I Put a Spell on You

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For other uses, see I Put a Spell on You (disambiguation).
"I Put a Spell on You"
Single by Screamin' Jay Hawkins
from the album At Home with Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Released 1956
Format 7" 45 RPM
Genre Rock and Roll
Length 2:25
Label Grand (1949)[dubious – discuss]
OKeh (1957)
Writer(s) Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Producer Arnold Maxon
"I Put a Spell on You"
Single by
Creedence Clearwater Revival
from the album
Creedence Clearwater Revival
B-side "Walk On The Water"
Released 1968
Format 7" 45 RPM
Genre Rock and Roll
Length 4:25
Label Fantasy Records
Writer(s) Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Producer Saul Zaentz

Creedence Clearwater Revival singles chronology
"Suzie Q"
(1968)		 "I Put a Spell On You"
(1968)		 "Proud Mary"
(1969)

"I Put a Spell on You" is a 1956 song written by Screamin' Jay Hawkins, whose recording was selected as one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. It was also ranked #313 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

The song was later covered by numerous other artists, including Creedence Clearwater Revival, Beefeaters, Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Nina Simone, The Animals, Them, Jimmy Barnes, Tim Curry, The Alan Price Set, Natacha Atlas, Mica Paris (featuring Jools Holland and Pink Floyd's David Gilmour), Sonique, Bryan Ferry, Bette Midler, Nick Cave and Marilyn Manson.

Contents

[edit] The original version

Hawkins had originally intended to record "I Put a Spell on You" as a refined love song, a blues ballad. He reported, however, that the producer "brought in ribs and chicken and got everybody drunk, and we came out with this weird version.[1] 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."

Some sources claim that "I Put a Spell on You" had been released earlier than 1956 in a more sedate form, but this has not been verified. The date of 1949 for an original release on the Grand label would appear unlikely, since it predates both the formation of the record label and the beginning of Hawkins' performing career.

"I Put a Spell on You" became a quick success, despite being banned by some stores and radio stations. A softer version, minus certain sounds deemed "cannibalistic", did not chart but brought Hawkins together with Alan Freed and his "Rock and Roll Review".

Up to this time, Hawkins had been a blues performer; emotional, but not wild. 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.[1]

The act was a sensation, later bolstered by tusks worn in Hawkins' nose, on-stage snakes and fireworks, and a cigarette-smoking skull named "Henry". The theatrical act was one of the first shock rock performances, and was the progenitor of much that came later in rock and roll, including Dr. John, Alice Cooper, Eric Burdon, Screaming Lord Sutch, Warren Zevon, Arthur Brown, Black Sabbath, Ted Nugent, George Clinton, The Butthole Surfers, The Cramps, and Marilyn Manson -- among the many who vied for Hawkins' title as a rock and roll madman.

"I Put a Spell on You"
Single by Sonique
from the album Hear My Cry
Released 25 April 2001 (US)
Format CD Single
Genre Pop
Sonique singles chronology
"Sky"
(2000)		 "I Put a Spell on You"
(2001)		 "Can't Make Up My Mind"
(2003)

[edit] Covers and samples

"I Put a Spell on You" has been covered dozens of times, perhaps most famously by Nina Simone on the 1965 album I Put A Spell On You, but also by performers such as

Most of the covers treat the song seriously; few attempt to duplicate Hawkins's bravura performance. Arthur Brown comes close.

In 1966, James Brown used an arrangement near identical to "I Put a Spell on You"'s for his hit, "It's a Man's Man's Man's World". In 1967, the arrangement was used once more for Frank Sinatra's "The World We Knew (Over and Over)".

Also, it has been sampled on tracks by The Notorious B.I.G. (“Kick In The Door”), The Beatnuts ("Se Acabo") and LL Cool J (“LL Cool J”). Producers Cookin' Soul reworked the sample used by The Notorious B.I.G, incorporating more elements of the original song and changing the tempo, and released a song featuring Styles P of The LOX.

It is also sung by Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy, and Sarah Jessica Parker in the 1993 Disney Film Hocus Pocus.

[edit] In the media

In films, it has been performed (with different lyrics) by Bette Midler in Disney's Halloween movie, Hocus Pocus, of which this version has been used as exit music for the HalloWishes Halloween-themed fireworks show at Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party in Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom theme park; while the original version has also been covered by Diamanda Galás, which was featured in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers. Marilyn Manson's version was featured in David Lynch's Lost Highway as well as television ads for M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense. The Creedence Clearwater Revival version and the Nina Simone version were used in Rebecca Miller's The Ballad of Jack and Rose. It has been also played in an episode of The Simpsons (I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can) and an episode of The PJ's. It was featured in the movie Stranger Than Paradise. Hawkins performed the song on film in A Rage in Harlem and the song was also used in the Supernatural episode, "Malleus Maleficarum".

The Hawkins version has even become a standard accompaniment for ice skaters, including Michelle Kwan, Alexei Urmanov and the team of Elizabeth Punsalan and Jerod Swallow.

The song has also figured in countless radio and television advertisements, such as those for Pringles, Levi's, McDonald's and Burger King.

It has recently featured in the BBC's Holby City promotional advert (played by Marilyn Manson), and rock musician Danko Jones plays the track after every live show he performs with his band.

Rivulets has been known to perform this song, most notably at Sacred Heart Music Center in 2009.

Don Imus has used a sample of this song to bridge a cut to a radio commercial for many years.

On season eight of Dancing With the Stars, comedian David Alan Grier and partner Kym Johnson performed a Viennese Waltz to the song.

The Heavy took the music from I Put A Spell On You and laid new vocals over it for their hit Sixteen.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Chris Morris (Feb 26, 2000), Legendary Screamin' Jay Hawkins Dies At 70, Billboard, http://books.google.com/books?id=ag4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA8 
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