Photo: Ace Records
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Screamin' Jay Hawkins originally wanted to become an opera singer; a plan he ambitiously pursued but where he found little success, (though interestingly, he was a boxing Golden Gloves winner in 1947). After learning guitar, he began playing the blues professionally. For several years, he performed as a bluesman until one drunken night changed his world forever, and produced what would become one of the most influential songs in all of music.
“I put a spell on you…” Hawkins demanded back in 1956. His searing undertone demanded attention and was paired with a catchy beat of a percussive brass section and drum, creating, all at once, a crazed drunken tirade, swirling three-ring circus, and a mysterious voodoo ritual. “Because you’re mine”. Released on OKeh Records that same year, “I Put A Spell on You” almost instantly became a hit for Hawkins. Then he had to listen to the song and relearn it, because he was blacked out drunk when he recorded it.
“Arnold Makson was the head of Columbia at the time, and he felt we had to do something different in regards to the song,” Hawkins said in The Nick Tosches Reader. “So he brought in a case of Italian Swiss Colony Muscatel and we all got our heads bent… We all got blind drunk. Ten days later, the record came out on the Okeh label. I listened to it and I heard all those drunken screams and groans and yells. And that’s how I became Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.”
Screamin' Jay claimed he had 57 offspring scattered around the globe - a figure presumably filched from a ketchup bottle. In later life, he reversed the digits, upping his claim to 75. He died, aged 70 in Paris, having spent 10 years in Honolulu and devoted most of his later years to sitting in a chair and smoking cigarettes.
Matt Marshal / American Blues Scene
Screamin Jay Hawkins - "I put a spell on you!” From ITV’s Granada Television UK
No comments:
Post a Comment