It’s been 5 whole years since we closed out the season with a Heavy Metal Halloween.
Now, this is mostly because I was pretty sure we had drained that well damn near dry. But just like Title Tracks, it seems like there might be an infinite amount of 80’s metal songs called Halloween.
This year’s offering comes from a very short lived Australian band named Bezerker. They formed in 1988 from the ashes of another Australian (I assum) band named (I guess) Final Warning. Outside of this small blurb at the Metal Archives, I can find no mention (even through rest of the Metal Archives) of this former band named Final Warning.
The story of Bezerker seems to follow the same trajectory of many a Heavy Metal Halloweeners. Shortly after forming in ‘88 they release their full length debut, Lost, in 1990. Then they open up for a big name headliner, in this case Faith No More. Shortly after that they relocate to the UK in May of ‘91. There they don’t find much footing and they soon disband due to financial trouble. For Bezerker it was 2 months later in August of that same year.
It’s a shame too, as Lost is a pretty solid Thrash album and Halloween is no exception.
So many of these bands never caught on, struggled too early, or just missed wave. I feel bad for a lot of these late 80’s and early 90’s guys especially that didn’t quite have good footing before the scene gave way. They are across the board talented musicians relegated to being footnotes to a footnote, almost forgotten entirely.
However, as we’ve said in the past, thanks to their festive foresight, they are forever enshrined here on the walls of Halloween Shindig, front and center, not opening for anyone. Because here they are the headliners.
Thanks for tuning in everybody. We hope you’ve enjoyed all the new tunes. Here’s the final one for 2024.
From Berzerker to you, The Shindig wishes you all a very Happy (and hard) Halloween.
Making sure we remain Hard Til Halloween is Texas thrashers Juggernaut with All Hallow’s Eve from their 1986 debut album, Baptism Under Fire.
Despite releasing 2 full studio albums back-to-back on Metal Blade Records, opening some shows for King Diamond and having the kind of talent that would later go on to outfit acts like Machine Head, Spastic Ink, S.A. Slayer, Halford, Fates Warning and Sacred Reich, Juggernaut itself never really found its groove and disbanded within 7 years of their debut release.
Which is a shame, cause this kind of mid-80’s speed metal really warms a certain corner of my heart. It’s what I think metal sounds like when I imagine it, and as such, it’s what I want metal to sound like when I hear it.
Thankfully for us, like any metal band at the height of the Satanic Panic, they delivered a face melter all about the Eve of All Hallows. In fact, they went so far as to call it All Hallows Eve.
Unless, that is, you’re looking at the center label for Baptism Under Fire. That one simply lists the song as All Hallows. The back says Eve, and the record even has a pull out sleeve with lyrics, and that says Eve too. So I’m not really sure what the deal is there. Maybe just a misprint?
What I do know is that this song rules and I was glad to dig up yet another 80’s metal All Hallows, Eve or not.
The main bumpers here are courtesy of the Tales From the Darkside installment Cutty Black Sow, a particularly ruthless Halloween episode that happens to feature a couple of cool Halloween masks, including this shot of our favorite Helloween evoking Be Something Studio’s all-star, Fang Face.
Turns out, if you gotta song called Trick or Treat, there’s like a 60% chance that shit’s got nothing to do with Halloween. And those are Shindig numbers. You take that game over to Apple Music or Spotify and you’re probably lookin at closer to 80%. Pretty damning numbers.
I’m not sure what it is about Trick or Treating that inspired so much non-festive music, but here we are. I guess it’s just a phonetically pleasing phrase that’s helpful in any number of non-holiday related situations. It does the heavy lift for you and conjures up all kinds of imagery on its own. Now, I’d argue that that imagery is exclusively Halloween based, but apparently it can mean a lot of different shit a number of (and specifically sexy) contexts.
Even King Diamond, Mr. Halloween himself, wrote a song called Trick or Treat that is not only not about the holiday, but doesn’t even reference Trick or Trreating beyond the use of the iconic phrase.
Should we be surprised then that Diamond Head, the band that asked the world if they were, in fact, evil, has a song called Trick or Treat that’s basically “women be shoppin” ?I’m not, I can tell you that much.
But of course, like Witchfynde, Fastway or even the Actual King of Rock ‘N Roll himself, Mr. Chuck Berry, the song still rocks the house. And for a band like Diamond Head, exceptions can and will be made.
Besides, sometimes just saying Trick or Treat is enough, even if you aren’t evil. But if you are? Well, that kinda changes everything.
