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Green Slime

TRACK #255:

Green Slime by Sherry Gaden, Richard Delvecchio & Rick Lancelot

Now, we’re gonna kick things all the way back to ‘68 with a brand new contender for Oldest Title Track on the Shindig. And what a doozy of a contender it is.

You’d be forgiven for thinking the Title Track to The Green Slime must be a joke. It sounds almost like an anachronism. It sounds like it doesn’t belong in this movie. It sounds awesome.

Produced by Surf Rock pioneer Richard Delvecchio and sung by Frank Zappa vocalist Rick Lancelot, Green Slime is a rollicking garage-rock romper that feels a little ahead of its time, and a bit out of place.

This Japanese produced space-standoff proceeds like Sid and Marty Croft directed a Toho remake of This Island Earth. It’s a movie with a weird vibe.

What’s weirder? The fact that this song kicks off the whole damn thing. It honestly gets you pumped. Almost too pumped. This song is probably the coolest thing about the movie. Not that there’s anything specifically terrible about the movie, it’s just that cool of a song.

I mean, I won’t lie, you really gotta be into 60’s sci-fi monster movies. And being frank here, that’s not gonna be everyone’s bag, particularly these days. The miniatures look like the model train sets your Dad built in the basement, the acting in stagey and the aliens looks like 33rd degree Sigmund the Sea Monsters. But all of that is the charm. If you’re in the right mood, anyway.

Also, the pacing is pretty crisp for its day, though nothing close to what audiences have become accustomed to over the intervening 40 odd years.

So, you know yourself. Would you like that? Eh, then maybe give The Green Slime a go. If not, at least kick back and enjoy this trailblazing tune. One of the great Title Tracks of all time.

 

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Hidden

TRACK #254:

Hidden by The Truth

After 3 Monster Raps, 2 of which I can fully understand struggling with, we have to break out the plastic pumpkin and make with some treats, right?

And around here, nothing spells “treat” like Title Tracks.

  • So here comes a rockin’ block of plot-talk with some of the finest Title Tracks xx yet featured on the playlist. And it you listened to last months Fistful of Title Tracks episode of Shindig Radio, you got an idea of what’s comin’
  • First up? Hidden.

    Ever seen The Hidden? It’s kinda like The Thing meets Dead Heat, just with less Piscapo and no snow. There’s also little bit of Men In Black goin’ on too.

    Plus, if you’re a Twin Peaks fan, it can serve as a quick Dale Cooper fix, with Kyle Maclachlan playing another FBI agent amidst high strangeness. Additionally, Hank Jennings shows up, just for good measure.

    But that’s not all, as you get Clu Gulager, Jermone from Summer School, a young Danny Trejo, Lin Shaye and even Kincaid’s dog Jason, who took a piss on Freddy’s grave in The Dream Master. Weird.

    What’s also weird, is that just like Men in Black, it also has a Title Track. It actually has a pretty kickin soundtrack altogether, as the body jumping alien imposter seems to have an affinity for loud, ruckus music.

    Before we get into any of that though, we’re gonna highlight the soundtrack’s crowning achievement, from The Truth.

    It’s Hidden.

     

    Audio

    Carry on Screaming!

    TRACK #246:

    Carry On Screaming! by Ray Pilgrim

    There isn’t a more surefire way to get your film webbed-up in The Shindig than to indulge in the time honored tradition of the Title Track.

    Carry on Screaming! then, naturally, comes from the 1966 British spoof of the same name.

    But what the hell is it?

    Well, it’s the 12th installment in the expansive 31 film catalogue of the “Carry On” franchise, an ensemble comedy series which lampooned many popular British film genres.

    Carry On Screaming! is a somewhat entertaining Hammer Horror send-up that features a couple of goofy monsters, a lot of yelling in British accents, copious amounts of innuendo and some hilarious mannequin tossing. Check that shit out.

