Multiple Mondays: I Put A Spell On You: The Threequel

Hi, folks. Sorry about the lack of Stagger Lee over the weekend -- I had a family daytrip to go on, and forgot to prepare a post ahead of time. Why? Well, I was working on this:

It's October, and people all over the world will be listening to "I'll Put A Spell On You" in a few weeks. Last year, I put up a total of 19 versions of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' classic voodoo howl. I just reupped the zip, and you can find Volumes One and Two here. Now, here are ten more versions of the song.

As Volume Two was mostly concerned with late-60's garage versions of the song, Volume Three is predominantly bluesy, and at some points even really mellow. (I particularly recommend Robben Ford's lovely, quiet instrumental version.)

My original, disastrous attempt to put together a collection involved weeding out all the artists we'd heard from already in the previous collections, and I found that a lot of the other versions I have... aren't fantastic. (I'm looking at you, Diamanda Galas!) So we're hearing a remix of the Sonique version we heard in Volume One, and the Woodstock recording from Creedence, whose version I put up in Volume Two. We've also got a live version from Gov't Mule, and a menacing 1980 rerecording from Screamin' Jay himself, with one K. Richards on guitar (via How Marvellous -- thanks!).

Mr. Richards' friend Bill Wyman is here too, as Beverley Skeete takes the Simone-ish vocal duties for his Rhythm Kings. You'll also hear from Tab Benoit, Jimmy Barnes, Leslie West, and The Black Elevators (with a version which I think frequent commenter CD emailed me last year).

I have about seven more versions of the song, but as I mentioned some aren't great, so you'll have to wait till next October for another collection. I've zipped them all up, and I'd recommend that, but you can cherry pick too if you like.

Zip file

Screamin' Jay Hawkins feat. K. Richards 1 2
Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings 1 2
Robben Ford 1 2
Tab Benoit 1 2
Leslie West 1 2
Jimmy Barnes 1 2
The Black Elevators 1 2
CCR live at Woodstock 1 2
Sonique (Full Vocal Remix) 2
Gov't Mule (live Chattanooga TN) 1 2

Multiple Mondays - I Put A Spell On You

(Note for bookkeepers -- I started writing this post last night, but sadly fell asleep before the files finished uploading. Tuesday's regular one-song post will be up soon.)

Screamin' Jay Hawkins wrote this song in 1956 (or so -- there is debate).

In 2005 I compiled a CD for a friend, on which I whittled down my collection of about 35 versions of this song down to 27, enough to fit onto one disc. Then today I got it down to ten. And it was painful. I love this song, and there are more than ten versions I love (sorry, CCR, Alan Price, Them, Manfred Mann, et al.).

But I can't post more than ten here and expect all of you to listen. So here we go: a wide spectrum of versions of "I Put A Spell On You" in less-than-chronological order.

Zip file

Once again, you can find your own links.