31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN - DAY 29

THE MONSTER MASH

Since it's release in 1962 when it became no. 1 in 8 weeks, Bobby "Boris" Pickett is the only active performer whose original recording reached "the top 100" on three different occasions.


Over the years Monster Mash has been heard on every top 40 and oldies station on the planet and such popular T.V. shows as the Simpsons, Cheers, Roseanne, Doogie Howser and CNN, not to mention its use in several movies including "Halloween III" and Sweetheart's Dance." Its co-creator and vocalist, Bobby "Boris"Pickett, has been hailed as the Guy Lombardo of Halloween and Monster Mash has become the national anthem of this fun holiday.


How did it all come about? Well, according to TheMonsterMash.com:

Lenny sat down at the piano and began futzing with various four-chord progressions and I stood next to the piano. Like me, Lenny was a major horror movie fan from childhood. He loved Bela Lugosi as Dracula. He knew I had the Boris Karloff voice pretty nailed, although in reptrospect, I feel that what I actually had was a very cartoonish rendition of that wonderful actor's voice. In any case, we'd both seen how the audiences had loved it when I was with the group and we'd sing “Little Darlin'” and I did the monologue in the middle of the song in Boris's voice. We agreed that the Karloff voice was the most obvious one to tell the story. And what was the story?

“Well,” Lenny suggested, “Maybe the Frankenstein monster should start a dance craze.”

“That's it!” I said.

...and the rest, as they say, is history.

Here is a video of Bobby Pickett performing the song from a TV special from the late 60's:

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