    Credited in the film to “Anon,” the identity of this singer remained a mystery for 40 years. In 2006 however, famous British big bander, radio broadcaster and Embassy session singer, Ray Pilgrim, at long last revealed his involvement

    Also a member of bands like The Typoons, The Jaybirds and The Earthquakers!, Ray didn’t particularly think singing was a real career and apparently only did it to finance an economics degree. Pretty crazy for a guy with over 200 BBC broadcasts and 150 songs under his belt.

    Once Ray achieved this goal, he promptly quit singing and took a “proper” job in senior management of an unnamed multinational company.

    Ray came out of retirement to sing this track at producer Eric Roger’s request.

    Here’s an interview from Ray’s website where he describes the whole situation:

    “By April 1966 I’d been “retired” from singing for nearly a year and was deeply immersed in my ‘proper’ career.  Then one evening, completely out of the blue, I got a phone call from Eric Rogers.

    He told me that he needed to set up a very urgent session to record the opening title song for the new Carry On film and needed an ‘experienced, professional session singer who can cut it with the minimum fuss in the minimum time’ and wanted me to do it.

    I explained that I hadn’t even sung in the bath for months and was really not in the business anymore. He said that they were on an extremely tight schedule, fast approaching the release deadline for the film and would appreciate it if I could come over to his house next day. I was really rather flattered, so I agreed.

    Next day I took some time off work and drove up to his house and we ran through the music. I thought the words were a bit odd and he explained that it was a spoof horror film.

    We settled on the overall treatment: The chorus (the Carry On Screaming lines) were to be sung reasonably straight in the style of a band ballad singer, with parts of the verse sung with a bit of emotional quivering vibrato. I can’t really remember, but I don’t think that the falsetto bit at the end came until we were actually on the set when we slipped it in because it felt a more natural lead into Odbodd coming through the mist and Doris’s scream.

    What I do remember, was that there was no time for any practice or rehearsal because the actual recording session was set up for either the next day or at most a couple of days later.

    Although the film was made at Pinewood, according to my 1966 diary, the title song was recorded on the nearby Denham Studios sound set. Probably that was because the actual film itself had wound up at Pinewood a couple of months earlier which, by then, was no doubt the home of a new, completely different film.

    Eric had arranged for quite a large orchestra and the set was full of musicians … plus of course the lady who provided the very important screams during the song. I regret that I don’t remember her name. But I recall she was blonde and very attractive and did a brilliant scream.

    At one end of the set was a huge screen onto which a silent version of the finished film was projected. I don’t think we had the titles and credits to play and sing to but in my mind’s eye I clearly remember a big clock on or above the screen that rapidly flicked through the fractions of seconds that lead up to the opening scene of the movie.

    I was used to doing the recording sessions for Embassy in a just couple of takes so I was very surprised that we needed such a large number of takes to do the Screaming film soundtrack, which was really quite a simple song.

    It wasn’t because we kept on making mistakes or bum notes but because the timing had to be absolutely meticulous with everything exactly to the split second. In fact I found it a bit boring doing the same thing over and over again. But when I eventually saw the finished film I realised why it had to be so exact, with each of the lines of the song and the punctuating screams fitting exactly with the quivering credits on the screen.

    So that was it. I got paid the princely sum of 27 guineas (excluding any subsequent mechanical use of the recording) … which in those days was not to be sneezed at for a couple of hours work. In today’s money, after 40 years of inflation, I guess it would be worth something approaching £1,000.

    I picked up the cheque and hurried back to my day job before I was missed! That was my very last professional session, after which I made a complete, clean break from singing so I was more than happy that my contribution to the film was credited as “Sung by Anon”.

    Over the years I have always been amused that the question “Who was Anon?” crops up so frequently and the inevitable wrong answers it leads to. But now I’m coming up to my 70th birthday, it’s probably time to set the record straight. So here goes:

    So, here it goes indeed, a silly and short little tune that may just burrow itself under your skull and rest there for a few hours, occasionally popping out ever so often as you find yourself humming its chorus.

    Thanks Ray!

