Screamin' Jay Hawkins
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Image:Jayhawkins.jpg Jalacy Hawkins, best known as Screamin' Jay Hawkins (Cleveland, Ohio, July 18, 1929 – Paris, France, February 12, 2000) was an African American singer famed for his wildly theatrical performances of songs like "I Put a Spell on You" and "Constipation Blues".
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Early career
Hawkins originally set out to become an opera singer, and has cited Paul Robeson and Enrico Caruso as early influences. Being unsuccessful at this, he began his career as a conventional blues singer and pianist.
He served in the U.S. Army in the Pacific Ocean during World War II, primarily as an entertainer, although he claimed to have been a POW. Hawkins was an avid and formidable boxer: in 1949, he was the middleweight boxing champion of Alaska.
In 1951, he joined guitarist Tiny Grimes for a while, and recorded a few songs with him. When Hawkins became a solo performer, he often performed in a very stylish wardrobe, featuring leopard skins, red leather and wild hats.
"I Put A Spell On You"
His most successful recording, "I Put a Spell on You" (1956) remains one of rock and roll's singular recordings, and has been selected as one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
The song starts out with the big-voiced Hawkins singing a ballad to a lost love. Very quickly, however, the performance becomes something unique: Hawkins seems positively demented as he sings, he threatens wildly, screams, grunts and groans, and sounds utterly demoniacal in reclaiming the lady as his own.
Hawkins had originally intended to record "I Put A Spell On You" as a refined love song, a blues ballad. He reported, however, that the producer "brought in ribs and chicken and got everybody drunk, and we came out with this weird version. I don't even remember making the record. Before, I was just a normal blues singer. I was just Jay Hawkins. It all sort of just fell in place. I found out I could do more destroying a song and screaming it to death."
Some sources claim that "I Put A Spell On You" had been released earlier than 1956 in a more sedate form, but this has not been verified. The date of 1949 for an original release on the Grand label would appear unlikely since it predates both the formation of the label and the beginning of Hawkins's performing career.
"I Put A Spell On You" became a quick success, despite being banned by some stores and radio stations. A softer version minus certain sounds deemed "cannibalistic" reached the Top 40 and brought Hawkins together with Alan Freed and his "Rock and Roll Review".
Up to this time, Hawkins had been a blues performer, emotional, but not wild. Freed suggested a gimmick to capitalize on the "demented" sound of "I Put A Spell On You": Hawkins wore a long cape, and appeared onstage by rising out of a coffin in the midst of smoke and fog.
The act was a sensation, later bolstered by tusks worn in Hawkins' nose, on-stage snakes and fireworks, and a cigarette-smoking skull named "Henry".
The theatrical act was one of the first shock rock performances, and was the progenitor of much that came later in rock and roll, including George Clinton, Arthur Brown, Alice Cooper, Dr. John, Ted Nugent, Black Sabbath, Screaming Lord Sutch, Warren Zevon, and Marilyn Manson, among the many who vied for Hawkins' title as a rock and roll madman.
"I Put A Spell On You" has been covered dozens of times, perhaps most famously by Nina Simone, but also by performers such as Audience, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Them, Arthur Brown, The Animals, Joe Cocker, Nick Cave, Bryan Ferry, Marilyn Manson, and many others. Most of the covers treat the song seriously; few attempt to duplicate Hawkins's bravura performance.
Also, it has been sampled in songs by Notorious B.I.G. (“Kick In The Door”) and by LL Cool J (“LL Cool J”).
In films, it has been performed by Bette Midler in Disney's Halloween movie, Hocus Pocus and by Diamanda Galás, whose version is featured in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers, and Marilyn Manson's version, featured in David Lynch's Lost Highway. It has been also played in an episode of The Simpsons and an episode of The PJ's.
The Hawkins version has even become a standard accompaniment for ice skaters, including Michelle Kwan, Alexei Urmanov and the team of Elizabeth Punsalan and Jerod Swallow.
The song has also figured in countless radio and television advertisements, like those for Pringles and Levi's.
Later career
Hawkins had several further hits, including "Constipation Blues", "Orange Colored Sky", and "Feast of the Mau Mau", which capitalized on the cannibalistic reputation, but nothing he released had the massive success of "I Put A Spell On You".
