great. Kind of funny having the Beale Street Boys butt in at the end. Not quite in the same league as the incomparable Waters.

Wonderful! No one sings like Waters - I love the way she sings those final lines. Beautiful photos make it even more touching. Thanks,

It just flows...