     

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    Episode 15: A Fistful of Title Tracks

    Shindig Radio fans have spoken!

    And they want more Title Tracks.

    Or they want more Kyle Sullivan. We’re not sure, but we have more Title Tracks and not more Kyle, so Title Tracks it is.

    Join Graham C. Schofield and Mikey Rotella as they catch another wave of rockin’ plot-talk, and hear the titles of Teenage Exorcist, The Hidden, Dead Heat and many more repeated incessantly!

    So, grab a boogie board, some sun-screen and say goodbye to Summer with your friends at Shindig Radio on…

    A Fistful of TItle Tracks.

     

    Audio

    Dead Heat

    TRACK #238:

    Dead Heat by Philip J. Settle

    My personal pick for Favorite Addition to the Playlist: 2019 has got to go to Philip J. Settle’s rockin’ 80’s, four-to-the-floor Title Track, Dead Heat.

    Shindig Radio personality and Showdown Shogun himself Graham C. Schofield brought this glaring omission to my attention just before the season started. And I couldn’t believe I had totally forgotten about this track.

    How had this track, this Title Track of all things – particularly one as awesome as this –  to a movie I thoroughly enjoy – eluded The Shindig for so long? I love Dead Heat, but I must admit, it’s been some years since I’ve just sat down and watched in it’s entirety…

    And this track isn’t just a Title Track, it’s also a Sweet Song, so you gotta stick it through to the end credits to be treated to this dozy, which I definitely would have loved to have taken a go at on any one of our Title Tracks episodes of the Podcast.

    All good things eventually reveal themselves to The Shindig and we can thank a dutiful rewatch from Graham for bringing this champion of Title Tracks home, where it belongs.

    Playlist fans can now rock out to this tune, which is kind of an Indirect Title Track; one of those song where they definitely say the name of the movie incessantly, but aren’t quite talking about the movie at all really.

    Playing off the films double-entendre, Philip J. Settle settles for steering this hot rod of the track toward the racing side of a dead heat, and it works out just fine.

    If you’ve never seen this Treat Williams/Joe Piscapo/Kolchak The Night Stalker/Vincent Price zombie-gore bonanza, I say correct that as soon as possible.

    With out of control FX from Steve Johnson’s XFX team and additional work from the likes of Todd Masters and Rick Lazzarini, Dead Heat is an 80’s gore/make-up/creature tour de force.

    I first saw Dead Heat after my first day of work at an old video store called “Mike’s Movies” in Boston. I had just been introduced to a co-worker (and eventual good friend) named Malachi (I know, right?) and was tasked with assisting him in creating a small shelf of Halloween recommendations to be placed near the entrance for October. What a first day, huh?

    We each split up grabbed a handful of titles from the impressive selection that store had to offer. He came back with some selections you might imagine, probably along with some foreign shit (he loved weird old foreign shit.) But it was one cover in particular (and the only one I 100% remember) that caught my attention.

    “Piscopo? An Uzi? What the fuck is this?” I asked “This is a horror movie?”

    “No.” He replied. “It’s so much more. You gotta see this.”

    So we proceeded to get higher than shit that night, and became fast friends while watching his hero, Treat Williams, become the Dead Heat. And Malachi was right. Cause you gotta see this.

    So, it seems only fitting then, that 2 days before Halloween, from a small Halloween shelf on the other side of the country, Dead Heat joins the ranks of Halloween Shindig. This one’s for you Malachi!

    Lady…I’m fuckin’ dead.

     

    Audio

    Repossessed

    TRACK #224:

    Repossessed by Cindy Valentine

    While certainly not what I’d call a good movie or even all that funny, you can do a lot worse than 1990’s Horror Spoof Repossessed. Namely Transylvania 6-5000. But I digress.

    The best thing going for this silly slice of parody is Linda Blair. Landing the star of the original film you’re spoofing is a big play in this racket, and here she does a fine job lampooning herself, tongue firmly in cheek. It’s neat just to see her there in the blue dress taking a poke at herself and it goes some distance to endearing this movie to a certain audience.

