Songful Style Link Party #43: “I Put a Spell on You” by Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy

Let’s keep playing dress up with a musical twist as well as a little Halloween inspiration!

About Songful Style

Songful Style is a style challenge series hosted by Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, Marsha of Marsha in the Middle, and Suzy of Suzy Turner, The Grey Brunette.

Each month we will share a song with the lyrics and video and we invite you to use whatever aspect of the song that inspires you to create an outfit. 

It is similar to Style Imitating Art where we use artwork to inspire our outfit creations. Except Songful Style gives you lyrics, music, video, and album artwork to inspire your fashion creativity. You may even find inspiration in a memory triggered by the selected song. It is all open to your own personal interpretation and just a fun way to discover new music and get a little bit more creative with your wardrobe.

Anyone is welcome to join us on a permanent basis or you can just play along without any obligation to do anything other than feel inspired. We are flexible and fun and just want to find more ways to play dress up because it’s what we enjoy doing! 

We will be posting on the last Monday of each month and will announce our song choice for the following month at the end of each post. You are welcome to style your own song inspired outfit and add it to the link party or link anything that you want to share even if it has nothing to do with the song.

It was Suzy’s turn to choose our song inspiration. Because Halloween is in just a few days, she picked a tune that fits the season, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ 1956 song, “I Put a Spell on You” performed by Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy in the 1993 fantasy comedy Halloween film Hocus Pocus.

The Video

The Hocus Pocus Lyrics

[Intro: Winifred]
I put a spell on you
And now you're mine
You can't stop the things I do
I ain't lyin'
It's been three hundred years
Right down to the day
Now the witch is back
And there's hell to pay
I put a spell on you
And now you're mine!

[Verse 1: Winifred]
Hello, Salem!
My name's Winifred!
What's yours?

[Chorus: Winifred, (Mary and Sara)]
I put a spell on you
And now you're gone
(Gone, gone, gone, so long!)
My whammy fell on you
And it was strong
(So strong, so strong, so strong!)
Your wretched little lives
Have all been cursed
'Cause of all the witches working
I'm the worst
I put a spell on you
And now you're mine

[Post-Chorus: Mary and Sarah (Party Guests)]
Watch out! Watch out!
Watch out! Watch out!
(She ain’t lyin’)

[Verse 2: Winifred, (Mary and Sarah with Party Guests)]
If you don't believe
You better get superstitious
Ask my sisters
("Ooh, she's vicious!")
Uh!, Eeh!

[Chorus: Winifred]
I put a spell on you...
A wicked spell
I put a spell on you...
Sistahs!

[Bridge: Winifred, Sarah and Mary, (Party Guests)]
Ah, say into pi, alpha maybe upendi
(Ah, say into pi, alpha maybe upendi!)
In comma-coriyama
(In comma-coriyama)
Hey!, (hey!)
High!, (high!)
Say!

[Outro: Winifred, Mary and Sara]
Bye-bye!
Oh-oh-ah
Bye, bye!

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins

The Original Lyrics

[Verse 1]
I put a spell on you because you're mine
Stop the things you do
Mwahahaha, watch out!
I ain't lyin', yeah
I can't stand no runnin' around
I can't stand no puttin' me down
I put a spell on you because you're mine
Oh yeah

[Verse 2]
Stop the things you do
Mwahahaha, watch out!
I ain't lyin'
I love you, I love you, I love you, baby, how
I don't care if you don't want me, I'm yours right now
I put a spell on you because you're mine

[Outro]
Mine! Mine! Ow! Ooh!
Oh, oh you're mine!

About the Song

“I Put a Spell on You” is a 1956 song co-written by Herb Slotkin and American singer-songwriter-performer Jalacy J. “Screamin’ Jay” Hawkins. Despite failure to ever chart, the song is Hawkins’ greatest commercial success, selling in excess of one million copies and becoming a classic cult hit which has been covered by hundreds of artists over the last 70 years. The song was selected as one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll and was ranked at number 313 on Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.

Hawkins had originally intended the song to be a refined love ballad with a bluesy feel. However, after the producer brought in chicken ribs and got everyone drunk, the resulting song was what Hawkins referred to as a “weird version.” After gaining commercial success, Hawkins’ first wife, Anna Mae Vernon, claimed that she actually wrote the song but allowed her husband to take all the credit.