So, it’s been about 4 years or so since we enlisted any news players onto The Shindig All-Star Team. At almost 400 songs deep on the playlist, that either seems perfectly reasonable to you, as we’ve tapped out most of the big hitters already, or it seems completely unreasonable because how the fuck is that possible after so many goddamn songs?
Well, take your pick, but the fact remains, no one has hit 3 songs since Acid Witch and King Diamond both did so back in 2020. And honestly, it’s amazing to me that either one of them hadn’t already.
Well, today we welcome abroad new All-Stars Blackie Lawless and the boys of W.A.S.P.
The White Anglo-Saxon Protestants from Los Angeles lent their tune Tormentor to Charlie Band’s 1984 bat-shit anthology The Dungeonmaster. It shows up specifically in Charlie’s own segment entitled Heavy Metal.
What’s more? The boys actually appear in the film, playing this very song and it’s awesome. Charlie forever immortalized their short-lived and controversial on-stage Torture Rack gag.
And if that’s somehow not good enough for you, Tormentor also makes an appearance in 1984’s resurrected Samurai rampage picture Ghost Warrior, and once again in Charlie Band’s own TerrorVision, playing on the television. And hey, is OD wearing a W.A.S.P. shirt?
You’re goddamn right he is.
So, let’s not belabor the point. W.A.S.P. rules and it’s good to see them finally get the All-Star representation they deserve. Welcome aboard, fellas!
Do you like this noise?! Then you shall have your fill of it!
Speaking of Alice Cooper, who didn’t make an appearance on the soundtrack of the movie he appeared in (Freddy’s Dead) we’re gonna finally close out his hat-trick from Friday the 13th’s equal and opposite 6th installment (that’s odd) Jason Lives.
Seriously, that’s weird right? I hadn’t quite realized that until I just typed the above sentence. Both of the 6th installment of these franchises changes the title to feature the character’s names and their states of existence. Anyway….
Here’s the lesser celebrated of the 3 tunes Alice’s has in 1986’s Friday the 13th Part VI.
Used to fine effect as Megan tears ass through Crystal La…wait sorry…Forest Green, as she evades her dad’s goons attempting to free our hero, Tommy Jarvis, as he waits patiently in her crotch.
It’s a good get-away song, that’s for sure, but without the direct references to the film, or to monstery adolescent Frankenstein shit, it seems like Hard Rock Summer doesn’t get as much love as the others.
Well, as we’re wont say…on The Shindig, every song gets its day.
Except maybe Keeping Halloween Alive. I know Alice is a Shindig All-Star and that’s basically his Halloween song, but man oh man is that not something I want on this list. It’s been in the bullpen for years, and each season I give it another chance to have grown on me, for me to have grown a little and accepted it for what it is. But man, I just can’t do it. At least not yet, and maybe even never. Oh well, guy’s got like 6 songs or some shit on the playlist already and Identity Crisises will show up eventually, so give it a rest, will ya?
Here’s Joe Satrini’sSummer So…oh wait, I mean, here’s Alice Cooper withHard Rock Summer!
On several occasions now I have spoken about a hard to find or incomplete song, and that has somehow seemed to simply manifest that song into availability.
The first instance was with the woefully truncated Title Track to Aerobicide. This one took years, but was finally uncovered and restored to its full glory by Giles Nuytens. Thank him. Hit like and subscribe and all of that. He’s out there in these streets doin’ the Lord’s work.
The second instance wasBit Bizzare’s Freddy Krueger rap Freddie’s Groove, a rare Hip-Hop single which also existed in an incomplete form on YouTube and was hard come by on vinyl. Shortly after our Freddy’s Rap episode and posting it to the Freddy’s Raps playlists, two different copies of the 45 suddenly presented themselves. One of these now has a permanent residence in the Halloween Hole and has thusly been uploaded to YouTube and the Freddy Raps playlist.
Similarly, the 3rd occurrence was with another Freddy Rap entitled He’s Back from LA’s own Triple Scoop. Shortly after expressing my disappointment about not being able to include that song on the same playlist, a copy not only appeared on Discogs, but some kind soul uploaded it to Youtube as well. Thank the maker.
So now, rather than avoiding tonight’s song again for yet another year, I’m just gonna let her rip, in hopes that whatever synchronistic hoodoo is going on around here can maybe work it’s magic once again.
Because for many, many years now, this song has been the Holy Grail of Halloween Shindig.
Freaky Halloween? An Electro Rap tune from 1987 specifically about Halloween? Are you kidding me? Any rap song specifically about Halloween is rare enough, but something of this nature, from this era? It had to be great.
