Audio

Screaming Ball (At Dracula Hall)

TRACK #339:

Screamin’ Ball (At Dracula Hall) by The Duponts

Now, there’s a ton of this kinda old timey Monster Rock ‘N Roll, but I don’t add it to the playlist that often. It’s monstery, sure, but something about it always feels a little off, like they could be singing about any old thing. There’s nothing distinctly spooky or festive about it most of the time.

There’s even a similar tune to tonight’s inclusion titled The Mummy’s Ball by The Verdicts that I removed from this block of balls for just that reason.

But Screaming Ball has a few things going for it that help it make the cut.

First and foremost, I dig this tune. It swings.

Secondly, from what I can tell, this is the very first pop song to actually reference Dracula. At least in the title, anyway.

Thirdly, it’s a pretty referential tune. In fact, The Duponts even have a similarly structured reference to Spike Jone’s Ball-Tune, only The Duponts make The Thing from Another World do The Stroll instead of a Mole Person. But both of them do reference the Thing.

And lastly, it’s from The Duponts, whom were also know as Little Anthony and the DuPonts, after the main vocalist, Anthony Gourdine.

But The Duponts weren’t the only crew associated with a Little Anthony, as Anthony Gourdine is also the Little Anthony of Little Anthony and The Imperials fame, best known from their hits like Tears on My Pillow and I Think I’m Going Out of My Head.

In 2009, Little Anthony and his Imperials were all inducted into the Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame, and any time you can add a Hall of Famer to the roster, you should probably just do it.

And dammit if I don’t just love idea of a future Hall of Famer his cuttin’ his teeth on some forgotten old novelty monster record. What’s cooler than that?

Well, it’s also a Mysterioso Pizzicato offender. How do you like that? Another one for the fire, boys.

So let’s all having a scream ball over at Dracula hall. C’mon, it’s a horror party!

 

 

 

Audio

Monster Movie Ball

TRACK #337:

Monster Movie Ball by Spike Jones

Now here’s a song that we’ve been putting off since jump.

Yep, this one’s been in the bullpen forever.

So long in fact, it was on pre-internet versions of the playlist that were played and distributed. But it’s high time to kick it on out, if only so I can stop thinking about it anymore.

I don’t imagine any playlist featuring as much novelty music as The Shindig would be complete if it didn’t feature at least one tune from The Godfather of Novelty songs himself, Mr. Spike Jones.

In the days before Rock ‘N Roll ruined everything, Spike and his City Slickers reigned supreme. He was the Weird Al of his era, though I’m not sure if that reference even holds much weight here in 2023. But he was a songsman and comedian in equal order, and having your popular tune get “spiked” was a sign you had made it big.

Though WW2 era songs about Hitler and All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth are all well and good, they’re certainly not Shindigable. However, like any novelty man worth his weight in buffalo nickels, Spike released a Horror record. 1959’s Spike Jones in Hi-Fi featured a ghastly cover with Spike as a Teenage Brain Surgeon surrounded by monsters. The album had lots of horror goings-one including a reference to Plan 9 featuring Vampira herself, Ms. Malia Nurmi. Even legendary singer and voice actor Thurl Ravenscroft, most notable for being Tony The Tiger and singing You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch, makes an appearance.

But for our part, it is track 6 which concerns us, a monster of a referential monster party tune, and one of the older Monster Songs on the playlist.

Spike details the gathering of Monsters big and small at his Monster Movie Ball, and as we’ve said several times around here, a full 3 years before Boris Pickett and his Cryptkickers.

But Spike’s song isn’t simply a Monster Song, featuring generic avatars of the Big 5. Nay! Monster Movie Ball, as its name suggests, is a bonafide referential hitter. In addition to name dropping all the classics, Spike finds time to reference House of Wax and The Mole People and actual creep Peter Lorre.

But he even mentions real-world singing fiends like Vampira, Zacherlee, Dave Savile’s Witch Doctor, and makes Dracula do the Cha Cha Cha à la Bruno Martino. Not too shabby.

So Spike, my apologies. Though you’ve been with us for 20 years and have been passed over, time and time again for 10, today is your day. Welcome aboard, buddy!

 

Audio

Midnight Monsters Hop

TRACK #334:

Midnight Monster Hop by Jack and Jim

We said we’re diggin’ deep and clearing out the bullpen in 2023, so here’s a Halloween compilation staple that’s been kicking around for longer than I can remember.

