Photo by Arnie Goodman Photography
(HIGHTSTOWN, NJ) -- On Saturday, October 28, 2023 at 8:00pm, The Resurrection of Screamin' 'Jay Hawkins Band will be in Hightstown, NJ performing at Randy Now's Man Cave. The band will bring to town some legendary musicians. Mike Armando who was Screamin' Jay Hawkins guitarist (I Put A Spell On You) along with Arno Hecht the founder of the legendary NYC band Uptown Horns.
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins released "I Put a Spell On You" in 1956. The song, that never made it to the charts when it was released, would eventually be covered several hundred times by the likes of Nina Simone, Credence Clearwater Revival, and Marilyn Manson; Jeff Beck and Joss Stone’s version even received a Grammy nomination in 2010. It was selected as one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll and was added to Rolling Stones’ list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Hawkins’ music and outlandish onstage persona inspired generations of musicians after him. And yet, little is known of the man and little can be taken at face value. Hawkins interpreted his past with a poetic license to kill, a magical amalgam of his own making—creating disparate stories alternatively terrible or sympathetic at his will. From a music preservationist standpoint, it's important that old R&B singers like Screamin' Jay Hawkins are remembered.
"Forget about zombies! With the Resurrection of Screamin' Jay Hawkins Band, the man who invented shock-rock is back and he is gonna put a spell on you. Don't miss the most exciting stage act since Screamin' Jay Hawkins first emerged from a coffin," said Steve Bergsman, author of I Put a Spell on You: The Bizarre Life of Screamin' Jay Hawkins.
Randy Now's Man Cave is located at 119 W Ward Street in Hightstown, New Jersey.