But alas, years and years passed and I had yet to come across a single copy for sale. Only 2 registered users on Discog even owned it. 42 other users wanted it, and yet not 1 has ever sold on the platform in its 22 years of existence.
It is a song so elusive, I didn’t even know what it sounded like…
See, this guy not only recorded it through what sounded like the microphone on his cellphone, but he only uploaded a minute’s worth of the song! What kind of sick joke is this, sir?! You have, in your possession one of the rarest Halloween songs known to man, and a YouTube channel, and the wherewithal to upload the track, and this is the treatment you afford it?
I suppose we should be grateful that we have it at all. And I am, please don’t misunderstand me. But, in a way, it’s almost worse now. See, when I didn’t know what it sounded like, it was still a mystery. It still had the chance to be whack. But it’s not whack! It’s fantastic! And now curious desire has been replaced with desperate need. Desperate need that can not be satiated.
And look, I begged him. He’s in Brazil, I believe. I used multiple accounts to request he upload the full song. I even pleaded with him in Portuguese to give this song to the world, fully. But at present, he has not acquiesced.
This playlist will never be complete in my eyes without this song. This full song.
If anyone reading this post has this 45, I will pay handsomely for it. If you can not part with it, I completely understand. But could you please make a decent rip of this song and send it to The Shindig. I’d pay just as handsomely for that. Even if you don’t own it and just have access to it – please! Access it for the team, champ!
The Shindig needs this song. You need this song. The World needs this song.
Please help Halloween Shindig make this and all future Halloweens, freaky.
Until then, let us bask in what little exists of Ernest Jordan’s electro-rap masterpiece Freaky Halloween.
Now, this is all you would have read and heard, had I posted this last year when it was supposed to post. Indeed, it’s all you would have read if I had posted this 3 weeks ago…
Because that is when the hoodoo apparently worked it’s magic yet again. Just sitting in the draft folder for almost 3 years, this post stirred the spirits. And like some summoned Halloween miracle, the very same guy on YouTube, DJTuta from Brazil, posted his 45 for sale on Discogs. Get right outta town.
Of course, he posted it for an absolutely unconscionable amount of money. Well, at least for a price that was completely unjustifiable to me. The dream was shattered.
So I began to soothe myself, “C’mon. No one is gonna pay that much for Freaky Halloween. It’ll sit there unsold, he’ll eventually mark it down, and then you can rush in! It’s yours, just be patient.”
But what if it didn’t just sit there unsold? Was that a risk I was willing to take?
After a few days went by with no one purchasing the record, I was feeling reassured. But I started getting paranoid, too. I had been down this road before with other rare items. If something, even something rare, is available and every time you check on it it’s still available, you can become complacent and you drag your feet. But then bam! All of a sudden and before you know it, it’s gone. You have to just accept you had a chance and you squandered it and now you’re waiting again. What if that happened here?
Only 47 (apparently 5 more people had expressed interest in the last 2 years) other people “wanted” it on Discogs, and that’s not that many. But it was still 46 chances for someone to swoop in and scoop it up. What if this was our only chance? What if it got purchased and hoarded again and we never got to even really hear it?! What if someone else out there decided they needed Freaky Halloween more than Halloween Shindig needed Freaky Halloween?!!
Well, fuck all that business. No one needs Freaky Halloween more than Halloween Shindig, goddamn it! And The Shindig will democratize its availability and make sure that the whole world receives it, uncut and clear! This was what this site was made for, and this is what needed to be done.
But that price. That goddamn price. We simply couldn’t pay it. It was just completely unjustifiable.
But…
There’s always another “but.” We wouldn’t be talking about this still if there wasn’t another “but,” right?
Because that’s when I remembered – The Shindig coffers! Of course!!
See, there’s a specific PayPal account where all the Redbubble, TeePublic, Zazzle, Ko-Fi and Shindig Shop sales just deposit to, and it’s not my main PayPal account. It’s an account I hadn’t actually looked at in almost 4 years. And holy shit. It was possible.
Why, if not for this very reason, was there even an account? Why, if not for this express purpose, had people ever supported this foolish endeavor of ours? Why, if not to make that which is unobtainable to one, accessible to all through the power of many?
If you have ever purchased a die-cut, a sticker, a Title Tracks T-Shirt, a Shindig Radio dog blanket, a throw pillow with Kyle’s face on it, or simply given us a few buck just for the fuck of it – then this is for you. This super rare and almost unobtainium piece of Halloween music exists on this website, in its complete form and for the entire world to enjoy, because of you. All of you.