I’m glad I waited though, since last year’s Halloween Ends turned this Referential Monster dinger into a full blown Inclusive jam.

And much like Pete Antell’s It’s Halloween, Jack and Jim’s classic Midnight Monsters Hop is the best thing going for Halloween Ends and it’s literally the first minute and a half of the film.

Seriously, you can stop watching after this song ends. In fact, you could just listen to this, which features the opening dialogue with the entire tune, and probably have a more satisfying time than wading through that fan-fic grade afterthought jerk-off session they tried to pass off as the ultimate bookend to a legendary 40-year-old Horror saga. Hell, H20 is a more satisfying conclusion to the whole affair than that turd.

But I digress, cause we got this song. A bonafide Halloween jammer from 1959. Yep, you read that right. 3 years before Boris Pickett unveiled his own swinging Monster Party, Jack and Jim were laying the groundwork for monster get-togethers everywhere.

However, Bert Convy still has ‘em all beat, and no doubt provided inspiration to both, with his 1958 cut simply titled The Monsters Hop.

Credit where it’s due though, cause I think Jack and Jim here are serving up probably the swingingest tune of the bunch. It’s used to great effect in Halloween Ends too, actually tricking you into thinking you’re about to watch something cool. No such luck.

We’ve led it in, of course, with hometown hero Willy the Kid on WURG The Urge… Haddonfield’s home for rock!

You gotta love it when a horror movie gives you some solid DJ action, and Willy gets it good to The Cramp’s I Was a Teenage Werewolf. At least, I guess he gets it good. As good as that turkey is giving anyway. Unfortunately, he’s a little underutilized in the story and his death scene feels like it’s ripped from some other movie. Some movie you might rather be watching.

At least compared to the one you’ve been watching. I’m not sure the movie on display at WURG is worth watching either, but at least Michael’s not getting slapped around in a cave by some dildo who been getting bullied by a bunch of high school band dorks. A shame really, what they did to Michael.

And not just in Halloween Ends either (though perhaps the most undignified) but the whole damn lot of it, all the way down the line. From making him Laurie’s brother, to bringing him back from complete incineration, to positing him as some sort of Druid-curse vessel, to making his mask CG, to letting Busta Rhymes karate kick him out a window on a reality show, to making him some generic bullying victim with a white trash stripper mom.

It’s unfortunate that Michael couldn’t have been left to just wander off into the Halloween night, never to be seen again. Now there’s a reconned remakequel I could get behind.

Oh well, at least we got the 1st minute or so of Halloween Ends, featuring this classic monster tune from a duo who, like I so wish I could say for Michael Myers, we never heard from again.

 

 

Audio

On October 31 (Halloween Song)


TRACK #332:

On October 31 (Halloween Song) by Bob Hannon

So now it’s finally Halloween, but we’ve definitely already blown our Hall-load for the year and we’re 2 songs outside of a 10-slot for the big day. Where does that leave us?

Well, there’s always that old fallback, the Halloween Date Track. First and last seen on Halloween of 2018, when Acid Witches’ sinister October 31st took the holiday position.

This one reminds me of Kaye Lande’s Halloween, in that it’s set to a piece of classical music. In fact, all the Songs For Little Folks are, that was the whole point, I guess.

For Kay Lande it was Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns Danse Macbre.

In the case of Bob Hannon, it’s Evard Grieg’s In The Hall of the Mountain King, which is no stranger to being used and abused.

As far back as Fritz Lang’s M and further, and as recently as this years ad for the Bob’s Burgers movie, and countless commercials, trailers, video games, cartoons and TV shows in between, In The Hall of the Mountain King has been ringing in your ears your whole life. You know the tune.

The song is even said to have inspired the Inspecter Gadget theme, which – now that they mention it – yeah, fuckin-a it did!

But what is it?

Well, it was a piece of incidental scoring from the 1867 Henrik Ibsen play, Peer Gynt. The play is all about trolls or whatever and this dude named Peer enters their mountain abode with the Mountain King’s daughter or something. The King wants them to bang I think, which is weird, and that act will turn Peer into a Troll, which is good for the King somehow. I dunno, it was in Norwegian, Mac, I didn’t understand.

At any rate, for our final song of Halloween 2022, here’s On October 31 (Halloween Song) by Bob Hannon.

Thanks for tuning in, everybody! We’ll see ya soon with some new additions to the site, some rare finds and some new episodes of Shindig Radio!

Have a Happy Halloween!

