Sunday Night Who Does the Voodoo, which is celebrating the birthday of the real Wild Man, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins in 2022!

by Robert Wilkinson

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ music on our second Sunday Wildman show! He was a true original, and “shock rock!” was the forerunner of. Welcome to Hoodoo Man!

From Wikipedia:

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

Their 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 sophisticated ballad.” The entire band was intoxicated during a recording session, where “Hawkins screamed, grunted, and made his way through the tune with utterly intoxicated abandon.” The resulting performance was not a ballad, but a “raw, guttural track” that became their biggest commercial success and reportedly exceeded one million copies in sales, although it failed to make the Billboard pop or R&B charts. Stayed.

The performance was mesmerizing, though Hawkins himself was blacked out and unable to miss the session. He later had to re-learn the song from the recorded version. Meanwhile the record label released a second version of the single, removing most of the grunts that adorned the original performance; This was in response to complaints about the explicit sexuality of the recording. Nevertheless it was banned from radio in some areas.

Shortly after the release of “I Put a Spell on You”, radio disc jockey Alan Freed offered Hawkins $300 to get him out of a coffin. Hawkins acknowledged and soon created a quirky stage persona that began performances with coffins and included “gold and leopard skin costumes and remarkable voodoo stage props, such as his smoking skull on a stick – named Henry – and rubber snake.” These props were suggestive of voodoo, but were also presented with comic overtones that were inviting compared to “a black Vincent Price”.

To your amazement and entertainment, here is the original from 1956 that scared white America to its core! Welcome to his famous guttural, grunting, howling, dangerous attitude of “I Put a Spell on You”. “Who does voodoo, really…”

“I put a Spell on You”

Here’s another version at 45 rpm that was never released. “I Put a Spell on You (Unreleased)”

here it is on Arsenio Hall Show In 1989 or 90, coming out of a coffin! “I put a Spell on You.”

Historic Creedence Clearwater Revival performance of “I Put a Spell on You”, live at Woodstock in 1969

Original 35 minute album this year frenzy has disappeared. Here is the studio version of the title song. “Frenzy.” This year we have a great live performance clip from Tokyo in 1990, showing Jay performing “Frenzy” at his best.

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

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

Live on television in 1990, he is about to “constipate blues” playing the piano.

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

Live performance of “I’m Lonely” from 1999

Here is the great 1 hour 42 minute documentary of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins made shortly before his death in 2000. This includes some of the concerts he gave in Greece, so enjoy the original Wild Man! i cast a spell on me

Last year I had one of the weirdest albums ever made, Doo Wop Meeting Shock, titled Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – All the best But it’s gone. However, there must be a few of them in this incredible collection of 83 songs, because the first tune “I’m the Cool” definitely fits Doo Wop Meets Shock’s description. for your kind perusal, shout ‘Jay Hawkins’

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

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

He opens the show with Henry coming out of a coffin and going into a very daze of “crocodile wine”.

“The Whammy”

“mania”

“Little Demon” and “I Put a Spell on You”

“good night dear”

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 another clip, that’s awesome) !)

For our second encore, another “must see” with classic hoops and howls! “I put a Spell on You”

© Copyright 2022 Robert Wilkinson