Screamin' Jay Hawkins

CTL-E-6272 · Person · musician · 1929–2000

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07461 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6272.

Screamin' Jay Hawkins, born Jalacy Hawkins on July 18, 1929, in Cleveland, Ohio, was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and actor known for a powerful, operatic vocal delivery and a macabre stage act. He studied classical piano as a child and hoped to sing opera, citing Paul Robeson as an idol, before turning to blues and rhythm and blues. His first musical break came in 1951 as pianist with guitarist Tiny Grimes, and he made his first recordings the following year. In 1956 he recorded his own song I Put a Spell on You for Columbia's Okeh imprint. Intended as a refined ballad, the released performance was screamed and theatrical, and it became his signature recording and biggest seller; it was later selected as one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. Disc jockey Alan Freed backed the stage gimmick that defined his act: Hawkins emerged from a coffin and performed with props including a smoking skull named Henry. He recorded for Philips in 1969 and acted in later years, including roles in Mystery Train and A Rage in Harlem. He died on February 12, 2000, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, aged seventy, following surgery for an aneurysm.

The record

• Also known as: Jalacy Hawkins, Jalacy J. Hawkins, Jay Hawkins

Notes

Staged 2026-10-16 under CTL-GOV-006 (Scan Tail Wave 7 — 747 Program, FINAL Wave 13; seventh Scan Tail packet at the founder's 40-record size). Gate A (2026-10-16): Gate A CLEAR (hand-checked 2026-10-16): no Screamin' Jay Hawkins entity or alias in the live graph (3,910 entities); the corpus scan string was the possessive variant "Screamin' Jay Hawkins's" (scan #2960), a variant string of this staged record, not a separate person. The graph holds his song as Work CTL-E-5863, I Put a Spell on You, but no Hawkins Person record. ID CTL-E-6272 free at staging. Supply: 747 Supply Ledger — Tier 4 corpus scan tail, corpus-gap-candidates-2026-10-15.json ranked #2960. The scan supplied the name string only; every fact is sourced under CTL-GOV-004. SCOPE GATE: Black American singer-songwriter whose 1956 recording is already a graph Work record (CTL-E-5863) with no author home; this record closes that orphan edge. Vital status: DECEASED — died February 12, 2000, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, aged 70 (AllMusic; Wikipedia; Carnegie Hall authority data, all accessed 2026-10-16). STATISTICS — Sales figure shown as reported, not verified: Wikipedia (accessed 2026-10-16) reports the 1956 recording 'reportedly surpassed a million copies in sales' although it failed to make the Billboard pop or R&B charts; AllMusic (accessed 2026-10-16) calls it his biggest seller without a figure. CONFLICT SHOWN, NOT BLENDED: the graph's own Work record CTL-E-5863 credits the song to Hawkins alone, while the song's reference entry credits Hawkins with co-writer Herb Slotkin; the staged edge uses composed_by Hawkins as the documented principal writer and the conflict is recorded here rather than resolved. Hawkins's widely repeated claims about the number of his children (57 or 75 in his own varying tellings) are self-reported, mutually inconsistent, and NOT carried. MEDIA: photo HELD (named candidate in media spec; no license claimed); chart staged in media spec; video HELD (no matching-entity CTL Short); audio HELD (no rights-cleared matching-entity audio staged); map N/A (person record). MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (Person records carry no map slot; maps attach to places and institutions.) | visual_assets = HELD: | chart = FILLED (Created for this packet (CTL graphic, CTL-PHOTO-001 lane) from the record's sourced facts.) | video = HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short in the Shorts Link Map (shorts-link-map-2026-10-15.json, 233 rows, checked by nam) | audio = HELD (HELD: No CTL-owned or rights-cleared matching-entity audio exists at staging.)

Referenced by

• I Put a Spell on You — composed by → this record

Sources

• AllMusic, Screamin' Jay Hawkins biography (accessed 2026-10-16) — born July 18, 1929, Cleveland, Ohio; died February 12, 2000, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, aged 70, following surgery to treat an aneurysm; also known as Jalacy Hawkins; first break 1951 as pianist with Tiny Grimes; debut recording for Gotham 1952; 1956 recording of 'I Put a Spell on You' for Columbia's Okeh imprint, intended as a refined ballad and performed in the celebrated theatrical style; stage act with coffin entrances and the skull prop Henry, a gimmick DJ Alan Freed backed with a $300 bonus; later Philips albums 1969; film roles in Mystery Train and A Rage in Harlem — https://www.allmusic.com/artist/hawkins-mn0000309458 (build store)
• Wikipedia, Screamin' Jay Hawkins (accessed 2026-10-16) — Jalacy J. Hawkins, July 18, 1929, Cleveland, Ohio – February 12, 2000, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France; singer-songwriter, musician, actor and boxer; classical piano study as a child; opera ambition with Paul Robeson as idol; career with Tiny Grimes from 1951; 'I Put a Spell on You' (1956) selected as one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll and reported to have surpassed a million copies in sales while failing to chart; died of multiple organ failure after emergency surgery for an aneurysm — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screamin%27_Jay_Hawkins (build store)
• Carnegie Hall, Data: Screamin' Jay Hawkins (accessed 2026-10-16) — institutional authority record: name Screamin' Jay Hawkins; birth date 1929-07-18; death date 2000-02-12; occupation composer; linked to Library of Congress name authority n92065915 — http://data.carnegiehall.org/names/1002868 (primary source · build store)

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Record CTL-E-6272 · Combined Graph record U-07461 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 3 sources · 1 mapped relationship.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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