 

.

Audio

It’s Halloween (Stop Look and Listen)

TRACK #329: 

It’s Halloween (Stop Look and Listen) by Pete Antell

Since everyone’s all Myersed-up right now from Halloween Ends and Fallacy and since over here (a year behind) we’re still yakin’ about Halloween Kills, we thought it’d be a perfect time to drop this addition.

One of the few moments of genuine interest I experienced while watching Halloween Kills last year was the introduction of Big John. A curious tune began to play during the establishing shots of the Myers house. A tune I was unfamiliar with. Even as it played, I couldn’t quite tell if it was a bonafide Halloween oldie I had just never heard before or some new song made to sound old.

I stayed through the whole credits of that dumb movie just to find out the name of that song.

Turns out it was It’s Halloween (Stop Look, and Listen) by Pete Antell, and the answer to that question, evidently, is somewhere right in the middle.

The song was apparently written by musician and band leader Raymond “Dutch” Wolff way back in 1952. According to his daughter, Melora (who provides several bits of interesting history via the YouTube listing where this song debuted) it was a tune he used to sing to the children when they were all young.

However, the song was never actually recorded. At least it hadn’t been until Wolff’s friend, a musician/singer/songwriter and producer named Pete Antell urged him to lay down the track.

So, they all set about recording it, getting the old band back together as it were, with Pete on vocals and Ray himself firing up the sax. They then released the track in 2012 on YouTube, where it stayed, mostly under the radar, for almost 10 years until it magically appeared in David Gordon Green’s Halloween Kills.

Then, it blew up. Thousands upon thousands of views and hundreds upon hundreds of comments demanding the song be released later, Pete and company dropped a digital single onto streaming platforms within a couple of weeks.

Curiously though, they changed the name of the song to Stop Look and Listen, It’s Halloween for its official release. I’m not sure why exactly, and I rather prefer it’s original title, but hey, it’s their tune.

Pete is kind enough to pop into his own YouTube comments thread at times, but most of his responses are terse and lack elaboration. Trust me, I read through all 800 and whatever of them just to try to dig up information on this track.

And though I’m sure you’re aware, I’d just like to say here, a YouTube comments section is an awful place to spend any amount of time.

Pro-tip for young YouTubers reading: no one gives a shit why you’re there watching a video, or even that you are. Please refrain from wasting peoples time and bandwidth with the unnecessary and tiresome “Here cause of Halloween Kills.” Yeah, no shit.

Oh, and I’d like to double that sentiment for the even more annoying “POV” prefaced “no one was watching this video until Halloween Kills.” Again, no shit, jackass. And that includes you, nimrod. Just watch the video, thumb it up and move the fuck along. Yikes.

My apologies. I just felt particularly stupefied after wading through that insipid thread for nuggets of information that were few and far between. Back to the tune!

So, though it was recorded only 10 years ago, this number has all the Hallmarks of a jazzy tune written in 1952. It’s a little piece of nostalgia that taps right into the heart of an old time Halloween, cause that’s where it originated. And I doubt I’m in the minority when I say that this, not even this scene, but exclusively this song, is the best thing Halloween Kills has to offer.

So we’ve peppered it with some H43 samples and used the original title here, as it is listed in the film, cause old or not, you got a bonafide inclusive Halloween track on your hands now.

Lead in by hometown hero Willy the Kid, on WURG, Haddonfield’s home for rock, which makes a sneeze and you’d miss it appearance there in Kills. You can expect to hear a little more Willy next year, cause you know there’s nothing we like more around here than Horror movie DJs. And Halloween Ends put Willie right in the drivers seat, as he opened up that whole shitshow with the Halloween monster party playlist staple and Shindig bullpenner Midnight Monster Hop by Jack and Jim. Which, true to the precedent set by its predecessor, is the single best part of that whole movie.

We got kind of a Halloween thing happening here right now, so we’ll just have to leave that ditty in the pen for one more year.

Until then, stop look and listen…it’s almost Halloween!

 

Audio

Halloween

TRACK #270:

Halloween by Bing Crosby, Boris Karloff & Victor Moore

Many of you are no doubt familiar with Bing Crosby, if only as the narrator of Disney’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow or from White Christmas. Already, no Holiday slouch.

