Artist Spotlights: The Proto-Shock Rock of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins

Though his hit song “I Put A Spell On You” propelled him to legendary status, Screamin' Jay Hawkins' goth rock remains a mystery for the many who have never heard his name.

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Written by Victoria Canales

Photo courtesy of Memi Beltrame

With a powerhouse of a voice and a gift for gritty performing, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins was integral to the origins of shock rock, post-punk, and gothic music. Way back in the 1950s, Hawkins was creating delightfully dark yet high-energy music that was too surreal for widespread consumption. Now, over a half-century later, he is considered a “goth icon.”

Born in 1929, Jalacy Hawkins was adopted by Blackfoot Indians at 18 months old. When he was 13, he used a forged birth certificate to enlist in the Army and fight in World War II. As a young adult, he was a talented boxer, and, at one point, held the title of middleweight boxing champion of Alaska. Continuing his string of highly impressive, though admittedly eclectic life choices, he decided to pursue a career in music. Influenced by Black jazz musicians like Paul Robeson and Dizzy Gillespie, he went the route of playing, performing, and writing his own version of blues. His elaborate onstage persona immediately proved to be fantastical and flamboyant, with rubber snakes and shrunken heads serving as regular props.

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ magnum opus, “I Put A Spell On You,” is better known for its cover versions, such as Nina Simone’s famous rendition whose romantic take is far from the original’s animalistic atmosphere. Punctuated with primal grunts, menacing laughter, and guttural screams, the drunken song is wholly unholy. Hawkins sounds like he’s performing actual witchcraft, different from the seductive love song many people today are familiar with. In the song’s video, the frenzy in Hawkins’ voice and eyes is apparent, and the setting is eerily uncanny, like its shadows have crept up in your nightmares before. The performance is captivating as he rises in intensity, eventually exploding in the threat, “I don’t care if you don’t want me / I said I’m yours right now.” It’s terrifying, dramatic, supernatural — the kind of musical experience that breaks boundaries, especially in 1956.

Originally, “Put A Spell On You” was banned from the radio due to its outspoken sexuality marked by grunting and moaning throughout. It also received insulting descriptors like “cannibalistic,” which kept the conservative audiences of its time away. However, it has since become a cult classic, with everyone from Nina Simone to Creedence Clearwater Revival covering the song. The song’s interpretation has also since changed, as many versions treat it as a love song. Simone’s husky, seductive drawl is a far cry from Hawkin’s restless incantation, but both versions have their merits. It speaks to Hawkins’ songwriting capabilities that, nearly 70 years later, artists are finding new meaning in the composition.

“I Put A Spell On You” is certainly not his only claim to fame, though. Many of the songs on his freshman effort, At Home with Screamin’ Jay, were classics, such as “Deep Purple” (guess which band this song inspired) and “You Made Me Love You.” Even standards like “Take Me Back to My Boots and Saddle” became their own distinct beings, with Screamin’ Jay’s strong vocals and personality shining through. Hawkins was outrageous in every sense though, and this translated into some problematic moments with this album. Perhaps most egregiously, Hawkins wrote a song called “Hong Kong” that included sounds that were supposed to mimic Cantonese. It was written about one of Hawkins’ lovers, and his resentment towards her is clear with the explicit racism permeating the song. However, it is worth noting that this album was released in 1958 when society was not so progressive.

Photo courtesy of Jack Vartoogian

Outside his first album, Hawkins has many compilations that include covers with his own unique twist. “Monkberry Moon Delight,” on Screamin’ The Blues, was originally written by Paul and Linda McCartney and included in their 1971 album RAM. The Hawkins version begins with a distant scream and is punctuated with other guttural sounds that prove he’s earned his “Screamin’” moniker. A children’s choir pops in and out of the song, but this surprisingly works, as it gives an eerie tone to the haunting piece. Passionate and grimy, “Monkberry Moon Delight” is a great deep cut to dive into. Hawkins also famously wrote a song titled “Constipation Blues,” which appears in his 1969 album What That Is!, and included a monologue that claimed “nobody’s actually went out and recorded a song about ‘real pain.’” His humor was incomparable; Hawkins never took himself more seriously than necessary.

Considered the Godfather of Shock Rock due to his notorious stage presence, Hawkins was known to pull bold stunts, whether that be emerging from coffins, wearing  capes, or using dry ice for special effects onstage. While this may sound tame compared to stories surrounding performances by Ozzy Osbourne (for example, when he bit the head off a bat onstage), this was extreme in the mid-1950s when girl groups and crooners reigned over the music industry. He once expressed that he wasn’t a fan of his brazen reputation and resented the outlandishness of it all, but his onstage hijinks set a precedent for performers decades later. There would be no Ozzy-bat-head story without Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and the coffin he rose out of.

Photo courtesy of Tom Zimmerman

Though Hawkins was never a celebrity in his time, he did end up opening for some of the biggest names in rock, such as Fats Domino and the Rolling Stones. This exposure helped bring his music to groups that would take Hawkins’ formula and run with it, such as Black Sabbath and the Misfits. It’s easy to hear Hawkins in the wails of Robert Plant in “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” by Led Zeppelin or Ozzy Osbourne’s cries to god in Black Sabbath’s self-titled track — listen to any rock or metal song of the 1970s and 1980s, and you’ll hear Hawkins’ inventions from 30 years before.

Sadly, the contributions of Black musicians in rock are often heavily ignored, leaving many significant artists without any fame or renown. In this case, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins paved the way for future generations of theatrical rockers, spanning everyone from David Bowie to Alice Cooper, but his name has all but faded into obscurity. However, he remains a legendary performer and trailblazer for goth and shock rock subcultures, and his “I Put A Spell On You” continues to bewitch.