In 1955, Hawkins recorded but never released the song as a traditional love ballad. The following year, he re-recorded the song as his notorious screaming version, which was quickly banned by most radio stations due to its “outrageous cannibalistic style.” Despite these radio restrictions, the song still managed to sell over one million copies.

Some of the most popular covers of this song have been recorded by Nina Simone in 1965, Alan Price in 1966, Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1968, Marilyn Manson in 1995, Bonnie Tyler in 1998, Jeff Beck and Joss Stone in 2010, Annie Lennox in 2013, and of course, our version of the song as performed by Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy in the 1993 Halloween hit movie Hocus Pocus.

About My Outfit

This outfit is absolutely not what I had first envisioned but I really kind of loved it in the end.

I was inspired by the Sanderson sisters’ colorful witchy outfits in the musical film clip, but I had more textures in mind when I first set out to create my outfit for this songful prompt. Actually, my initial idea was to style this purple velvet dress with a corset belt and some kind of long flowy robe with lots of textures. But when I went into my closet room to start planning, I realized that I had purged the purple dress in my last closet clean out because it was way too big and I really didn’t love the cold shoulder style.

Now that I had my mind set on velvet, I quickly moved onto my teal velvet dress which fits better and keeps my shoulders warm. However, it does have a deep vee in the back which makes my back cold. I guess that’s what we have coats for!

Once I had the dress on, I didn’t like the shorter length for representing these witchy sisters in their long layers of fabulousness. So I added my pleated yellow velvet midi skirt underneath the dress. I still was not pleased with the length so I added my green crushed velvet maxi skirt underneath the yellow skirt. After I had the three layers on together, I was pretty pleased with the vibrant color blocking and the various velvet textures which include the smooth velvet of the teal dress, the pleated velvet of the yellow skirt, and the crushed velvet of the green skirt.

To add some more texture and keep with the ancient witchy vibes, I added my black lace corset belt. I also added this long black lace duster over all the layers and while it provided me with another texture that I wanted to incorporate, it also took away some of the shape and structure of the underlying outfit. In the end, I ditched the lacy duster in favor of my colorful Kantha coat. I always refer to this coat as my wizard cloak so it worked really well for this magical inspiration.

For the rest of my accessories, I looked for the witchiest things I could find in my collections of stuff. I ended up wearing my purple hand felted wool hat which is super magical, my lace and velvet fringed shawl as a scarf for even more texture, a pair of black chandelier earrings for a little Gothic vibe, and my tall black lace up wedding boots because they have the perfect witchy feel.

It felt a little bit crazy to layer two skirts under a dress, but once it was all together, I was the happiest Halloween witch there ever was! Another example of how these silly style prompts can lead to unlikely combinations that turn out to be quite fabulous.

I also used to have a Hocus Pocus tee shirt which would have been really cute for this style challenge. However, I didn’t wear that tee shirt very much so I passed it onto my mother-in-law. Hocus Pocus is her favorite Halloween movie, she loves the shirt, and she wears it way more than I did so it went to a worthy new owner!

I hope you will check out the outfits my songfully stylish friends have created inspired by this Halloween hit.

• Marsha of Marsha in the Middle
• Suzy of Suzy Turner, The Grey Brunette

Whenever I take photos in the cemetery, we are always on the lookout for tombstones with names that are relevant to the prompt. The names that I was looking for included Sanderson, Midler, Parker, Najimy, and Hawkins. I was not hopeful for finding Sanderson, Midler, or Najimy so I focused on Parker and Hawkins. We finally spotted a Parker as we were leaving the cemetery so I jumped out for a few quick photos.

You might also recognize the yellow doored mausoleum from previous posts. It reminds me of the witch’s house from Hansel and Gretel and it perfectly matched my yellow skirt so it provided a wonderful backdrop for this witchy style prompt.

Featured Favorite from Songful Style Link Party #42: “Who’s That Girl?” by Madonna

If you enjoyed our musically inspired outfits for this round, please come back on November 24, 2025, to see how we style Marsha’s next song choice, “Harvest Moon” by Neil Young. These style challenges are such a great way to learn new music or revisit old songs and to view your wardrobe from a totally different perspective. If you are feeling in the mood for some good old fashioned dress up fun, won’t you join us for this round or the next? 

Happy styling! 

Keeping it on the edge, 

Shelbee