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Amazon.com
Back in the day, Screamin' Jay Hawkins put the show in show business. His voodoo-inspired stage act included fireworks, flash powder, snakes, shrunken heads, and his faithful companion, a skull named Henry. To start his concerts, he was carried on in a coffin, from which he leaped, as if risen from the dead, often sending a good portion of his audience scampering for the exits. All of that sounds quaint by current standards, but at the time it was as controversial--perhaps more so--than Marilyn Manson is today. So was Screamin' Jay's music, which was marked with wild, wordless exhortations and orgasmic screams. "Voodoo Jive" contains Hawkins's best cuts, including the essential "I Put a Spell on You" plus "Little Demon," "Frenzy," "Alligator Wine," and "Person to Person," among others. In the grand scheme of things, Hawkins's schtick made him a legend, but in the short run, he was limited by what some saw as a mere novelty act. Still, he recorded some fine, honking R&B and proto-rock & roll that still sounds great (and completely out of control). The closing cut here, "Constipation Blues," is not for the faint of heart, but then neither is anything else Hawkins ever recorded. --Daniel Durchholz
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