October 20, 1962
The #1 position on the Hot 100 music chart was shelled out by Billboard on this date to the seasonal Halloween hit Monster Mash by Bobby “Boris” Pickett.
Basing his persona on horror movie stars Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, Pickett made a career from recording timely “frightful” novelty songs – mostly based upon dance crazes which were popular at the time.
In the case of ‘Monster Mash’, the title was a spoof of a 1962 dance known as the “Mashed Potato” (and a hit record from earlier that year by Dee Dee Sharp called Mashed Potato Time); he incorporated Lugosi’s “Transylvania” into a line in the song relating to the early 60’s outrageously popular dance The Twist, and also refers to Karloff.
Bobby “Boris” Pickett
Pickett, originally from Massachusetts, co-wrote ‘Monster Mash’ in the spring of 1962 with Leonard Capizzi, after which a demo recording of the song was circulated to record companies. It was rejected by all of them, except for one – a tiny record company based in Los Angeles called Garpax, which was founded by musician, songwriter and producer Gary Paxton. The label released the song on August 25th, 1962.
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MONSTER MASH
Bobby (Boris) Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers
[1962]
The Crypt-Kickers were comprised of four L.A. studio musicians, including Paxton and famed songwriter-producer-arranger Leon Russell.
‘Monster Mash’ ended a five week run at #1 by the debut hit from The Four Seasons called Sherry. It remained at the top for a couple of weeks over Halloween before falling to the girl group The Crystals with He’s A Rebel on November 3rd.
MM has been re-released twice – prior to Halloween in 1970 and then again in 1973 – reaching #91 and a resurgent #10 respectively.
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[Note] Paxton had already achieved recording success as a member of two Southern California acts – first as “Flip” in Skip & Flip, with the songs It Was I (1959 • #11) and Cherry Pie (1960 • #11) and then as a solo artist with his fictitious group The Hollywood Argyles (named after the famous cross-streets/signs in Tinseltown) and the #1 novelty hit in 1960 called Alley-Oop. Paxton later became a gospel singer.
[Note] “Skip” of Skip & Flip was Clarence “Skip” Batton, who later went on to fame as a member of the bands New Riders Of The Purple Sage, The Flying Burrito Brothers and The Byrds.
[Note] Leon Russell eventually was hired as an assistant to record producer “Snuff” Garrett and played on many of the most popular songs of the 1960s by acts like the Byrds, Brian Hyland (The Joker Went Wild), Glen Campbell (Gentle On My Mind) and most notably Gary Lewis and the Playboys, where he either played on, wrote or co-wrote hits like This Diamond Ring, Everybody Loves A Clown and She’s Just My Style.
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DEEP TRAK!
THE MONSTER SWIM
Bobby Pickett and the Rolling Bones
[1964]
After the failed followup novelty release with The Crypt-Kickers for Christmas of 1962 called Monsters’ Holiday (#30) and another disappointing record as a solo act – Graduation Day (1963 • #88) – came this equally poor performer on the charts in 1964. It was issued as by Bobby Pickett and the Rolling Bones (after the Stones) called The Monster Swim. It too was based on a new dance in 1964 (and a Top 5 song by American singer Bobby Freeman called C’mon And Swim) known as “The Swim.”
“The Monster Swim’ failed to chart on Billboard, being relegated to their sub-#100 chart section called Bubbling Under, where is topped out at #135.
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1993 American Bandstand Collect-A-Card #39
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DEEP(er) TRAK!
KING KONG (Your Song)
Bobby Pickett And Peter Ferrara
[1976]
After the subsequent seasonal re-releases of ‘Monster Mash’ in 1970 and 1973, Pickett made another new recording in 1976 (yet again in the novelty vein and based on the then-current popularity of the ’76 re-make of the 1933 horror movie classic King Kong) called King Kong (Your Song). Teaming with the song’s co-writer and co-producer, Peter Ferrara, the song was another chart disappointment, languishing in the “Bubbling Under” of Billboard at #107.
Sadly, Robert George Pickett died from leukemia in April of 2007 at the age of 69. But, he and his great novelty hit ‘Monster Mash’ are fondly recalled annually during the “trick or treat” season.
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Songs Source: The Music Vault of HouseoftheHits, Inc.
Billboard® Chart Data: Joel Whitburn’s Record Research (eBook Editions)
Record Sleeve & Label Graphics: Courtesy of 45cat
