One of the weirdest, wildest performers ever to grace an eardrum is one of the least known, despite penning one of the most iconic songs ever written. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins was a man with a crazed look in his eye and tusks on his nose.
And it is he who wrote ‘I Put A Spell On You’, and there’s a good chance the many of you have never heard the original (those that have, shut your stupid know-it-all faces and go and sulk in a record shop somewhere).
Of course, the most famous version of the track is the eyewateringly good Nina Simone take. There’s been many, many covers, but none of them have the strange hoodoo energy of the original.
While Nina’s version has a glorious and refined quality, Hawkins take is about as weird as it gets (well, if you disregard the rest of his back catalogue… but you know what we mean). However, it wasn’t always intended to be that way.
Hawkins had originally intended the tune to be a standard ballad. However, when Hawkins and his band got blind drunk and the producer loaded everyone up with ribs and chicken, this strange voodoo version came out.
Screamin’ Jay said of the track:
“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.”
To help the success of the song, the track was banned by radio stations, thereby ensuring that everyone wanted a piece of it. Wimps at the stations deemed the track too “cannibalistic”.
Hawkins rode the success by taking his song on the road wearing a long cape and appearing on-stage with snakes, fireworks, skull called Henry… and the best bit of all… Jay would appear on the stage by rising out of a coffin amongst smoke and fog.
Many people have covered the track since, including Creedance Clearwater Revival, Ray Charles, Joe Cocker, Eels, Bryan Ferry, Queen Latifah, Marilyn Manson, Bonnie Tyler and terrifyingly, Katie Melua. None of them match the weirdness of Hawkins and the class of Nina.
So lets listen to both shall we?
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
Nina Simone
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