My endless gratitude goes out to each and every person who has ever contributed anything to this fund. You have made this Halloween aspiration – an aspiration you were not even aware existed – come to fruition, in the clutch, when it was absolutely needed the most. And for that, I thank you.
And you should thank each other. Because of you all, this Halloween, and every Halloween hereafter, will be a Freaky Halloween.
PS: Oh, and the song? C’mon, that synth bass? That chorus? This horn bag slangin’ it to this chick on Halloween? It’s a straight up Halloween sex song, and it’s incredible. Count Dracula, who sucked me dry? Get the fuck outta here. I love this shit. It’s so much more than I could have hoped.
If you’re someone who reads this website or listens to this playlist, there’s an outside but sporting chance you also know Matt Dillon.
No, not Marshall Matt Dillon from Gunsmoke, though there’s also a chance you know who that is too.
Oh, wait. You don’t know that Matt Dillon at all and just know Matt Dillon of My Bodyguard and One Night at McCool’s fame? Snap.
Well, that ain’t the Matt Dillon I’m talking about either, as much as I like You, Me and Dupree.
No, this Matt Dillon, though having appeared in both the hit comedies Idiocracy and Ninja Cop, is more a local celebrity. And that locality is Indiana.
That is where from Matt Dillon, and his band The Steves, hail. Hell yeah, Matt Dillon has a band, and he’s the guitarist and if I know my Matt Dillon licks (from our years of touring as 80ft Lincoln and the Astro Goblins) those riffs are all Dillon all day.
I have no doubt in my mind that he is also, at least partially, responsible for the band’s name, their Horror leanings, along with their graphic and shirt game. Here he is with a real banger of the statement T that I 100% know includes you, even if what you like is The Steves.
And as luck would have it too, they just released full length eponymous album onto Spotify and Apple Music last month. But our songs tonight were taken prior to this release from their EP entitled Amputated Brain, which you can get at their Bandcamp. While each song here appears on both albums, I couldn’t say whether they are the exact same recordings or not. They seem similar enough to me,
Now their songs are pretty short, so we’re gonna double you up and hit ya with 2 for 1 and let The Steves bridge the gap between Freddy and Jason.
First up is Nancy, the bands ode to Mr. Big Time, complete with the requisite intro pickin’ of Charles Bernstein’s unmistakable theme. Then we followed that up with Jason Lives, the bands thumping warning to any horny thrill seekers partying up at Forest Green this Friday night.
I love both of these tunes and indeed the whole album. Matt’s riffs are infectious, the drums and bass are relentless and the chaotic vocals suit this sound perfectly. I’m just pumped that they sang about some horror shit so I could get em on The Shindig.
But most of all make some noise, cause here comes The Steves!
Oh yeah, that’s Matt Mastrella by the way, for all you Shindig Radio fans. He gives this (albeit chopped up) synopsis of A Nightmare on Elm Street in the Heather Langenkamp documentary I Am Nancy.
Interestingly enough, I Am Nancy has a Title Track and that’s pretty wild for a documentary.
Alright, so we’re running outta Freddy songs here. Not really, but songs I feel like adding to this playlist anyway. After almost 400 tunes, we’ve covered all the heavy hitters from The Elm Street series and then some. But there’s one film we’ve yet to touch on, and that’s the much-maligned, Freddy’s Dead.
This is the instillment which purported to, in no uncertain terms, kill its main character and end the series. And that’s a particularly tricky proposition when that character was dead from the beginning and the franchise is still making money.
Though in fairness, Freddy’s post “dead” appearances are fairly well justified and certainly number less than his “pre-dead” escapades. The fact that Jason had more outings after his “Final Chapter” than before is the stuff of Hollywood irony.
But that’s neither here nor there when it comes to the film’s soundtrack, which, like the movie itself, is probably not what anybody actually wanted.
For one thing, there’s an uncomfortable amount of Goo Goo Dolls on this album for some reason. While certainly gaining a fair amount of popularity in the mid 90’s, I’m not sure they had the notoriety, or even the sound, to warrant 3 inclusions on a horror soundtrack in 1991. They’re not a band I wanna hear in a Freddy movie period, much less 3 times. More to the point, they’re not a band I even wanna hear, Freddy or not. Adding Freddy, and 2 other songs, is just offensive.
The 80’s were a hazy and slowly dissipating dream by that point, and the 90’s were unfortunately on full display with the Freddy’s Dead soundtrack.
