Hawkins’ attitude to the NAACP was that as far as he was concerned the only thing they were doing for black people was trying to stop him earning a living, and he wanted nothing to do with them.

I was floored when I first heard the Screamin' Jay Hawkins original on an oldies station in Los Angeles back in the early 1980s--you never really knew what he was going to do next. Alice Smith—If I could only listen to one version of this song besides the original, this would be my pick. Bill from Salem, MaRush Limbaugh has used this song for his Mario Cuomo update theme for almost 15 years. which was a minor hit in the UK at the time, and has featured intermittenly in his live set since the late '90's. What we do know is that he seems to have grown up extremely resentful of women, particularly his mother.The original version gave the song an ironic theme, but Simone transformed it into a thrilling love song, complete with horns and strings. Note: I’m aware there’s a version by a late 90s artist, also known as a shock rocker, but that cover was intentionally not included on this list.

But when he was booked as the headline act on a Christmas show Freed put together in 1956, Freed surprised him by telling him he’d had a great idea for the show — he’d got hold of a coffin, and Hawkins could start his performance by rising out of the coffin like a vampire or zombie.

Given that World War II ended in September 1945, that would tend to suggest that his story about having been a Japanese prisoner of war was, perhaps, not one hundred percent truthful.

Every time, he would let his addictions to alcohol or codeine overtake him, or he would rip a friend off for a trifling sum of money, or he would just get married bigamously again. Rob Halford dives into some of his Judas Priest lyrics, talking about his most personal songs and the message behind "You've Got Another Thing Comin'. Hawkins was already starting to play up his stage persona even more — wearing capes and bones through his nose, and trying to portray a voodoo image. I'm willing to share the chord progression I use with anyone else - the trouble is I play by ear, and I can't even identify by name one of the chords I use! Po from Portland OrI am trying to find out the title of a vampire movie during the eighties that featured this song.

The album was re-issued in November 2020 by Verve and Universal Music Enterprises as part of their "audiophile-grade" Acoustic Sounds series. On his first record, with Grimes, he’s not the blues shouter that he had a reputation of being, and nor is he the screamer he would later become — instead he sounds like he’s imitating Clyde McPhatter’s singing on “The Bells” by Billy Ward and His Dominoes, but in a bass register somewhat reminiscent of Paul Robeson. Ani from Yerevan, ArmeniaJOHN FORGERTY has also done a gorgeous cover of this song in the album "Premonition" (1998). As Hawkins told the story, she came back to him, they stayed together for four months, and then he dumped her. During the recording of “Screamin’ Blues”, which would have been his first single, he got into an argument with Ahmet Ertegun, who kept telling him to sing the song more smoothly, like Fats Domino.