It's kind of a love song--all the monsters enjoying each other's company
November 20, 2015 9:35 PM   Subscribe

You've tuned back into Radio FLTR, where we're digging up more hits from the past and doin' a monster song with ya on this beautiful November night. Here's that young dreamboat with the wacky expressions, Bobby Pickett doing the Monster Mash back in 1964 on American Bandstand, two years after his hit was first released, when he first cashed in on two hits at once - songs about dancing and monster mania. Bobby "Boris" Pickett didn't rest on those laurels in '62, but swiftly came back with a whole album of monster songs that same year ....

As noted in the excellent write-up of how the Monster Craze collided with Dance (Song) Fever, before the Monster Mash, there was Dinner with Drac (parts 1 & 2) in 1958 by John Zacherle, The Cool Ghoul, known among New York-area television audiences simply as Zacherley.

Four years later, The Original Monster Mash included 14 more tracks of monster mayhem, which was later re-issued with his second seasonal hit from 1962, Monsters' Holiday. But that wasn't the end of Bobby "Boris" Pickett, and he released a string of singles over the years:

1963: As noted in the great summary Pickett's career on Wayback Attack, he tried to get serious with a new single - Graduation Day (previously performed by The Rover Boys and The Four Freshmen, both releasing their single in 1956, the latter performing the song the next year), but he hedged his bets with the b-side, The Humpty Dumpty
1963: ... and went back to straight novelty with Simon the Sensible Surfer (monster-free novelty), and never (really) looked back
1964: The Werewolf Watusi / Monster Swim (American Bandstand, 1964, back to the monsters)
1964: Bobby "Boris" Pickett And The Filter-Tip Kickers - Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette) / Gotta Leave This Town (the A-side was a "Boris" cover of Tex Williams' novelty country song he released in 1947)
... skipping some singles, for lack of online (audio) presence ...
1976: Bobby Pickett And Peter Ferrara - King Kong (Your Song) -- "campy without being silly ... should be well timed to take advantage of the building excitement about the remake of the classic movie"
1976: Bobby Pickett And Peter Ferrara - StarDrek (plus a vintage '92 home-made video spoof and a 2009 digital era spoof)
1984: Bobby (Boris) Pickett featuring Bobby Paine - Monster Rap -- Pickett jumps on the upcoming rap bandwagon
1990: It's Alive -- Bobby's tribute to his own song almost 30 years later

Bonus: Bobby "Boris" Pickett and Zacherley - Monster Mash, performed live in 2006

Midnight movie: Monster Mash: The Movie (1995), starring Bobby "Boris" Pickett as Dr. Frankenstein (lengthy review from Stomp Tokyo)

In his later years, Pickett got involved with environmental causes, and re-wrote Monster Mash to support those efforts, first as Monster Slash (archive.org version - the URL is currently a porn site) to protest George W. Bush's environmental policies in 2004, then Climate Mash (archive.org version of the site - another squatted domain now) in 2005, criticizing the GWB administration's climate change [in]action.

You can read more from Pickett in his own words in a few interviews. He died in April 2007 at the age of 69.
posted by filthy light thief (13 comments total) 27 users marked this as a favorite
 
Previously: It's a graveyard smash, another post on The Monster Mash, some more on Pickett, and a bunch of covers; and Welcome to Fright Night, a round-up of late night horror hosts, including Zacherley.

Inspired by WCityMike's post on Napoleon XIV's little ditty "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha Ha!" and listening to a "Halloween music" CD after weeks after Halloween has passed.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:42 PM on November 20, 2015 [2 favorites]


We always used to sing this song in music class around Halloween when I was in grade school (early 80s.) Love this post!
posted by SisterHavana at 9:54 PM on November 20, 2015


Yes, it's a Dr. Demento weekend! Interestingly, the second-most popular Bobby Pickett recording on the Good Dr.'s show after the obvious "Monster Mash" was "Star Drek" with Peter Ferrera. "Plot Complication showing up on ship's sensors..."
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:57 PM on November 20, 2015 [1 favorite]


I spent most of the 90s nursing an unhealthy, expensive obsession with 50s and 60s monster novelty records - this is very impressive.

The more you dig at this thing, the more you unearth - there were a number of other monster and monster-ish records in '58 alongside Zacherle's (e.g. Kip Tyler's She's My Witch, Tarantula Ghoul and Her Gravediggers' Graveyard Rock, and Lee Ross' The Mummy's Bracelet). Zachele was the most successful of them, but he was riding a wave - a few years later literally, as he tried to cash in on the surf craze - composed of many low-profile, independent label 45s, some regionally popular. Pickett, too.
posted by ryanshepard at 9:57 PM on November 20, 2015 [6 favorites]


"Monsters enjoying each other's company" immediately made me think of this. Monsters having fun, happy, happy...
posted by teponaztli at 10:05 PM on November 20, 2015 [2 favorites]




As I never tire of pointing out, my favorite fact about “Monster Mash” is that it's one of the few songs to ever chart on three separate occasions.
teponaztli: “"Monsters enjoying each other's company" immediately made me think of this .”
Is this where I talk about when my little brother was obsessed with Rockapella?
posted by ob1quixote at 10:10 PM on November 20, 2015 [2 favorites]




As I never tire of pointing out, my favorite fact about “Monster Mash” is that it's one of the few songs to ever chart on three separate occasions.

More impressive to me is the fact that the second time was in August 1970, then had significant charting presence in 1973, starting May 5. I can't figure out why - it isn't listed in movies on IMDb at these times. The only difference I see in the charts is that it got re-issued on Parrot Records (1970, 1973). Was that really it, Parrot (a subsidiary of London Records) did a good job promoting the single, twice?
posted by filthy light thief at 8:11 AM on November 21, 2015 [1 favorite]


teponaztli: "Monsters enjoying each other's company" immediately made me think of this

For anyone whose brain is not saturated with early 1990s episodes of The Simpsons, I the post title is a quote from the episode "I Love Lisa".
posted by filthy light thief at 8:16 AM on November 21, 2015 [3 favorites]


What's funny is that my brain IS saturated with early 1990s episodes of The Simpsons, such that read of the song and "Monster Mash" as a Valentine's Day song is so natural to me that I barely even remember where it came from.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 8:25 AM on November 21, 2015 [1 favorite]


Also, since I don't know if I'll ever have an opportunity to post it again, I'm just going to leave my favorite of the post-Twist monster dance craze 45s here:

Ted Cassidy: The Lurch [1965]
posted by ryanshepard at 9:05 AM on November 21, 2015 [5 favorites]


Oh, it took me a couple days to notice, but my brain is ALSO saturated with early 90s Simpsons, and I totally did not catch that! I have been shamed.

I can almost quote that entire episode, too... We are the mediocre presidents...
posted by teponaztli at 8:28 PM on November 23, 2015


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