The albums included tributes to the songwriters Percy Mayfield and Doc Pomus. These records encompassed a wide range of jazz, blues and R&B styles and highlighted Adams's voice.

In 1983, he signed with Rounder Records, for which he recorded nine critically acclaimed albums produced by Scott Billington, beginning with From the Heart in 1984. His biggest hits were his versions of 'Release Me' and 'Reconsider Me' in the late 1960s. Johnny Adams, was a blues, jazz and gospel singer, known as 'The Tan Canary' for the multi-octave range of his singing voice, his swooping vocal mannerisms and falsetto. In 1929, Waters and Pearl Wright arranged the unreleased Harry Akst song 'Am I Blue?,' which then appeared in the movie On with the Show and became a hit and her signature song. They received rave reviews in Chicago and earned the unheard of salary of $1,250 in 1928. With Earl Dancer, she joined what was called the 'white time' Keith Vaudeville Circuit, a traditional white-audience based vaudeville circuit performing for white audiences and combined with screenings of silent movies. She also toured with the Black Swan Dance Masters. In 1924, Waters played at the Plantation Club on Broadway. Soon after, she started working with Pearl Wright, and together they toured in the South. She first recorded for Columbia Records in 1925, achieving a hit with 'Dinah,'. In early 1924, Paramount bought the Black Swan label, and she stayed with Paramount through that year. She recorded with Black Swan Records from 1921 through 1923.

She was also the first African-American woman to be nominated for an Emmy Award, in 1962. Her best-known recordings include 'Dinah,' 'Stormy Weather,' 'Taking a Chance on Love,' 'Heat Wave,' 'Supper Time,' 'Am I Blue?' and 'Cabin in the Sky,' as well as her version of the spiritual 'His Eye Is on the Sparrow.' Waters was the second African American, after Hattie McDaniel, to be nominated for an Academy Award. Ethel Waters an American blues, jazz and gospel singer and an actress, requently performed jazz, big band, and pop music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts, but she began her career in the 1920s singing blues.

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