This is particularly disappointing considering that the Prince of Darkness himself, Mr. Alice Cooper, turns up in a cameo as Freddy’s Dad. They couldn’t get him to throw together a Title Track for this fucker? Hell, even lend a preexisting song to the proceedings? Nope, apparently not. And I’m sure you can guess that Music Supervisor David Chackler is nowhere to be found on this roster.
Yet, rising above the din of whatever-the-fuckery, like some emaciated spectre of 70’s swagger, is Iggy Pop.
They didn’t quite have the tenacity to let Iggy loose on a full-blown Title Track, however. Seems by 1991, folks were a little gun-shy (or perhaps a bit too hip) to indulge in the time-honored tradition of full synergistic Title Trackage . No, they pulled their punches with, what I will call, a Parenthetical Title Track. C’mon, grow some fuckin’ balls gang.
But while this may not be a full-on, true-blue Title Track, it’s a Title Track from the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise and it would be unbecoming of The Shindig to ignore it completely and with intention. Besides, it’s ain’t that bad. It’s not the best track on the playlist, no. It’s not the best Title Track either. In fact it’s probably not even a good one, but if you ask me, it’s not that bad.
Now, if you ask our old pals over at the Golden Raspberry Committee, Iggy served up one of the 3 worst original songs of that year.
I think it’s important to note that the 3rd song up for consideration that year was Vanilla Ice’s own Reverse Parenthetical Title Track, Cool As Ice (Everybody Get Loose.) So Iggy Pop, lead singer of The Stooges and Rock ‘N Roll legend, is now associated with 2 of the biggest running gags of 90’s pop-rap nonsense. My condolences Iggy.
This also affirms that 2 of the “worst” songs of 1991 are now featured on this playlist. A dubious honor. And that 3rd song is a goddamn Title Track from a guy already represented on this playlist?! Yeesh. I’m not sure what that suggests about this thing I’ve been wasting my time with for last 12 years, so I’ll let you come to your own conclusions.
Since the worst song category only lasted for about 20 years, and we’ve added probably our last nominee/winner, I’d like to take a moment here to draw attention to a few other awesome songs deemed “unlistenable” by this group of unelected buzzkills.
Yor’s World by Guido and Maurizio De Angelis (who I guess is also known as Oliver Onions. What?) This one hurts fellas.
The Last Dragon by Dwight David Really? And a Track Track to boot? You gotta be kidding me.
Smooth Talker from Body Talk by Michael and David Sembello. For shame. At least it wasn’t that movie’s Title Track.
Drinkenstein by Sylvester Stallone and Dolly Parton from Rhinestone. This one actually took the title in ‘84. I get it I suppose, but seriously? This shit is great, and has been sitting in the bullpen for consideration on this playlist for many, many years.
Going back-to-back Stallone on it, you have Peace in Our Time, a great song by Frank Stallone from Rambo 2. This was also a winner in its respective year.
Then you got Howard the Duck sung by the lovely Lea Thompson in 1986. Now this is a solid Title Track. Thankfully it didn’t “win” but a disrespectful nomination for sure.
You Can Be a Garbage Pail Kid from 1987. Ya know, we might actually add this song as Expanded Title Track at some point.
Big Guns by AC/DC from 1993’s Last Action Hero. Really? C’mon! Again though, it’s thankful that the film’s Title Track escaped unscathed.
But enough of all that hemmin’ and hawin.’ Ya’ll know how I feel about this Golden Raspberry dildos, so let’s just get to it.
Here it is, playing as a sweet song over the end credits to Freddy’s convoluted, bizarre and mostly unsatisfying demise, it’s Iggy Pop’s Parenthetical Title Track Why Was I Born (Freddy’s Dead).
PS: Oh, since we talk about this on the “next” episode of Shindig Radio, an episode that was recorded before this song was posted, we discuss whether it should be included on the playlist. I think Mikey essentially makes the argument I’m making here that it’s a Nightmare on Elm Street and it’s a Title Track and c’mon, are you serious? Of course you need to add it. Needless to say, I agree with him. And apparently I have, because my first draft of this post was dated from 2019! Ha! Takes a while to get around to some of these. And even then, sometimes i’ll bump songs from year to year.
Not to be outdone on the controversial front, Stromtroppers of Death vocalist Billy Milano said “hold my beer” and formed M.O.D. (or Methods of Destruction) in 1986 to continue that same Thrashy and offensive legacy.
