In years past on WUMB’s Saturday morning Highway 61 Revisited, host Albert O has devoted the entire four hours to songs befitting Halloween. He has played oldies ranging from the traditional “Long Black Veil” (The Band’s cover) to Donovan’s “Season of the Witch” (and covers by Terry Reid, Vanilla Fudge and Al Kooper/Stephen Stills) as well as the traditional “Tam Lin” (covered by Fairport Convention). He never fails to include “I Scare Myself” by Dan Hicks. The show has become an annual event, although the timing of Halloween today may preclude the show this year.
“I Put a Spell on You” by the artist known as Screamin’ Jay Hawkins seems to me foremost among the songs that have made their way into Mr. O’s lineup. Here is the improbable backstory offered by Bill Diehl at AllMusic: “Hawkins originally envisioned the tune as a refined ballad. After he and his New York session aces (notably guitarist Mickey Baker and saxist Sam ‘The Man’ Taylor) had imbibed to the point of no return, Hawkins screamed, grunted, and gurgled his way through the tune with utter drunken abandon.”
Screamin’ Jay recalled: “[T]he producer brought in ribs and chicken 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 sort of just fell in place. I found out I could do more destroying a song and screaming it to death.”
The song was first recorded during a session in late 1955. However, that version was relegated to the vault. In 1956 Hawkins took another stab at the song and produced the hit version. You can hear Screamin’ Jay screaming on what I assume is that version in the video below. It’s a novelty song.
I’m not sure who first heard the possibilities in the song. It must have been Nina Simone. Simone turned it into a tortured love song (the sax solo is by Jerome Richardson, I think) in 1965. She titled her album of that year after the song. Now we were getting somewhere. Her version is a keeper.
In 1968, the British rocker Arthur Brown harked back to the theatricality of Screamin’ Jay on The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. “I Put a Spell on You” fit right in.
That same year Creedence Clearwater Revival recorded the song for their debut album. Playing lead guitar and shredding his voice on the vocal, John Fogerty took possession of the song. It’s no joke. I love this cover.
The video above places CCR’s album track over the band’s live performance of the song at Woodstock in 1969. Fogerty could pull it off live as well. CCR kept the live Woodstock recording in the can so that it would not compete with their own studio work at the time. Now it can be heard (here on YouTube).
It doesn’t get much better than Simone’s or CCR’s covers, but we can’t stop time in 1969. The song has been covered by many artists over the years. Joe Cocker recorded an orchestrated version in 2004 with a little help from Eric Clapton on guitar.
Jeff Beck turned in a surprisingly restrained cover featuring Joss Stone on the vocal for Emotion and Commotion in 2010. This gets down to the basics.
Lest there be any doubt that the song lives, check out Samantha Fish and her band in the live 2014 performance below. Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Samantha Fish.
