Episode #289 | 10.6.26

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins: Was Screamin’ Jay Hawkins Murdered?

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In this episode

He was an operatic vocalist made famous by his song “I Put A Spell on You,” a song he performed throughout the conservative 1950s while jumping out of a coffin on stage. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins will live on in infamy after it was discovered he fathered 57+ children over the course of his life as not only a singer, but a soldier, a boxer, and an actor. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins was a lot of things before he died in 2000, but was the man in the coffin actually the victim of a murder, as some have alleged? We find out in this special Halloween episode of Disgraceland.

Sources

I Put a Spell on You: The Bizarre Life of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, by Steve Bergsman

Unsung Heroes of Rock ‘n’ Roll, by Nick Tosches

I Put a Spell on Me (2001, dir. Nik Triantafyllidis)

57 Screaming Kids (Cutting Edge) (2001, dir. Dimitri Doganis)

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins (The Houndblog)

Screamin' Jay Hawkins, 70, Rock's Wild Man (NY Times) 

Because You're Mine: Searching For The Children Of Screamin' Jay Hawkins (NPR)

R&B LEGEND’S ‘DAUGHTERS’ IN FIGHT OVER HIS BODY (NY Post)

Children of a lesser god (The Guardian)

Screamin' Jay Hawkins (Rockabilly Central)

He put a spell on them (Salon)

Screamin' Jay Hawkins: The Man Who Ate Nick Cave (Eyes Wired Open)

Disparition de Screamin'Jay Hawkins, chanteur de blues africain-américain (Le Monde)

Décès du sorcier du rhythm and blues Screamin' Jay Hawkins ne hurlera plus (L'Orient-Le Jour)

At Home with Screamin' Jay Hawkins (1958) (Vinyl Stories)

Don Arden: the "notorious gangster" manager of Black Sabbath (Far Out) 

Jean-Michel Basquiat enjoyed Margaritas in New York City (Spirit Hunters)