“Shadows of a thousand years rise again unseen,
Voices whisper in the trees, 'Tonight is Halloween!' ”

- Dexter Kozen
http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~kozen/

Pickett was an aspiring actor who sang with a band called The Cordials at night while going to auditions during the day. One night, while performing with his band, Pickett did a monologue in imitation of horror movie actor Boris Karloff while performing The Diamonds' "Little Darlin'". The audience loved it and fellow band member Lenny Capizzi encouraged Pickett to do more with the Karloff imitation.^[2]

Pickett and Capizzi composed "Monster Mash" and recorded it with Gary S. Paxton, Leon Russell, Johnny McCrae, Rickie Page, and Terry Berg, credited as "The Crypt-Kickers". (Mel Taylor, drummer for The Ventures, is sometimes credited with playing on the record as well,^[3] while pianist Leon Russell, who arrived late for the session, appears on the single's instrumental B-side, "Monster Mash Party".^[4]) The song was partially inspired by Paxton's earlier novelty hit "Alley Oop", as well as by the Mashed Potato dance craze of the era.^[5] A variation on the Mashed Potato was danced to "Monster Mash", in which the footwork was the same but Frankenstein-style monster gestures were made with the arms and hands.

The song is narrated by a mad scientist whose monster, late one evening, rises from a slab to perform a new dance. The dance becomes "the hit of the land" when the scientist throws a party for other monsters. The producers came up with several low-budget but effective sound effects for the recording. For example, the sound of a coffin opening was imitated by a rusty nail being pulled out of a board. The sound of a cauldron bubbling was actually water being bubbled through a straw, and the chains rattling were simply chains being dropped on a tile floor. Pickett also impersonated horror film actor Bela Lugosi as Dracula with the lyric "Whatever happened to my Transylvania Twist?"^[6]

The song was re-released several times and appeared in the Billboard charts on three occasions after the original release — December 1962, August 1970 and May 1973.^[7] The BBC had banned the record from airplay in 1962 on the grounds that the song was "too morbid". It was re-released in the United Kingdom in 1973, where it peaked at #3 in early October. To celebrate this popular release, Bobby and the Crypt-Kickers toured Dallas and St. Louis around the 1973 Halloween holiday. On this tour, the Crypt-Kickers were composed of Brian Ray (now guitarist with Paul McCartney), drummer Brian Englund, keyboardist Don Chambers, singer Jean Ray, and others. The "Monster Mash" re-entered the British Charts again on November 2, 2008 at #60.

"Monsters' Holiday", a Christmas-themed follow up, was recorded by Pickett and released in December 1962, peaking at #30 on the Billboard chart. The tune was penned by the renowned novelty song composer Paul Harrison. In 1985, with American culture experiencing a growing awareness of rap music, Pickett released "Monster Rap", which describes the mad scientist's frustration at being unable to teach the dancing monster from "Monster Mash" how to talk. The problem is solved when he teaches the monster to rap. A movie musical based on the song starring Pickett was released in 1995.

   OH, NO! Even though it was hardly unexpected, I'm so very sorry to hear this, Maureen, but thank you for letting us know.

Wednesday, October 31, 1968 - Basketball player and sportscaster Antonio Davis was born Antonio Lee Davis in Oakland, California.

    Thank you, Shari! What a hoot!

   Thank you, Shari! I keep thinking I once knew the answer to this, but it certainly isn't coming to me now.

   "Anyone? Anyone?"