Post by mrjukebox on Aug 4, 2009 16:52:00 GMT -5
Without a doubt,"The Monster Mash" is to Halloween what "Auld Lang Syne" is to New Year's Eve-This weekend's edition of "AT40-The 70's" is from 8/4/73-That's when "The Monster Mash" became a smash all over again-The gentleman who wrote & recorded this timeless classic was Bobby Pickett-As a child growing up in Somerville,Massachusetts,Bobby loved going to the movies every Saturday.
He loved horror films,espcially those featuring his idol,Boris Karloff-In the late 50's,Pickett & his friend Lenny Capizzi were members of a doo-wop group called The Cordials-One of the songs they performed in their act was "Little Darlin",which The Diamonds popularized in 1957.
For those of you who are old enough to remember this song,there's a spoken word portion in the middle-One night,Bobby did that part as Boris Karloff-It got a great reaction from the crowd-Fast forward to 1962-Dances like The Twist,The Hully Gully,& The Mashed Potato were all the rage-Bobby decided to capitalize on this trend & decided to record a spoof called "The Monster Mash" in which he sang the song in his Karloff voice.
"The Monster Mash" was sent to several major record labels & ended up being rejected by all of them.
Eventually,Gary Paxton,who was the mastermind behind "Alley Oop" by The Hollywood Argyles in 1960,liked what he heard & released "Monster Mash" on his own label Garpax Records-In October 1962,"Monster Mash" was #1 around the world-In August 1970,it reentered the "Billboard Hot 100" & spent a week at #91-Three years later,the song recharted again & peaked in the top ten-Unfortunately,Bobby "Boris" Pickett died in 2007 at the age of 69,but his Halloween classic has definitely stood the test of time.
He loved horror films,espcially those featuring his idol,Boris Karloff-In the late 50's,Pickett & his friend Lenny Capizzi were members of a doo-wop group called The Cordials-One of the songs they performed in their act was "Little Darlin",which The Diamonds popularized in 1957.
For those of you who are old enough to remember this song,there's a spoken word portion in the middle-One night,Bobby did that part as Boris Karloff-It got a great reaction from the crowd-Fast forward to 1962-Dances like The Twist,The Hully Gully,& The Mashed Potato were all the rage-Bobby decided to capitalize on this trend & decided to record a spoof called "The Monster Mash" in which he sang the song in his Karloff voice.
"The Monster Mash" was sent to several major record labels & ended up being rejected by all of them.
Eventually,Gary Paxton,who was the mastermind behind "Alley Oop" by The Hollywood Argyles in 1960,liked what he heard & released "Monster Mash" on his own label Garpax Records-In October 1962,"Monster Mash" was #1 around the world-In August 1970,it reentered the "Billboard Hot 100" & spent a week at #91-Three years later,the song recharted again & peaked in the top ten-Unfortunately,Bobby "Boris" Pickett died in 2007 at the age of 69,but his Halloween classic has definitely stood the test of time.