Well, back in October of 1946, ole Bing here started hosting Philco Radio Time, a program sponsored by the Philco Corporation, who made phonographs back then. This program was known for being the 1st pre-recorded radio show in America! This was no doubt due to Philco’s influence as pioneers in the recording and reproduction of sound. Pretty neat

Like the variety television shows that would follow in its footsteps, this programm featured Bing and various musical guests performing songs and skits. Mostly though, it featured ads for Philco phonographs, unsurprisingly.

On October 29th 1947, Bing invited Universal Horror star Boris Karloff onto the program for a little festive spice. You can listen to the entire program here, if you’ve got a thing for old timey radio.

That night, stage actor and comedian Victor Moore was also on hand and the 3 of them decided to sing everybody a song for Halloween.

Now, this song was later released on a Bing Crosby compilation with much better audio quality then what’s available on the full program. However, I’ve taken the intro from the full episode to give the song a bit more context, which will explain the sudden shift in audio quality.

Long sitting in the Shindig Bullpen, 2020 seemed like an appropriate to year to finally add a song about folks being too afraid to leave their houses for Halloween.

I’m not sure what next week is gonna look like, mostly because I’m writing this under quarantine 5 months before Halloween. But also because, in this moment, it’s hard to imagine folks opting to have their children walk up to several dozen houses and grab fistfuls of unsanitized candy from the communal bowls of complete strangers. We’ll see I suppose.

However society ends up handling this already anemic autumnal activity, I’m sure it’ll be a thing straight out of 2020. So, let’s hear the newest oldest track on Halloween Shindig. But first, as the old Silver Shamrock ad says…

It’s Time…It’s Time….

Put on your mask…

 

Audio

(I’m In Love With) The Creature from the Black Lagoon

TRACK #214:

(I’m In Love With) The Creature from the Black Lagoon by Hans Conried & Alice Pearce

Long before Guillermo Del Toro won Oscars and appalled your Grandma by having a mute girl fuck a fish man, people have been musing about what it might be like to engage in some inter-species monster sex.

While not nearly as explicit, this old time ditty comes courtesy of an unlikely duo with whom you may be at least vaguely familiar.

For some reason (perhaps other than it seemed like a solid move in the late 50’s) comedians Hans Conried and Alice Pearce released the creature feature album Monster Rally. This classic Halloween LP from 1959 features tons of fun songs and another great album cover from the legendary Jack Davis.

Let’s take a moment here to just appreciate what an awesome artist and influence on horror imagery Jack Davis was. Here’s the full painting for the Monster Rally LP.

Now, if you’re a Bewitched fan, you may recognize Alice Pearce’s name and cadence, as she played nosy neighbor Gladys Kravitz to Samantha and Darrin Stephens. Here she is:

Though it doesn’t seem like Conried makes much of an appearance on this particular tune, Alice sings up a storm detailing a brief and heartbreaking affair with our titular lagoon lurker.

In the end though, he leaves her for a sexy young flounder that swims passed. It’s all a little sad, really.

Hans Conried probably just provides some background sound FX here, but I couldn’t say for sure. Whether present or not, Hans may sound familiar to you as he is not only the voice of Dudley Do-Right antagonist Snidley Whiplash but also Captain Hook in Walt Disney’s classic Peter Pan.

More significantly (at least to the Shindig) he was the voice of Dr. Dred on The Drak Pack, and is the narrator for The Dr. Seuss Halloween Special Halloween is Grinch Night. Pretty neat. Plus he cut a fun novelty monster album? This guy’s batting 1000 right here.

So let’s take another brief moment here, amidst all of the very wholesome fare, to enjoy this short number and imagine what monster we might like to have sex with.

I’ll take the entire cast of Hammer’s Vampire Lovers.

You can take Audrey II.

 

Audio

I Put a Spell On You

TRACK: #184

I Put a Spell On You by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins

Here’s a Halloween staple the blog has managed to avoid for, oh I don’t know, 5 years or so. Which is odd, considering it’s an original member of the very first Shindig CD from 2002.

Perhaps Rock ‘N Roll’s first Shock Rocker, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins used to be just plain, old fashioned Blues singer Jay Hawkins. In fact, I Put a Spell On You was originally written and recorded as a love song. It was producer Arnold Maxin at Colombia Records who can take the initial credit for creeping things up, deciding the song needed a darker tone. He proceeded to get everyone shit hammered drunk during the session and Hawkins has stated he has no memory of even recording that 1956 version. Man, that’s a little bizarre. Is some more music industry warlocking afoot?

