Rear-View Mirror: Happy Halloween with Screamin' Jay Hawkins

Every week, Rich Terfry looks back in our Rear-view Mirror at a great song from the good ol’ days. This week, Happy Halloween from Screamin' Jay Hawkins.

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins invented "Shock Rock" by accident and blames it on chicken, ribs and booze. Let me explain.

Before he recorded his signature hit “I Put A Spell On You," Screamin’ Jay Hawkins was just plain old Jay Hawkins. He was a regular everyday blues singer and nobody took much notice. When he wrote “I Put a Spell on You” he intended for it to be a gentle refined love ballad, but the day he went into the studio to record the song, things went off the rails.

Hawkins describes the day by saying, "The producer brought in chicken and ribs and got everybody drunk and we came out with this weird version. I don’t even remember making the record. Before, I was just a normal blues singer. I was just Jay Hawkins. It all just sort of fell in place. I found I could do more destroying a song and screaming it to death."

The song was banned from many stores and radio stations because it was deemed cannibalistic. Hawkins decided to capitalize on the hysteria surrounding the song and created the demented alter ego Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. He bought a cape and a coffin he would rise out of to start his stage show. He used smoke and fog, he wore bones in his nose. He decorated the stage with snakes and a skeleton named Henry.

His was one of the first shocking theatrical performances and it was a major inspiration for acts that followed in his footsteps like Dr. John, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath and Marilyn Manson.

Here’s one of the songs Rolling Stone Magazine said shaped rock n roll. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins signature tune that was recorded in 1956.

Listen to the entire audio version of Rear-View Mirror by hitting the play button below.

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Here are some other great editions of Rear-view Mirror:

Cheap Trick "Surrender"

Mott The Hoople "All the Young Dudes"

Beach Boys "Sloop John B"

Amy Winehouse "Rehab"

New York Dolls "Personality Crisis"

Modern Lovers "Roadrunner"

George Jones "He Stopped Loving Her Today"

Bruce Springsteen "Born in the USA"

The Beatles "With A Little Help From My Friends"

Rolling Stones 'Miss You'

The Coasters 'Run Red Run'

Elvis Costello, 'Alison'

James Brown, 'Hot (I Need to be loved loved loved)'

Inner Circle, 'Tenement Yard'

Ray Charles, 'I Don't Need No Doctor'

Curtis Mayfield, 'Freddy's Dead'

Gang Starr, 'Beyond Comprehension'

Bo Diddley, 'Bo Diddley'

Aretha Franklin, 'Rocksteady'

CCR, 'Have You Ever Seen the Rain'

Howlin' Wolf, 'Smokestack Lightning'

Bobby Womack, 'Across 110th Street'

Roy Orbison, 'In Dreams'

Foggy Hogtown Boys, 'Man of Constant Sorrow'

Pink Floyd, 'Wish You Were Here'

Neil Young, 'Cortez The Killer'

Bob Dylan, 'Subterranean Homesick Blues'

Little Eva, 'Loco-Motion'

Elvis Costello, 'Watching the Detectives'

Jimmy Cliff, 'The Harder They Come'

The Verve, 'Bittersweet Symphony'

Roberta Flack, 'Killing Me Softly with his Song'

R.E.M., 'Radio Free Europe'

Radiohead, 'No Surprises'

Led Zeppelin, 'Ramble On'

Glen Campbell, 'Wichita Lineman'

Rolling Stones, 'Beast of Burden'

John Cougar Mellencamp, 'Pink Houses'