(Jalacy J Hawkins)
Australia
#29 Sydney
• I Put A Spell On You was recorded by a number of artists in the 1960s including Manfred Mann, The Animals, Them, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Fever Tree and The Five Americans.
• In Australasia, I Put A Spell On You was also recorded by Adelaide band Travis Wellington Hedge (B-side, 1967, Graham Gobles was a member, pre-Mississippi/LRB); and by New Zealand band The La De Das (album track, 1966).
• A French version by Nicoletta, Ça Devait Arriver, was released in 1967.
The Atlantics were best known as an instrumental band and are remembered as such (see, for example, the official site). Their biggest hits were two original surf instrumentals that rank among the world’s best of the era: Bombora (July 1963, #1 Australia, #3 NZ YouTube) and The Crusher (November 1963, #7 Australia YouTube).
The Atlantics were a versatile, creative and skilful band formed in Sydney in 1961. By 1963, at the peak of their nationwide success, they were:
• Theo Penglis (guitar)
• Bosco Bosonac (bass)
• Peter Hood (drums)
• Jim Skiathitis (guitar)
This core instrumental line-up was supplemented at various times by solo vocalists Harvey Foster, Eddie Moses or Kenny Shane.
• Johnny Rebb (see Hey, Sheriff) who joined the band in 1966, is heard on vocals on I Put a Spell On You. The Atlantics had previously backed Rebb for solo singles including his 1963 charting single Ain’t I’m A Dog, recorded in August 1963 sessions.
As Atlantics guitarist Jim Skiathitis explains in an interview with Steve Flack [YouTube], the four instrumentalists “didn’t sing much” but they did perform with a succession of “stand alone singers … out the front”, a familiar configuration from Cliff Richard & The Shadows and other pre-Beatlemania bands. After an unsuccessful surf-themed single with their latest vocalist Kenny Shane (October 1963) they apparently reverted to a four-piece instrumental line-up.
The Atlantics’ first instrumental hit, Bombora, was still lingering on the charts when their second, The Crusher, entered the charts at the end of November 1963. The Crusher’s chart run overlapped with the Beatles’ domination of the charts from the Australian summer of 1963-64 and into the following months of 1964.
The British Invasion was arriving, when many Australian bands that had specialised in guitar instrumentals would switch to the guitar-and-vocals approach of the British beat bands. As Peter Hood of The Atlantics remarked of this period, “We thought we still had a good sound and we wanted to develop it further. We were also getting into more vocals ...” (quoted at Milesago). In Jim Skiathitis’s words, “After the Beatles hit … we discovered we had voices.“
Post-British Invasion line-up of The Atlantics with a new look:
Jim Skiathitis, Johnny Rebb, Theo Penglis, Bosco Bosanac, Peter Hood.
[Photo: Bosco Bosanac].
The British Invasion and original Australian surf music
The Beatles and their ilk knocked [surf music] for six late last year and if it’s going to come back it’s probably got to be now or never. I can’t see any signs of it coming back with any strength …
Sydney DJ Bob Rogers, Herald Sun column, 27 Sept 1964 [full story]
• On 17 January 1964, when The Beatles were already at #1 and #2 at Sydney radio station 2SM, 6 out of the Top 40 were Australian surf records. All of them were original compositions, and two of them had Australian placenames in their titles.
• On 20 March 1964, two months later, 10 out of the Top 40 were Beatles tracks (including all of the Top 6), and there were 2 Australian records in the Top 40: 1 cover at #32, 1 original at #34, no surf. Even if the chart mainly reflects 2SM’s current playlist, these numbers are revealing.
Sources, further reading:
1. Ian McFarlane, Encyclopedia of Australian Rock & Pop.
2. Atlantics history at Milesago.
3. Wikipedia article on The Atlantics.
4. Pete Hoppula’s Atlantics discography at Wang Dang Dula
5. Atlantics official
6. Atlantics interview with Steve Flack for Guitar Heroes – Issue 86 (at YouTube).
7. My blogpost Bizarro Shadows World Down Under is about Australian instrumental groups and their response to the British Invasion.
