I Put a Spell on You

HALLOWEEN SPECIAL EDITION / BLOOD-SPLATTER VINYLEx-boxer turned showman, Screamn' Jay Hawkins was born Jalacy Jay Hawkins in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1929. He was a talented singer-songwriter, musician and actor and during the sixties became infamous for his macabre stage performances that would plague him for the rest of his professional career. Hawkins recorded his signature song "I Put A Spell On You" in October 1956 for Okeh Records, reputedly while drunk, and later claimed that he didn't even remember making the record. It might explain the wild screaming and cannibalistic grunts that secured his fame and led to his pioneering shock rock stage show. He reprised the song in 1967 with a funky beat which found a release in the States on Decca Records coupled with a rework of the Shades Of Blue "You're An Exception To The Rule". The '67 version features here as the title track to the 1977 album released on the New York Versatile label. Now extremely sough-after this up tempo long-play fuses reimagined standards with new Hawkins compositions and includes the 1973 single "Africa Gone Funky" featuring the legendary Skull Snaps as the backing band, an appropriate choice given Hawkins' smoking skull-on-a-stick, named Henry!