Their debut album, U.S.A. for M.O.D. was released in 1987. Songs like Aren’t You Hungry, Imported Society and A.I.D.S. will not doubt find much harsher criticisms today than at the time of their release, where such attitudes were far more normalized. And that’s not to say they weren’t criticized in their day, it’s just, try releasing A.I.D.S. in 2024 and lemme know how that pans out for you and your band. I’ll bet it works out way less than it did in 1987.
For their part, M.O.D. later apologized for the blatant racism found on Aren’t You Hungry. However, the juvenile (if not completely typical) Homophobia on display in A.I.D.S (which might appear almost jaw-dropping to an audience in 2024) has not received the same treatment, that I am aware.
Largely, people just regard Billy has a hateful racist bigot now and leave it there, choosing to either embrace the music while separating the art from the artist, or completely disregarding him and his artistic endeavors altogether, be they M.O.D. or S.O.D.
In subsequent albums, they never quite treaded as deep into the murky topical waters waded in on their debut, but they still maintained that off-putting and decidedly thrash-metal attitude all the same.
But we’re here for U.S.A for M.O.D., which like their S.O.D. counterpart’s debut, also contains a (thankfully) far less controversial ode to Mr. Big Time himself.
Love him or loathe him, Billy Milano just really liked Freddy Krueger I guess, cause here comes Man of Your Dreams.
Despite the extensive line-up from Monster Raps Pt. 3, MCs in 1987 weren’t the only ones speaking on Freddy Krueger.
In fact, as far back as 1985 comes tonight’s entry, from Punk-Thrash crossover legends, Stormtroppers of Death.
Affectionately referred to by their ardent following as S.O.D., the Stormtroppers were a side project of Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian and fellow Anthraxer, drummer Charlie Benante. They brought along former Anthrax bassist Dan Lilker and rounded the whole thing out with the bassist from The Psychos, Billy Milano, on vocals.
What followed was the landmark one-off (for almost 15 years anyway) album, 1985’s Speak English or Die, a record that was just about immediately (and is even still) held in almost universal regard by Metal, Thrash and Hardcore fans alike.
While not without their controversy (the album is aggressively jingoistic and baked in 80’s Islamophobia) S.O.D. maintained that their decidedly un-PC approach was all in good fun and, as Scott Ian himself put it “just to piss people off.” Well, they certainly made good on that, managing to get the album banned in both Canada and Europe.
And that was in 1985! Given our current cultural climate the buzzy “problematic” probably wouldn’t begin to describe how S.O.D.’s Speak English or Die would be viewed today. Though, most of the current vitriol is aimed squarelyat Billy Milano, as Scott and the others stand by the “satire.” Now, whether Billy was joking or not remains to be seen, but the remainer or his career definitely didn’t disavow anyone of the notion that he was not.
For some folks (fans or otherwise) none of that really matters, as the defense of “oh we’re just having fun, and you’re being too sensitive” doesn’t really hold much water with them in 2024 coming from 4 white dudes that look like this invoking the image of Stormtroopers.
As it stands, this 37 year old album, though legendary as it is to those who would proclaim it as such, is largely only known to those very same people.
But if you do know it, chances are you love it. So, fuck it. Besides, despite glorifying a child murdering pederast, this song isn’t problematic at all!
Hard ‘Til Halloween. Hashtag it. It can be a thing. People can take that in any direction they want, too. Let’s put some creative shit on that tag. I don’t wanna see a bunch of boners either. A few is fine, it’s unavoidable. But let’s not have another #erectfest incident, ok? Cool.
So yeah, Heavy Metal Halloween. It’s a phrase we’ved use a lot around Halloween Shindig. Hell, our Halloween episode of Shindig Radio in 2019 was literally called A Heavy Metal Halloween.
That episode featured songs exclusively called Halloween performed exclusively by 80’s Metal bands. In fact, our last track was very much one of them. There was enough of those bastards to populate an entire episode, and we still found even more after the fact! There’s a couple in the Bullpen even, if you’ll believe that. Hell, there’s another on coming in like 10 days. It’s crazy.
So, I was pumped to stumble across this song literally called Heavy Metal Halloween. I wish it had been featured on that episode, but hey, we can’t have it all. But we can have it ring the bell for our Hard ‘Til Halloween countdown.
There is some solace in the fact that I found this after 2019 though, and that’s that despite being called Heavy Metal Halloween, this song isn’t exactly the most Metally, nor Heaviest, song we’ve ever featured. And it’s certainly not played by an aging 80’s metal band from Europe either. I think these guys are from Rhode Island in the 90’s, so it’s really just as well that it wasn’t featured.
