Screamin’ Jay Hawkins

Jalacy J. “Screamin’ Jay” Hawkins was born July 18, 1929, Cleveland, Ohio. Hawkins studied classical piano as a child and learned guitar in his 20s.

His initial goal was to become an opera singer (Hawkins idolized Paul Robeson), but when his operatic ambitions failed, he began his career as a conventional blues singer and pianist. Other influences included Mario Lanza, Enrico Caruso, Lionel Hampton, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Brown, Amos Milburn, Wynonie Harris, and Nellie Lutcher.

Three months after World War II ended, he dropped out of high school and joined the US Army with a forged birth certificate. During this time at Fort Bliss, he entertained the troops as part of his service.

In 1951, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins began his career performing vocals and keyboards for Philadelphia guitarist Tiny Grimes. Hawkins’ first solo single, “Why Did You Waste My Time,” was accompanied by Grimes’ band. In 1956, Hawkins signed with OKeh Records.

Hawkins’s most successful recording was “I Put a Spell on You” (1956). 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 a “raw, guttural track” that became his greatest commercial success.

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 initially declined, but he later relented 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.”

Despite the commercial success of the gimmick, Hawkins found it exploitative, and believed it undermined his sincerity as a vocalist and a balladeer.

He continued to tour and record through the 1960s and 1970s, particularly in Europe, where he was very popular. Although Hawkins was not a major success as a recording artist, his highly theatrical performances from “I Put a Spell on You” onward earned him a steady career as a live performer for decades afterward, and influenced subsequent acts.

Hawkins died after emergency surgery from an aneurysm on February 12, 2000, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, near Paris, at 70 years old. – adapted from Wikipedia