Screaming Jay Hawkins
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Biography
One of rock's greatest showmen, Screamin' Jay Hawkins would appear on stage from a coffin, wearing a bone through his nose, clutching a flaming voodoo skull on a stick, letting off firecrackers and unleashing an almighty cry to the heavens. A former boxer who dreamed of being an opera singer and idolised Paul Robeson, Hawkins became a prisoner of war and was tortured while serving in the US Airforce during WW2. He later played piano for Fats Domino, Count Basie and Wynonie Harris before turning solo and releasing his legendary signature song I Put A Spell On You in 1957. Initially meant to be a traditional ballad, the band recorded it while drunk and turned it into a creeping, sexy R&B classic full of grunts and screams so groundbreaking that it was later named on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of 500 Songs that Shaped Rock'n'Roll. A wild outsider, too abrasive for many, he gained great popularity in Europe and was rediscovered in the 1980s when he worked with garage rockers The Fuzztones and starred in several films by cult director Jim Jarmusch. He later toured with The Clash and Nick Cave and earned a reputation as an incredible womaniser who reputedly bore over 50 children by many different women. He died in 2000 after surgery on an aneurysm, aged 70.
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Albums
Top Tracks
- Track Popularity
- I Put a Spell on You
- Whistling Past The Graveyard
- Not Anymore
- Please Try to Understand
- Baptize Me in Wine
- Guess Who
- Because Of You
- This Is All
- She Put The Whamee On Me
- I Put A Spell On You by Raney Shockne
- Ashes by Screamin´Jay Hawkins
- What Good Is It
- Handy Man Is Back Town
- Monkberry Moon Delight
- Sweet Ginny by Screamin´Jay Hawkins
- Frenzy by Screamin´Jay Hawkins
- Follow That Girl
- Why Did You Lie?
- Little Demon
- In My Front Room
- Alligator Wine
- Well I Tried
- Flying Too High
- Mumbles Blues
