Sunday Afternoon Who Do the Voodoo Celebrating the 2023 Birthday Of the Original Wild Man, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins!

by Robert Wilkinson

Our Sunday Wildman second show features the music of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins! He was a true original, and the pioneer of “shock rock.” Welcome to the hoodoo man!

From Wikipedia:

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins (July 18, 1929 – February 12, 2000) was an American musician, singer, and actor. Famed chiefly for his powerful, operatic vocal delivery and wildly theatrical performances of songs such as "I Put A Spell on You,” Hawkins sometimes used macabre props onstage, making him an early pioneer of shock rock.

His most successful recording, "I Put A Spell on You" (1956), was selected as one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. According to the AllMusic Guide to the Blues, “Hawkins originally envisioned the tune as a refined ballad.” The entire band was intoxicated during a recording session where "Hawkins screamed, grunted, and gurgled his way through the tune with utter drunken abandon." The resulting performance was no ballad but instead a "raw, guttural track" that became his greatest commercial success and reportedly surpassed a million copies in sales, although it failed to make the Billboard Pop or R&B charts.”

The performance was mesmerizing, although Hawkins himself blacked out and was unable to remember the session. Afterward he had to relearn the song from the recorded version. Meanwhile the record label released a second version of the single, removing most of the grunts that had embellished the original performance; this was in response to complaints about the recording's overt sexuality. Nonetheless it was banned from radio in some areas.

Soon after the release of "I Put a Spell on You", radio disc jockey Alan Freed offered Hawkins $300 to emerge from a coffin onstage. Hawkins accepted and soon created an outlandish stage persona in which performances began with the coffin and included "gold and leopard skin costumes and notable voodoo stage props, such as his smoking skull on a stick – named Henry – and rubber snakes." These props were suggestive of voodoo, but also presented with comic overtones that invited comparison to "a black Vincent Price.”

For your amazement and amusement, here’s the original from 1956 that scared white America to its core! Welcome to his famous guttural, grunting, howling, menacing attitude of “I Put A Spell On You.” “Who do the voodoo, indeed...”

“I Put A Spell On You”

Here’s another version on 45 rpm that was never issued. "I Put A Spell on You (Unissued)"

Here he is on The Arsenio Hall Show in 1989 or 90, coming up out of a coffin! "I Put A Spell on You."

Live at Woodstock in 1969, the historic Creedence Clearwater Revival performance of “I Put A Spell on You”

This year the original 35 minute album Frenzy has disappeared. Here’s the studio version of the title song. “Frenzy.” This year we have a great live performance clip from Tokyo in 1990 with Jay at his best performing “Frenzy”

Here’s the studio version of “Heart Attack and Vine”

I found this 23 minute clip of Jay at the Peppermint Lounge in 1977 with some interviews. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins at the Peppermint Lounge

Live on television in 1990, he's on the piano going gutteral about "Constipation Blues"

Live on television in 1992, here’s his take on "Old Man River"

Here’s his 1994 album Somethin’ Funny Goin’ On

From 1999, a live performance of “I’m Lonely”

2 years ago I had one of the weirder albums ever made, with doo wop meeting shock in a period piece titled Screamin' Jay Hawkins - All the Best but it’s gone, as is the 83 song collection I found last year. I did find one outstanding song from those two collections which definitely fits the description of doo wop meets shock. For your enjoyment, ”I Am the Cool

10 great ones! The Best of Screamin' Jay Hawkins

Here’s another great collection of 17 tunes! Voodoo Jive – The Best of Screamin' Jay Hawkins

Here’s a 1 hour 42 minute great documentary of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins made shortly before his death in 2000. It includes some concerts he gave in Greece, so enjoy the original wild man! I Put A Spell on Me

Last year I closed the tribute with a one hour show he did in Tokyo in 1990, but that clip is gone. I found about half of that show, in order of the set list!

He opened the show coming out of a coffin with Henry and went into the very bloozy “Alligator Wine”

“The Whammy”

“Frenzy”

“Little Demon” and “I Put A Spell On You”

“Goodnight Sweetheart”

For our encore, from 1966, here’s Screamin’ Jay Hawkins live on the Merv Griffin Show performing “I Put A Spell on You” (If you haven't seen one other clip, this one is awesome!)

For our second encore, another "must see" with classic whoops and howls! "I Put A Spell On You"

© Copyright 2023 Robert Wilkinson

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