Screamin' Jay Hawkins - I Put a Spell on You

Jalacy Hawkins (July 18, 1929— February 12, 2000), best known as Screamin' Jay Hawkins was an African-American musician, singer, and actor.

Known mostly for his wildly theatrical performances of songs , Hawkins sometimes used macabre props onstage, making him the one of few original shock rockers.

Although Hawkins was not a major success as a recording artist, his powerful, operatic vocal delivery and his highly theatrical performances earned him a steady career as a live performer for decades afterward, and influenced rock groups such as The Cramps, Screaming Lord Sutch, Black Sabbath, Arthur Brown, Dread Zeppelin, The Horrors, Marilyn Manson and Alice Cooper.

Hawkins died on February 12, 2000 after surgery to treat an aneurysm. He left behind many children by many women; an estimated 55 at the time of his death, and upon investigation, that number "soon became perhaps 75 offspring".

His most successful recording, "I Put a Spell on You" (1956), was selected as one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
It was also ranked #313 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Hawkins originally envisioned the tune as a refined ballad.The entire band was intoxicated during a recording session where Hawkins screamed, grunted, and gurgled his way through the tune. The resulting performance was no ballad but instead a "raw, guttural track",Hawkins himself blacked out and was unable to remember the session.
Afterward he had to relearn the song from the recorded version.

Soon after the release of "I Put a Spell on You", radio disc jockey Alan Freed offered Hawkins $300 to emerge from a coffin onstage.Hawkins accepted and soon created an outlandish stage persona in which performances began with the coffin and included "gold and leopard skin costumes and notable voodoo stage props, such as his smoking skull on a stick – named Henry – and rubber snakes."
These props were suggestive of voodoo, but also presented with comic overtones that invited comparison to "a black Vincent Price."

The song became his greatest commercial success and reportedly surpassed a million copies in sales, although it failed to make the Billboard pop or R&B charts since it was banned by some stores and radio stations.

Although Hawkins' version did not make any charts, several later cover versions have done so, Such as Nina Simone's in 1965, Creedence Clearwater Revival's in 1968, Bryan Ferry's in 1993.