Biography

Screamin' Jay Hawkins

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Screamin' Jay Hawkins was best known for his song "I Put a Spell On You, " which he recorded on the Okeh label in 1956 and which helped win him cult status in the United States, Europe and Japan. He had originally planned the tune as a ballad, but after a night of heavy drinking he tried again--screaming, yelling and groaning--and never looked back. The snorting, some say "cannibalistic" delivery got "I Put A Spell On You" banned from radio stations across the country. Hawkins went on to use the same demented style again and again. An outrageous performer, he used bizarre stage props, often emerging out of coffins during shows. He would wield rubber snakes and fake tarantulas and wear a boar's tooth around his neck or a bone clipped to his nose. Jay Hawkins got his first break in 1951 as a pianist-valet to veteran jazz guitarist Tiny Grimes. His recording debut was 1952's "Why Did You Waste My Time, " backed by Grimes and his Rockin' Highlanders. In the 1960s, Ha!
- IMDb mini biography by: Stephen Hughes
In February of 1976 at the Virginia Theater in Alexandria, Va. while performing with his guitarist Mike Armando. Screamin' Jay Hawkins suffered facial burns when being badly burned by one of his flaming props. During the concert Screamin Jay Hawkins had to be rushed off stage. Jay kept Screamin to Mike "keep on playing".
- IMDb mini biography by: Mike Armando

Claims to have recorded his famous single "I Put A Spell On You" while both he and the musicans were blind drunk, and that he couldn't even recall the recording session.
Was planning an album of operatic recordings to sing on at the time of his death.
Enlisted in the US Army at age 13 with a forged birth certificate, and was sent to front-line combat duty.
Golden Gloves amateur boxing champion and later, while in the army, won the Alaska Middleweight Championship in 1949 from Billy McCann, though he was stripped of the title because of a technicality under suspicious circumstances.
His song "I Put A Spell On You" has been used in American TV commercials for McDonalds, Burger King, Pringle's Potato Chips and Levi's jeans.

I went through two wars, WWII and the Korean War, and I'm still here. I got more marks on my body than the average crossword puzzle from knives, bombs, bullets and being cut in half by a Japanese colonel in a prisoner of war camp.
Something I wanted to do but never did is sing opera. That goes back to my respect for Paul Robeson and Mario Lanza, but when I got into the music business opera didn't get into the charts; they were just putting rhythm and blues out.
When we began recording ["I Put A Spell On You"], we started out with a slow version. A week later I was sitting at home, and they bring me a 78 of the thing. I put it on, I played it again and again. I thought they'd lied to me: this couldn't possibly be me singing like that. So I tried to see if I could reproduce that style of singing. I contorted my mouth this way and that. I couldn't do it. Finally I poured myself some J&B scotch, poured that down, and then I was able to do it like the record.
Most people record songs about love, heartbreak, loneliness, being broke. Nobody's actually gone out and recorded a song about real pain! The band and I have just returned from the general hospital, where we caught a man in the right position.
I came into this world black, naked and ugly. And no matter how much I accumulate here, it's a short journey. I will go out of this world black, naked and ugly. So I enjoy life.

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