He continued to tour and record through the 1960s and 1970s, particularly in Europe, where he was very popular, but his career was not advancing in America until filmmaker Jim Jarmusch featured "I Put a Spell on You" on the soundtrack – and deep in the plot – of his film Stranger Than Paradise (1983) and then the dour Hawkins himself as a hotel night clerk in his Mystery Train. This led to a few other movie performances, such as Álex de la Iglesia's Perdita Durango and Bill Duke's adaptation of Chester Himes' A Rage In Harlem.
His 1982 song, "Frenzy" (from the album of the same name) was included in the compilation CD, "Songs in the Key of X: Music From And Inspired By The X-Files", in 1996. This song was featured in the show's season 2 episode "Humbug".
In July 1991 Hawkins released his album Black Music for White People. The record contains a Tom Waits penned song "Heart Attack and Vine" that later that year was used in Europe in a Levi's advertisement (without Waits' permission, resulting in a lawsuit), and "Ice Cream Man" (a song written by blues guitarist John Brim and covered by Tom Waits in 1973, and by Van Halen in 1978).
Hawkins also toured with The Clash and Nick Cave during this period, and also became a fixture not only of blues festivals, but also appeared at many film festivals.
Hawkins left many children by many women. About 55 were known (or suspected) upon his death, and upon investigation, that number "soon became perhaps 75 offspring", according to this website.
Discography
Selected Singles
- 1956 I Put a Spell On You/Little Demon [OKeh 7072]
- 1957 You Made Me Love You/Darling, Please Forgive Me [OKeh 7084]
- 1957 Frenzy/Person to Person [OKeh 7087]
- 1958 Alligator Wine/There's Something Wrong With You [OKeh 7101]
- 1958 Armpit #6/The Past [Red Top 126]
- 1962 I Hear Voices/Just Don't Care [Enrica 1010]
- 1962 Ashes/Nitty Gritty - w/ Shoutin' Pat (Newborn) [Chancellor 1117]
- 1966 Poor Folks / Your Kind of Love [Providence 411]
- 1970 Do You Really Love Me/Constipation Blues [Philips 40645]
- 1973 Monkberry Moon Delight/Sweet Ginny [Queen Bee 1313]
Albums
- 1958 At Home with Screamin' Jay Hawkins (Okeh/Epic) - other editions entitled Screamin' Jay Hawkins and I Put a Spell on You
- 1965 The Night and Day of Screamin' Jay Hawkins (Planet) - also entitled In the Night and Day of Screamin' Jay Hawkins
- 1969 What That Is! (Philips)
- 1970 Because Is in Your Mind (Armpitrubber) (Philips)
- 1972 Portrait of a Man and His Woman (Hotline) - also entitled I Put a Spell on You and Blues Shouter
- 1977 I Put a Spell on You (Versatile--recordings from 1966-76)
- 1979 Lawdy Miss Clawdy (Koala)
- 1979 Screamin' the Blues (Red Lightnin') - also entitled She Put the Wammee on Me
- 1983 Real Life (Zeta)
- 1984 Screamin' Jay Hawkins and The Fuzztones Live (Midnight Records) - live
- 1988 At Home with Jay in The Wee Wee Hours (Midnight Records) - live
- 1988 Live & Crazy (Blue Phoenix) - live
- 1990 The Art of Screamin' Jay Hawkins (Spivey)
- 1991 Black Music For White People (Bizarre/Straight Records/Planet Records)
- 1991 I Shake My Stick at You (Aim)
- 1993 Stone Crazy (Bizarre/Straight/Planet)
- 1994 Somethin' Funny Goin' On (Bizarre/Straight/Planet)
- 1993 Rated X (Sting S) - live
- 1998 At Last (Last Call)
- 1998 Live (Loudsprecher/Indigo) - live
- 1999 Live at the Olympia, Paris (Last Call) - live with one studio new song
- 2004 Live (Fremeaux & Associés) - live with two studio new songs
Multi-artist samplers and budget compilations
- 1962 Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Lillian Briggs (Coronet)
- 1963 A Night at Forbidden City (Sounds of Hawaii)
Films
Documentary on Screamin' Jay Hawkins
- Screamin' Jay Hawkins: I Put a Spell On Me (Nicholas Triandafyllidis, 2001)
As an actor
- Mystery Train (Jim Jarmusch, 1989)
- Perdita Durango, also known as Dance with the Devil (Álex de la Iglesia, 1997)