Ex-boxer turned showman, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins was born Jalacy Jay Hawkins in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1929. He was a talented singer-songwriter, musician and actor and during the sixties became infamous for his macabre stage performances that would plague him for the rest of his professional career.

Hawkins recorded his signature song “I Put A Spell On You” in October 1956 for Okeh Records, reputedly while drunk, and later claimed that he didn’t even remember making the record. The ’67 version features here as the title track to the 1977 album released on the New York Versatile label. Now extremely sough-after this up tempo long-play fuses reimagined standards with new Hawkins compositions and includes the 1973 single “Africa Gone Funky” featuring the legendary Skull Snaps as the backing band, an appropriate choice given Hawkins’ smoking skull-on-a-stick, named Henry!

Special Limited Halloween Edition on BLOOD SPLATTER vinyl

TRACKS:

SIDE A
1. I Put A Spell On You
2. I’ve Got You Under My Skin
3. Time After Time
4. Ebb Tiide
5. Move Me

SIDE B
1. Africa Gone Funky
2. Ashes
3. I Need You
4. Sweet Ginny (Instrumental)