    I’m also a sucker for Leslie Nielsen, though I have to admit, his accent takes me out of this one a little. This is not one of his crowning comedic works, but it certainly beats Spy Hard or 2001: A Space Travesty.

    A lot of the jokes here don’t land well, but there are a number of smaller gags that I think work and produce some genuine laughs. This, however, is not the gold standard of horror parodies, by any means. Hell, it ain’t even a copper standard.

    Making all of this a little easier to ingest though is its upbeat Title Track from Teen Witch’s own Cindy Valentine. A second (hell, maybe even 3rd or 4th) tier 80’s pop singer you may or may not be familiar with. I vaguely recognized a couple of her bigger hits (from where exactly, I could not say) but if you had no recollection of ever hearing any of her assembly line genri-pop, that would be perfectly understandishable.

    I’ve yet to hear a Cindy Valentine song I didn’t like and that very much includes Never Gonna Be The Same Again from Teen Witch. But in fairness, I haven’t listened to the breadth of her catalog. I’m sure there’s some turkeys in there, even by my admittedly dubious standards.

    But here it is, my personal pick from the crop of Bad and Ugly Title Tracks of Episode 8, it’s Cindy Valentine with Reposssessed!

     

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    Transylvania 6-5000

    TRACK #223:

    Transylvania 6-5000 by Paul Chiten

    Since I basically read the write up for this song on Episode 10 of Shindig Radio, I’ll spare you all the tedium of posting a direct transcript.

    The short version is that Transylvania 6-5000 gives you 2 different Title Tracks and hey, isn’t that swell.

    The other Title Track, which plays as a Sweet Song during the end credits, is a direct spoof of Glenn Miller’s Pennsylvania 6-5000 and its serves a nice coda to the film.

    And despite how I may feel about that film, which is not terribly positive, I love this Title Track which plays right at the beginning of our ill-fated adventure.

    Paul Chiten delivers the goods here with a very referential and appropriately 80’s pop theme the fits the movie quite nicely.

    One thing I failed to mention during the show, is that the film actually apes it’s title from a 1963 Bugs Bunny short. This may make the allusion to Glenn Miller’s 1940 big band hit a little bit more understandable; 23 years on verses 45.

    Another thing I’d like to address here is, on the show Kyle and myself answer Mikey’s question about the nature of the 6-5000 incorrectly. We both quickly state it is the hotel’s address, when in fact it is the hotel’s telephone number, PEnnsylvania 6-5000, in accordance with the old telephone exchange system. What can I say? Research is not our strong suit and confident misinformation flows freely. C’est la vie, it would seem. Je suis désolé, mon Mikey!

    And with all that said, we’ll just follow the best thing about Transylvania 6-5000, with the 2nd best thing about Transylvania 6-5000.

     

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    Skullduggery

    TRACK #219:

    Skullduggery by Anonymous

    Are you into D&D, community college theater or weird masquerade sex-parties that feature no sex?

    Yeah, I didn’t thi…

    Wait, what? You are? Oh…all right then.

    I still don’t think I should recommend 1983’s Skullduggery though, even if you have the added perquisite love for low-rent, bizarro horror movies produced by alien-people making lots of real confusing decisions.

    I’m pleased to report it does feature a surprise reference to Halloween though, as you will hear attached to our next sonf, which is a totally out of left center Title Track that caught me right off guard. Skullduggery coming hard right out of the gate, huh? If only the film followed through on such a promise.

    On the 1st part of Shindig Radio’s Title Tracks retrospective, we did a fair amount of clowning on this Scooby-Doo theme of a song which sounds dated even for its time. Mikey likened it to a 70’s television drama, ala Fantasy Island, and we think you’ll agree.

    Despite a couple laughs had at its expense, I rather enjoy this Title Track. It’s got a good beat and is suitably mysterious, much like the plot of its namesake, Skullduggery.

    Speaking of the film, you can soft pass on Skullduggery, unless you’re feeling hard pressed for something you haven’t seen before and aren’t too protective of your free time.