It is performed by Great Whyte Lyin’ Snake, which, if you’re a keen-eared Metal fan, will song like a fun portmanteau of Great White, White Lion and White Snake.
The band seems to be the jokey product of performers from a variety of punk bands including Sleigher, Vague Perception, Beer and Suckface.
Oddly, the song hails from their album Great Whyte Christmas, which features a lot of fun and silly tracks including the Misfits Last Caress turned into LastChristmas. It honestly sounds a bit like Deck My Balls to me and if I didn’t know any better I’d accuse Mikey and the Crypt Keeper Five of lifting this entire concept wholesale from The Snake. This is such a weird and rare little album though, I seriously doubt that’s the case.
I might end up posting the whole thing up on YouTube, as I had to grab a hard copy to ad this song, but I’m not sure. Until then, let’s kick out this block and get Hard ‘Til Halloween with Great Whyte Lyin’ Snake’s Heavy Metal Halloween!
2022 saw no shortage of Heavy Metal tunes. I think there were 8, by my count. Not a bad showing.
But in 2023, we completely ignored metal altogether. I’m not entirely sure if that was intentional on my part. I have a sort of master list that ebbs and flows and sometimes that doesn’t always jibe with how the seasons break out. Either way, 2023 was metal-free. What a Samhain bummer.
So, for the 2024 season we’re bringing it back. We’re goin Hard ‘Til Halloween. We got Heavy Metal Halloweeners, Referential Metal and Inclusive Metal all on the docket and we’re gonna keep your head bangin’ til the costumes are hangin. And if it ain’t quite Metal, it’ll still be hard, guaranteed.
Setting off this block is a dusty old fucker you might be familiar with. See, we featured this tune on Shindig Radio’s Heavy Metal Halloween back in 2019, and I could have sworn it was already on the playlist. But it was not! So, we’re gonna set the record straight and get this straggler on the roster tonight. It’s none other than Halloweenby Avenger.
The German Power Metal Band Rage was known, for a very brief period of their prolific career, as Avenger. Seems there was a British band by that name as well, so they went ahead and changed their name to Rage.
But not before they released their first album, which incidentally includes tonight’s Shindigger, predictably called Halloween.
Like their German brethren Helloween, Avenger takes a few minutes to wail away for us about the Eve of All Hallows, taking the stance that the night is inherently evil and linked to Satan.
For the record, I’d just like to state, I am not a Devil worshipper. Nor am I a Satanist, Luciferian or otherwise. I pledge no specific allegiance to Satan, Bel, Baal, Baphomet, Set, or any creepy fuckin’ Owl gods. I’m not entirely sure a being of such report exists, nor do I think any of us are. At least, I’d like to hope none of us are aware anyway.
But assuming a sentient being representing all evil with whatever powers, attributes, motivations and intent the old books of lore (or berobed weirdos in the woods of Mendecino County) have assigned upon it does actually exist, I wish not to align myself with them.
Now, the pious might argue that by simply having a blog and a room dedicated to a day not set aside for the Lord All Mighty, I am implicitly doing exactly that. Or that in creating an entire playlist of songs that not only fail to glorify Jesus, but it most cases represent a direct affront to him, that anything else I might say on that matter would be complete and utter horseshit. Hell, they might even be right. I’m not really sure how all of that works.
But if an all-powerful and omnipotent being stands as the antithesis to such an evil being, I imagine it knows full well about my post here and is hopefully noting my rejection of any and all actual creatures it stands in opposition against. But again, probably not how all that really works. At least, not if these righteous folks are to be believed anyway.
Look, I just like the color orange and think spooky monster stuff is pretty neat. I enjoy detailed and cartoonish representations of those monsters. In particular, I love old Halloween decorations. I like hazy blow-molded lights and creased cardboard die-cuts and honey-combed tissue paper shaped like bats. I like plastic Jack O’Lanterns and Ben Cooper masks and whatever the hell that stuff is they make stretchy cobwebs out of.
I like it when the leaves turn and crunch under the feet. I like the sharp sensation of breathing a lungful of cool autumn air. I like harvest foods like apples and corn and man, pumpkins with faces carved into them sure look cool.
I like the smell of latex masks and that shitty colored hair spray. I like candy and the communal spirit of the night. I like that it is a neighborhood-centered holiday rather than a family-centered one. I have fond memories of Halloweens past, trick or treating in the crisp air and watching Halloween TV shows and scary movies after.
