Weird & Interesting Facts:
-Jay Hawkins was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio.
—He lied about his age and joined the Army at the age of thirteen and fought in World War II. He was captured and spent eight months in a Japanese POW camp.
—While in the Army he learned to box and in 1949 was the middle weight champion of Alaska.
—An accomplished pianist and guitarist, Hawkins worked as a sideman before going solo in the early fifties.
—In 1956 he recorded his classic, “I Put A Spell On You”. The song was supposed to be a serious ballad but Hawkins got drunk during the session, entertaining the band by screaming and grunting his way through the tune. Legend has it that he was so inebriated during recording that he blacked out and had to relearn the song later in order to play it live. The record eventually sold over a million copies.
—When performing the song live he would jump out of a coffin dressed in a cape and wearing a bone underneath his nose. He would proceed to stomp around the stage screaming, grunting and carrying on. General mayhem ensued. One of his stage props was a stick with a skull on top he named Henry.
—Screamin Jay recorded dozens of albums through the years doing everything from Opera to Country. He recorded several Tom Waits tunes ("Heart Attack & Vine", " Whistling Past The Graveyard") which suited his both his voice and delivery.
—He acted in a number of movies including “Mystery Train”, “A Rage In Harlem” and “American Hot Wax”
—Check out his documentary, “I Put A Spell On Me” featuring Bo Diddley, Eric Burdon, Arthur Brown and Jim Jarmusch. It can be streamed via YouTube. You can check it out HERE
—Hawkins was as wild off stage as on marrying six times and fathering 33 kids!
—He died in 1999.
Written by Casey Redmond
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