Famous Cleveland DJ Alan Freed can probably be blamed for the rest, offering Jay $300 dollars to emerge from a coffin on stage. Jay didn’t like the idea, reportedly saying “No black dude gets in a coffin alive…they don’t expect to get out!” But alive he went, and out he came just fine, with all the voodoo accoutre ma that came to define his on-stage persona. Jay Hawkins was now officially Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and the rest was history.

Or was it?

Despite being edited by Colombia Records, many stations banned I Put a Spell On You for what was perceived at the time as overt sexuality. This was 1956 after all. And despite ultimately selling over a million copies, the record failed to break onto the billboard charts. The song itself would be a bigger hit for just about every other singer that covered it than it was for Hawkins himself, with white artists making the charts on it’s back only 10 years later. This was 1956 after all.

When coupled with friction Jay found with the NAACP regarding his “racially stereotypical” appearance,  one can understand and appreciate Hawkins satirical album “Black Music for White People,” which should probably be in the running for one of the greatest album titles of all time. Though many found it to be the opposite, it could be argued that Jay’s reticence to conform to an acceptably “white” appearance was itself in fact transgressive and confrontational to the white audiences that reveled in his performances. Stereotyping and the NAACP be damned, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins wasn’t gonna whitewash his act for anyone.

Still, Jay harbored bitterness toward the fact that these schlocky gimmicks were what ultimately brought him notoriety, and often blamed them for why people wouldn’t take him seriously as a vocalist. He would re-record this track on several occasions over his long career, each time shifting the tempo and either dialing back or amping up his vocals. But, it is the 1956 version (honestly, not even the most outrageous and oft-heard version) that we include here on the playlist.

However Hawkins felt about his fame, or whether or not he received it for the right reasons, he remains a massive influence on not only Shock Rock, but on hundreds of artists, not the least of which being Shindiggers like Alice Cooper, The Cramps, Nick Cave, The Misfits and Screaming Lord Sutch. And not simply for his outlandish stage persona or appearance, but for his unique talent and that wholly original and genre-defining (and defying) style.

Jay Hawkins died following an aneurysm on Feb. 12th, 2000, exactly 44 years,…to the day…that he recorded this version of I Put a Spell On You. Ya know, that strange drunken session he couldn’t remember…

A spell indeed.

 

Audio

Spooks

TRACK #181

Spooks by Louis Armstrong

Welcome back Weeners! It’s been a while. Well, that is unless you happen to be reading this in 2021 or something and just moved on to the very next post. Chances are you’re not reading this at all though, so that really doesn’t matter that much.

Anyway, the Season of the Witch is upon us once again!

And here to kick off the march to Halloween is Louis Armstrong with some words of warning to all of us this holiday season.

He’s serving up one swinging haunted boogie that just gets my foot tapping. Seriously, I love this song. It’s got a great spooky vibe and some really fun word play, all delivered with Louis’ famous throaty growl.

Now, if you’re finding it a bit difficult to enjoy a song from 1954 where a black man repeatedly belts out a popular racial epithet, I’m not exactly sure how to assuage your feelings of unease.

All I will say, is that apparently Louis didn’t have a problem with it, and I’ll wager that slur was actually used toward him directly, perhaps even many times, during his life in early 20th century America. That’s good enough for me.

It’s perhaps a bit easier to understand in context. Back then, the word “spook” found much more association with ghosts and horror than it does now, no doubt because of it’s offensive application.

This was in part because of The Midnight Spook Show, a precursor to the Midnight Movies and Horror Hosts of the 60’s and 70’s. But we’ll talk about that more a little further down the road.

For now…

Beware a dem spooks…spooks…spooks!

 

Audio

Trick or Treat (For Halloween)

TRACK #161:

Trick or Treat (For Halloween) by Al Hoffman, Jerry Livingston and Mack David

Though Siouxsie Sioux’s song starts this block off rather nicely, let’s fully embrace the Trick or Treat vibe with this tune from Disney’s classic 1952 short Trick or Treat starring Donald Duck.

Full of great vintage Halloween imagery, the short features Huey, Dewey and Louie approaching their uncle’s house for a bit of Trick or Treat. But Donald’s an asshole and he promptly puts fireworks in their bags. His own Nephews? What a prick.

No matter, as the boys soon find a Witch and now the trick’s on Donald as she conjures a potion which transforms just about everything into a nightmarish object to torment Donald.

Based around this typically Disney-styled tune, the short is a great October viewing for any fans of either Disney or the season.

Twick ow Tweat!