Episode #40: I Put a Spell on You

 
I do believe this is the first-ever Halloween-themed episode of your favorite R&B revue. I lined up as many scary, frightening, spooky or strongly disconcerted songs as I could. Short of that, I took the easy route and just picked songs with scary keywords in the titles. All in all, I think we did pretty okay. We've got graveyards, nefarious creatures, haunted or just really depressing houses, several excursions into voodoo, bad health-care advice, hotbeds of eternal afterlife torment, unregulated intestines, and plain ol' no-frills death. And Screamin' Jay Hawkins, of course, because I'm not so dumb that I'd exclude him. Make this your soundtrack for Tuesday's celebration of our own worst impulses, not including New Year's Eve or St. Patrick's Day. Boo. That's what they say, right?

Artist	Song	Year	Label
Set 1
Screamin' Jay Hawkins	I Put a Spell on You	1956	Okeh
LaVern Baker	Voodoo Voodoo	1961	Atlantic
The Blenders	Graveyard	1962	A.F.O.
The Kac-Ties	Mr. Werewolf	1963	Kape
Jumpin' Gene Simmons	Haunted House	1964	Hi
Claudine Clark	Walkin' Through a Cemetery	1962	Chancellor
The Velvets	Nightmare	1964	Monument
Shorty Billups	Black Cats	1965	Blast
Jimmy Fraser	Of Hopes and Dreams and Tombstones	1965	Columbia
Set 2
The Four Tops	7-Rooms of Gloom	1967	Motown
Silent Majority	Frightened Girl	1969	Hot Wax
Cresa Watson	Dead	1969	Charay
Clea Bradford	My Love's a Monster	1968	Cadet
Dusty Springfield	Spooky	1970	Philips (UK)
J.J. Barnes	To an Early Grave	1970	Magic Touch
Dr. John	I Walk on Guilded Splinters	1968	ATCO
Set 3
Stevie Wonder	Superstition	1972	Tamla
Ted Taylor	How Do You Walk Away From Fear	1971	Ronn
Sylvia	Easy Evil	1974	Vibration
Bunny Sigler	Theme for Five Fingers of Death	1973	Philadelphia Int'l
James Brown	Hell	1974	Polydor
Blue Magic	Born on Halloween	1975	ATCO
Set 4/Outro
Hot Blood	Soul Dracula	1975	ERA
Jimmy Castor Bunch	King Kong	1975	Atlantic
Instant Funk	Witch Doctor	1979	Salsoul
Tavares	The Ghost of Love	1978	Capitol
C.J. & Co.	Devil's Gun	1977	Westbound
Earth, Wind & Fire	Evil	1973	Columbia