Mick Hartley

OK I've done this one before, but that was a different performance, and with Screamin' Jay Hawkins each performance was a new experience:

What's clear is that underneath all the hoodoo he had an incredible voice, but it's more of an operatic than a blues or soul voice. In fact that was his original aim: to be a Paul Robeson-style opera singer. The story goes that "I Put a Spell on You" was intended as a grand melodramatic ballad, but at the recording session everyone was so drunk, especially Hawkins, that it ended up as a wild series of guttural shrieks and moans – and went on to be a hit. Hawkins had passed out and couldn't remember a thing; he had to relearn the words from the recording.

The song came out in 1956, when people were less concerned about "reinforcing racial stereotypes". I doubt Screamin' Jay would have been bothered either way. Here was a man for whom the borders of propriety and good taste were only there to be crossed. A few years later he put his grunts and moans to different use with a song that could have been forced out by no one else: Constipation Blues.

Got a pain down inside
Won't be denied
Yeah, every time I try
I can't be satisfied
Let it go!
WOAH, UMMH
Let it, let it go!
OH!
WAAAAOOOH!
This pain down inside
Just won't let me be satisfied
Let it go!
 
SPLASH!!! SPSHHH….
Feel, ah, I-I feel alright
Yes ah, I'm beginning to feel alright
SPLASH!!! Shpsh…
Yeah
I tell ya, everything's gonna be alright
SPLASH!
Flush

Apparently he performed the song with a toilet onstage a couple of times. No YouTube of that, unfortunately, but there is this extraordinary duet with Serge Gainsbourg. After six minutes of building tension, Hawkins has to stand up to let it all go in a grand climactic moment, urged on by a sympathetic Gainsbourg – "ah, il a fait caca." One of the defining moments of 20th Century culture.

At his death in France in 2000 it was estimated that he'd left behind about 55 children with various women – a figure that had to be revised upward upon subsequent investigation.

Mike Armando, one time guitarist with Hawkins, left a long comment (top "highlighted comment") on YouTube here about his time with the band. It's worth a read. His conclusion:

All I can say Screamin' Jay Hawkins always looked out for his band members. He always paid us good. He never once beat the band out of any money. He was the greatest and also the craziest but crazy as he was he had a loving heart for everyone. His music still lives on.

I Put a Spell On You was also, of course, recorded by Nina Simone. 

And Alan Price did a fine version.