Thanks to Stephen McParland and Terry Stacey.
(Jalacy J Hawkins)
UK
Influential version
#9 UK #80 USA #8 Melbourne #37 Brisbane #7 Adelaide #15 NZ
The Alan Price Set was formed after Price quit as keyboardist with The Animals.
They had 7 records in the UK Top 40 (1966–1979) including I Put A Spell On You (1966, #9), Simon Smith & His Amazing Dancing Bear (1967, #4, wr. Randy Newman), The House That Jack Built (1967, #4, wr. Price), Don’t Stop The Carnival (1968, #13, wr. Sonny Rollins) and Jarrow Song (1974, #6, wr. Price).
(Jalacy J Hawkins)
USA
Influential version
#49 UK (1965) #28 UK (1969)
Single on Philips (USA) April 1965 and in UK May 1965.
Reissued in UK January 1969 and charted again, with Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood as the B-side.
Also on album I Put A Spell On You (1965).
Hugely popular and hard to categorise, American singer-pianist Nina Simone (Eunice Kathleen Waymon 1933-2003) was classically trained, and her early occupations as an accompanist, piano teacher, and bar singer were seen as means towards becoming a full-time classical pianist. Musical encyclopaedist Donald Clarke characterises her work as equal amounts of blues, jazz, folk, gospel, show tunes, adding up to love and protest.
The song is often identified with Nina Simone, and her autobiography was named after it.
Further reading: The Nina Simone Database [archived site]
(Herb Slotkin - Jay Hawkins*) USA
Original version
* Herb Slotkin is credited as co-writer on the label. The song’s 1956 copyright registration has Jay Hawkins as writer of the words and music, with Slotkin as the copyright claimant.
After this, labels usually credited Hawkins alone as writer.
Screamin’ J. Hawkins was a singer and pianist from Cleveland, real name Jalacy Hawkins (1929-2000), also known as Jay Hawkins. His R&B career started in the early 50s and morphed into a wild and macabre sub-genre of rock’n’roll after this release of I Put A Spell On You on Okeh in 1956.
Claims that I Put A Spell On You had been recorded as long ago as 1949 appear unfounded. Hawkins had recorded the song for Herb Slotkins’s Grand label in 1955, but that version was not released at the time (see below).
Alternative title: Spell.
Selected sources, further reading: 1. Account at Screamin’ Jay Hawkins His Golden Years [archived page] in a 1983 interview with Stuart Colman. 2. Posts by honeydhont and Joop Jansen to the defunct Problemsolving Forum at The Originals.
(Herb Slotkin - Jay Hawkins*) USA
Earlier recording: not released at the time
This is an earlier version in a more sedate style, recorded for Herb Slotkin’s Grand label in 1955. From 1956 on the Okeh label the artist was known as Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.
This remained unreleased until the 1980s on a 45 rpm single C1068 from Philadelphia reissue label Collectables.
* See note in above entry.
Thanks to Philippe for clarification.
(Jalacy J Hawkins) USA
Later version
Single on Fantasy, Creedence’s second single on that label, also on their self-titled debut album.
Lengthy and – for the time – progressive version with an inventive arrangement.
CD single on Virgin March 1993 (Single Mix) and on album Taxi April 1993.
(Belofski - Pleeth - Allen - Elkan - Hawkins) UK
Later version
#36 UK
Single on Orange Records by “British pop diva/deejay” (All Music) b.1965, also recorded in S’Express.
Also on her debut album Hear My Cry (#6 UK, #9 Austria, #2 Switzerland).
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Website by Lyn Nuttall. © Lyn Nuttall 2004-2026. Chart positions courtesy of Gavin Ryan’s Australian Chart Books and Dean Scapolo’s Complete NZ Music Charts. Special thanks to Terry Stacey for information, corrections and suggestions. Thanks also to Tony Watson, Philippe Edouard, Dave Overett.., More…