Screamin' Jay Hawkins

Ex-boxer Screamin' Jay Hawkins' live show, full of on-stage coffins, skulls, and toilets, prefigured the extravagant concert productions of later artists like Alice Cooper and George Clinton, and Hawkins' full awareness of the visual aspect of rock music extended even to his lyrics, which were purposefully graphic and surreal. In essence, Hawkins was a one- or two-trick pony, but boy, those ponies could run. His masterpiece was "I Put a Spell on You," which he originally recorded for OKeh Records (supposedly while extremely drunk) in 1956, and while Hawkins' version was never even close to being a commercial hit, the song has been covered so many times (most notably by Nina Simone) that it has deservedly been certified as a rock and R&B classic.

Cow Fingers and Mosquito Pie is a magically weird 19-song collection of the bizarre shouter's mid-'50s OKeh/Epic output, when he was at the height of his strange and terrifying vocal powers. In addition to the prerequisite "I Put a Spell on You," and the surreal rockers "Yellow Coat," "Hong Kong," "Alligator Wine," and "Little Demon"; there's the amusing "There's Something Wrong With You"; a previously unissued "You Ain't Foolin' Me"; and a deranged takeoff on the cowboy ditty "Take Me Back to My Boots and Saddle." And what Screamin' Jay Hawkins does to the formerly stately "I Love Paris," and "Orange Colored Sky" is truly indescribable!.

For many, when you think of early rock & roll, certain images and sounds immediately come to mind - Chuck Berry strumming his red Gibson while duck-walking, a sweaty Little Richard wailing into the mike, Jerry Lee Lewis bashing the piano, etc. But what's often forgotten is that in rock's dawning moments, horns played a big part in the then-new genre's sound. And Screamin' Jay Hawkins was one of rock's early artists to embrace blaring saxophones - as well as theatrics. As evidenced by the 1994 release I Shake My Stick at You, Hawkins was rockin' and hollerin' till the very end…

Stone Crazy is a latter-day album from Screamin' Jay Hawkins, recorded with his touring band the Chickenhawks. Musically, the album sounds surprisingly good, since the Chickenhawks are a tight little backing band, but Hawkins' schtick gets a little tiresome after a while, and there aren't many great songs on the album. Only the tribute to the Twin Peaks vixen "Sherilyn Fenn" really hits home, but dedicated fans will be pleased that the record does have sporadic fits of energetic playing.