    I will say, if you do decide to watch the film, you’ll hear this song featured prominently over its “we couldn’t really figure out how to not make this just a plain blue screen” credit sequence, which perfectly informs the next 90 minutes or so you’ll be spending with Skullduggery.

    Personally, I recommend spending at least 2 minutes with it, which is just enough time to enjoy this weirdo Title Track.

    Can you see,…what’s in my eyes?

    Skullduggery!

     

    Audio

    Prom Night

    TRACK #218:

    Prom Night by Paul Zaza & Carl Zittrer

    And now, we have our first track to make its debut on Shindig Radio before being added to the playlist, and what a perfect song for that honor.

    An 80’s disco Title Track for the slasher classic Prom Night, composer Paul Zaza cranked out a doozy with this one. Perfectly capturing the mood of the film and the vibe of its era, Prom Night is, at least sonically anyway, a fantastic Title Track.

    Featured during the film’s climactic Prom sequence, it’s catchy, danceable and more importantly (like any good Title Track) it repeats the title ad nauseam.

    Though, as noted by The Shindig Radio crew, that’s about where any references to either this movie or even an actual Prom, end. Which is a shame, as just a little bit could have gone a long way to taking this from just a passing Title Track to something really great.

    No matter, because despite how Graham Schofield may feel about this cut, it’s unused sister Title Track or dancing disco bullshit in general, I think this song boogies.

    Allegedly, this sequence was shot with a bunch of popular disco tunes playing in the background. Once the producers realized it might cost them a small fortune to secure the rights to such recognizable hits, they tasked Paul Zaza with recreating reasonable facsimiles as replacements.

    Unfortunately, he only had about a week to do it.

    Given the tight timeline, I think Paul knocked this one out of the park, creating a disco slasher Title Track for the ages.

    Just remember, it’s not who you go with, it’s who takes you home.

    Everything is all right!

     

    Audio

    The Monster Club

    TRACK #211:

    The Monster Club  by The Pretty Things

    On the surface it might seem like The Monster Club and Halloween Shindig would go hand in hand; a horror anthology starring such genre vets as Vincent Price, John Carradine, Donald Pleasence and Britt Ekland, that has tons of fun monsters and masks plus numerous monster related musical numbers? It’s a no brainer, right?

    And it’s true, we love The Monster Club. It’s kinda like Night Train to Terror, only it’s coherent and cuts back to different and actual songs. It has a fun premise, with 3 solid monster vignettes and a spooky, synthy score.

    So what’s the problem? Where’s the “but” that has kept this blog for talking about it for 7 years now?

    That, dear readers, is my own prejudice against those same monster related songs. I kinda hate them. I don’t want to, but I kinda do. I want to love them. I want to include them all and have wanted to since the beginning. But I’m just not a huge fan.

    I’ve tried, over the years, to warm up to them but the love just never seems to flows out of me. They have this late 70’s/early 80’s British new wave, pseudo-reggae, Clash meets The Police vibe that neither suits the movie, the songs or me, despite their monstrous leanings.

    Because I think it needs to be represented and because I do quite enjoy the film, Halloween Shindig has decided to include the tune I’ve warmed up to the most. Performed on camera by The Pretty Things, it also happens to be (perhaps not so incidentally) the film’s Title Track.

    After discussing over 30 different Title Tracks across 6 or so hours on the podcast, how did we not mention this one? Well, as we noted, there’s a mountain of Title Tracks and we had to keep some in our pocket, no? Leave a few surprises for the blog still, right? And we may even have a few more up our sleeve this year.

    Additionally, this seemed like an appropriate way to kick off the season and usher in a monster block of Monster Songs, which have been sorely under represented as of late.

    Lead in here with Vincent Price’s overly long (and overly awesome) laundry list of solid reasons the Human Race deserves to be represented in a club full of horrible monsters.

    So, fellow Shindiggers and Humans…

    Welcome to The Monster Club.