I Put a Spell on You: The Bizarre Life of Screamin' Jay Hawkins

by Steve Bergsman

Screamin' Jay Hawkins released I Put a Spell On You in 1956. The song, that never made it to the charts when it was released, would eventually be covered several hundred times by the likes of Nina Simone, Credence Clearwater Revival, and Marilyn Manson; Jeff Beck and Joss Stone's version even received a Grammy nomination in 2010. It was selected as one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll and was added to Rolling Stones' list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Hawkins' music and outlandish onstage persona inspired generations of musicians after him. And yet, little is known of the man and little can be taken at face value. Hawkins interpreted his past with a poetic license to kill, a magical amalgam of his own making--creating disparate stories alternatively terrible or sympathetic at his will. I Put A Spell On You brings together hundreds of interviews with Hawkins, his family, bandmates, and contemporaries. For those needing a towpath of truth, footnotes abound to tether you through. Here is Screamin' Jay Hawkins's story--mean, heartbreaking, and magic.

Genres: Biography, Music, Nonfiction

274 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 2, 2019

Reviews

[Tenebrous Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a certain amount of peril going into a rock 'n' roll biography: the rise-and-fall-and-rise arc of the Big Rock Bio doesn't always work out, the standards of times past can seem out of key with the current day, and if your subject is a lesser-known, lesser-documented person, it can be next to impossible to dig up compelling information. Unfortunately, "I Put a Spell on You" falls prey to a number of these shortcomings. There are some colorful episodes and characters lurking on the fringes of this story, but it's simply not enough to sustain the book.

Discussed in depth on the Bad Books for Bad People podcast:
http://badbooksbadpeople.com/episode-...

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not unreadable but a disappointment. There was an opportunity here to document Hawkins’ life & career, and this book falls short.

Side note to publishers: PLEASE HIRE EDITORS & PROOFREADERS! Proofread the damned books you’re publishing!

[Jay Gabler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite this book's subtitle, the late R&B singer-songwriter’s life was all too typical of artists of his generation.

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins made an indelible impression in the 1950s, and was then eclipsed as music leapt forward in the next decade. He had an enduring hit, but sold his publishing rights and was forced to support himself through live performance until the end of his life. He married for love; it didn’t last. His next-best-known song was a novelty number. “Constipation Blues” is about precisely what you’d think; among the truly bizarre events in Hawkins’s live was a drunken televised duet on that number with — wait for it — Serge Gainsbourg in 1983.

What the book could use more of is testimony to Hawkins’s influence. The lineage of shock rock runs straight back from Gwar to Alice Cooper to Screamin’ Jay: artists who combine extreme music with gothic stage theatrics. Thanks to Hawkins, that kind of spectacle was part of rock and roll’s DNA from the very beginning.

Still, I Put a Spell On You is welcome documentation of a great American story. We may never know exactly what that story was, but who cares? 65 years later, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins still puts a spell on us.

I reviewed I Put a Spell On You for The Current.

[Nate Jordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Screamin' Jay Hawkins weaved a legendary web of hyperbolic stories both true and false about who he was and where he came from, which I'm sure made writing about the man and what made him tick quite the challenge. Hawkins' life as a performer was chaotic but his claim to American music legend is simple and solid. He was a pioneering blues singer and performer, influencing rock musicians, artists, directors, and more for over five decades and his legacy lives on. Put on your reading glasses and buckle up, it's a wild ride.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sort of sloppily thrown together bio of the big guy and his smoking skull Henry. Many were the disappointments and failures he encountered along his way, seemingly brought about mostly by himself. But he managed somehow to become a bright, shining beacon of weirdness in an era famous for it's blandness. And most frustratingly painful of all, to my mind, was to have your entire career defined by one goddamn song.

[Baikinange · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing. There are a lot of facts but the descriptions of Jay’s concerts and the music scene that shaped him are colorless and bland. I had Spotify open to play music mentioned to try to bring everything alive. And no mention of Jay’s Kids, a group of 34 or more people who were or claimed to be his illegitimate children.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

A basic biography with various interviews. Scream in’ Jay Hawkins was quite a character, and talent. Also, he was very fertile, 33 children by his wives.

[Jeff Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a terribly well-written book, but an interesting subject.

[Jenny · Rating 1 out of 5]

Good subject, terrible writing.

[Tom Harvey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting slice of his life and career.

[Kate Zdenek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Screamin’ Jay Hawkings was an outrageous and troubled man. He was constantly striving for fame and riches. He frequently changed the stories he told about his life - from his childhood, to his time in the military, and even to the number of children he had. The author does a good job untangling the stories Screamin’ Jay told to provide an honest look at the singer’s life.

[RA · Rating 4 out of 5]

The crazy life of Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Great strange stuff.