Claims to have recorded his famous single "I Put A Spell On You" while
both he and the musicans were blind drunk, and that he couldn't even
recall the recording session.
Was planning an album of operatic recordings to sing on at the time of
his death.
Enlisted in the US Army at age 13 with a forged birth
certificate, and was sent to front-line combat duty.
Golden Gloves amateur boxing champion and later, while in the army, won
the Alaska Middleweight Championship in 1949 from Billy McCann, though
he was stripped of the title because of a technicality under suspicious
circumstances.
His song "I Put A Spell On You" has been used in American TV
commercials for McDonalds, Burger King, Pringle's Potato Chips and
Levi's jeans.
Mentioned in the song "Life Is a Rock But the Radio Rolled Me" by
Reunion.
Wrote and recorded the 1993 song "Sherilyn Fenn", featured on his album "Stone Crazy". The song is an ode to Sherilyn Fenn, who worked with him in Two Moon Junction (1988).