From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Thu Jul 18, 2002  1:12 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Screamin' Jay Hawkins
 
SCREAMIN' JAY HAWKINS (By Jean-Marc Pezet)

Born Jalacy J. Hawkins, 18 July 1929, Cleveland, Ohio
Died 12 February 2000, Paris, France

Out-of-this-world character of Rock'n'Roll

Screamin' Jay's career took a return in the early 1990s thanks to a cameo
apperance in Jim Jarmush's film "Mystery Train" (remember the hotel clerk
dressed in a loud red suit?), and in "A Rage In Harlem".

But Screamin' Jay was a lot more than this, he was a great, and I mean
GREAT, R&B shouter and pop singer. He was a lot more than all those
pyrotechnics, eccentricity and spooky acting we were used to.

An orphan, young Jalacy was raised by Blackfoot Indians. He took an
interest in music from an early age, even driving his piano teacher mad!
Albeit under age, he managed to enroll in the Army, participating in the
Okinawa battle where he was injured. He continued to play music but also
became successful at boxing (he won the Golden Gloves Trophy). After
a bad injury hit him, he decided to concentrate on music.
Back to civil life in 1952, after a spell with Tiny Grimes and singles on
Gotham,Wing and Apollo, he was signed by Okeh where he cut his
signature tune and huge hit, "I Put Spell On You". The legend is that the
band was so drunk that Jay had to re-learn to play his song afterwards.
Jay just stayed for about a year with Okeh, but he laid down the best
of his recordings between 1956 and 1957 for the label.

By the early 1960s, Jay relocated to Honolulu where he took residence at
a nightclub. He was back in the States in 1969 and 1970 for two LPs on
Philips with the infamous "Constipation Blues".
His resurgence in the 1990s led to more good albums on Bizarre. By the
end of the decade, Jay had relocated to Paris, France. His last album,
recorded at SUN studios, was for the French Last Call label.
Ironically, he died from an internal haemorrhaging following surgery on an
obstructed bowel.

Recommended listening:
- "Cow Fingers And Mosquito Pies" EPIC  EK 47933, 1991
- "Spellbound 55-74" BEAR FAMILY BCD 155530, 1991
- "Portrait Of A Man" EDSEL EDCD 414, 11995

Recommended website: http://home.datacomm.ch/mik/ba/h/hawkins_jay/