For Halloween I checked out some lists of all time Halloween favorite songs and didn’t care for most of them: “Monster Mash,” “Thriller,” “Don’t Fear the Reaper” plus anything by Alice Cooper and or Marilyn Manson just doesn’t get it for me. However I did stumble upon an old time favorite of mine – Screaming Jay Hawkins’ “I Put a Spell on You.”
I first became aware of Screaming Jay when a roommate of mine at Frostburg College played his album. Because I had heard the Animals, Creedence and Arthur Brown do “I Put a Spell on You” I was familiar with the song and knew I liked it. However, Screaming Jay’s original version was and is still the real deal. For more info on the song click here. In addition to the video below there is also a 10 minute documentary on Jay at this link click here.