I Put A Spell On You

Product Information

During Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom, a pop version of the song can be heard during exit of the HalloWishes fireworks show. The record sounds great overall, but I have to agree with the others noting popping and cracking (loud enough to be distracting as there are a lot of quiter parts to the album). This was the first I heard this song and this version is one of my all-time favorite tracks by any artist.

Freed suggested a gimmick to capitalize on the "demented" sound of "I Put a Spell on You": Hawkins wore a long cape, and appeared onstage by rising out of a coffin in the midst of smoke and fog. The hit brought Hawkins together with Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed who promptly added him to his "Rock and Roll Revue". Hawkins even got to record a second album, finally, in Abbey Road studios, and he started to tour Europe successfully and build up a major fanbase. Grimes’ band already dressed in Scottish clothing, and put on quite a bit of a show, but Hawkins pushed things a little further. Hawkins’ career remained in the doldrums until 1965, when two things happened almost simultaneously.And on February 12th, 2000, exactly forty-four years after recording the song, Jalacy "Screamin' Jay" Hawkins passed away from surgical complication, he was 70 years old. The tour wasn’t a commercial success, but it built Hawkins’ reputation in Britain to the point that it seemed like *every* beat group wanted to record “I Put a Spell on You”. Ani from Yerevan, ArmeniaJOHN FORGERTY has also done a gorgeous cover of this song in the album "Premonition" (1998).

When he’d got back to Cleveland, he’d heard Freed on the radio and been amazed that they let a black man have his own show, so he’d gone down to the radio station to meet him, and been even more amazed to find out that the man who sounded black, and was playing black music, was in fact white.

This was palpable in her version of ‘I Put a Spell on You’ which departed from Hawkins’ original version and harped more upon Simone’s jazz influence. He hadn’t wanted her back because he loved her, he’d wanted her back so that he could be the one to do the dumping, not her. By this time, he’d found a regular team of people to work with — Leroy Kirkland was the arranger, and Mickey Baker would play guitar, Sam “the Man” Taylor and Al Sears were on saxophone, and Panama Francis was on drums. What we do know is that he seems to have grown up extremely resentful of women, particularly his mother. It was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal at the 53rd Grammy Awards.