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.

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What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

From a music preservationist standpoint, it's important that old R&B singers like Screamin' Jay Hawkins are remembered and written about. Steve Bergsman is doing his part to keep the legacy alive. Bergsman's vibrant writing style makes it an easy read as you're pulled into a who's who of rock 'n roll history. His no-holds-barred approach to telling the story is not unlike that of his subject, shocking and entertaining all at the same time.
— Sonia Outlaw-Clark, Director of West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center, Tina Turner Museum & The Exit 56 Blues Festival

As someone who has spent a long time in the music industry, I can tell you that rock ‘n’ rollers don’t come much wilder than Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. He’s a good subject for Steve Bergsman, an experienced music writer who really knows his way around the arcane and forgotten of the R&B genre. This is an exciting read.