Artist: Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Title: The Whamee 1953-55
Year Of Release: 2006
Label: Cherry Red Records
Genre: Rhythm and Blues, Blues, Rock and Roll
Quality: FLAC | lossless
Total Time: 01:10:24

Tracklist:
01. She Put The Whamee On Me
02. What That Is
03. In My Front Room
04. This Is All
05. You're All Of My Life To Me
06. Well I Tried
07. Talk About Me
08. Even Though
09. Not Anymore
10. Babtize Me In Wine
11. Coronation Jump
12. Why Did You Waste My Time? (Pt. 1)
13. No Hug, No Kiss
14. Tiny's Jump (Pt. 1)
15. Why Did You Waste My Time? (Pt. 2)
16. Tiny's Jump (Pt. 2)
17. I Found My Way To Wine
18. Please Try To Understand
19. $10,000 Lincoln Continental
20. Take Me Back
21. I Is (Pt. 1)
22. I Is (Pt. 2)
23. I Is (Pt. 3)
24. Pauline
25. $10,000 Lincoln Continental (Alternative Take)
26. I Put A Spell On You
27. Mumbles Blues

Shock-rock godfather Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’s Howlin’-Wolf-meets-Dracula brand of horror blues hit the big time in 1956 with “I Put a Spell on You,” but this collection documents the years leading up to that breakthrough. Focusing on his earliest recordings, from 1953-55, THE WHAMEE find Hawkins no less imposing a figure for his lack of celebrity or experience. There are some alternate, early versions of later hits like the abovementioned classic, but the real finds here are the lesser-known tunes, where Hawkins’ zombie-on-the-rampage wail haunts some slamming ‘50s R&B arrangements for a sound that foreshadows things to come. It all amounts to a captivating snapshot of a true American original finding his artistic feet.