A closer look
Before Alice Cooper or Marilyn Manson even learned how to apply eyeliner, Screamin' Jay Hawkins was terrifying 1950s audiences by erupting out of a flaming coffin. Originally an aspiring opera singer, Hawkins quickly realized that proper vocal techniques didn't pay the bills. Instead, he leaned entirely into theatrical shock value, utilizing a skull on a stick named Henry, rubber snakes, and unhinged, guttural vocals to deliver his iconic track 'I Put a Spell on You'. He single-handedly invented the macabre shock-rock aesthetic because he correctly deduced that teenagers will always pay money to be thoroughly traumatized.