Perhaps I am naive. Perhaps I’m unwittingly praying to Satan everyday through these activities. I’d sure hope not, and would like to go on record as such not being my intention. And that’s because that’s just not what Halloween means to me. It means the acknowledgment and honoring of death as one season of life gives way to another. This is not evil. Nature doesn’t understand that concept. Nature just is.
But maybe that’s that naïveté. Maybe it’s not about what it means to me, or what I ignorantly think it means. Maybe there’s something entirely more sinister at play here. But I dunno. That sounds like a whole lot of self righteous, puritanical Christian bullshit to me. But maybe that’s just the devil hard at work again, manipulating me with lies.
Now, should you go the other way with this concept and think that yes, Halloween is inherently evil and fuck yeah that’s exactly why you like it and my declaration of non-allegiance to Satan seriously offends you as a reader, cause man doesn’t it seem like some pussy ass shit over here at Halloween Shindig right now, I thought they were down – then shit, I dunno.
I’m not sure what to tell you, in that case. If that’s the sort of thing that you and your Master do not particularly appreciate, then I guess I’d apologize. But what do you need that for? You’re all fuckin evil and shit, right? What do you care what I say or think? Shut the fuck up, be fuckin evil and get the fuck down on this Hard ‘Til Halloween shit, will ya?!
So here we are, 12 years and almost 400 songs into this whole endeavor and we’re only now acknowledging iconic 80’s MTV Corey vehicle and known for its soundtrack vampire extravaganza, The Lost Boys? What in the actual bloody fuck, gang?
It’s shameful really, that it’s taken so long, and that its inclusion was ultimately by request, cause it shouldn’t have needed to be that way. A special shout out is in order though for Shindig enthusiast and Creep Phone caller, Peter Ostrowski, for finally asking what everyone probably should have been asking all along: “Hey! Where’s all the fuckin Lost Boys at, bud? And with the all the stupid shit you’ve forced us to listen to? Seriously?”
It’s a good question, as this is a pretty glaring omission. And, what’s more, is that it’s an especially shameful omission once you consider that this song, from Foreigner frontman Lou Gramm, is a Title Track.
I will add the caveat though that this is a Parenthetical Title Track, which certainly does not absolve me of failing to include it until now, but might possibly explain why. For years I simply assumed the song was only called Lost In The Shadows.
However, and as I must reiterate and can’t stress enough, this should not have prevented me from adding it to the playlist as an Inclusive Track during any one of the last 11 years. There’s just no excuse for that. Cause listen to this fuckin thing, it absolutely destroys. The 80’s synth, the driving bass line, the snare that doesn’t let your feet sit still. If there’s a song that had “Halloween Shindig” written on it, it was Lost in the Shadows.
But, like we always say around here, every song the should be on The Shindig will be on The Shindig…in time.
As for The Lost Boys, I’ll spare you any unnecessary dissertations. There’s a 99.9% chance that if you’re actually reading what’s written here, I don’t need to sell you on The Lost Boys, one way or the other. The odds that you might be sitting there all “The Lost Boys, huh? I think I’ve heard of that. Hmm, I wonder if I should watch it?” are practically fuckin zero.
So, let’s just blast through all that blah blah blah Corey Feldman is awesome, blah blah blah that sweaty saxophone guy from Monsterpalooza, and hey how bout that Jaime Gertz huh? Or man, it’s shame about Corey Haim though for real, he was great and yadda yadda yadda that Echo and The Bunnymen cover sucks, and hey it’s not nearly as badass as Near Dark but whatever I guess, cause it’s still cool cause man wouldn’t it be awesome to be a Lost Boy, with the dirt bikes and the hair and the sleeping all day and shit? Yeah.
So grab your copy of Batman #14, some takeout maggots and don’t waltz, cause with Lost in the Shadows, we can all Rock ‘N Roll.
It also has a scene where a very conflicted Antichrist magically makes his bully grow a pair of tits. That’s pretty wild too.
But let’s get back to this music, huh?
So yeah, this soundtrack is kinda nuts. Like, I’m not sure if they knew it at the time (maybe they did, who knows?) but looking back it’s like a who’s-who of the late 70’s punk and new wave scenes. It’s crazy to see a low budget directorial debut just stacking tracks like this.
The Ramones, Patti Smith, Talking Heads, The Rezillos, the B-52s, Richard Hell, The Boomtown Rats, The Sex Pistols! It’s plays like a compliation album you used to only be able to by off a TV commercial that came of 4 Cassettes or 2 Compact Discs.
It doesn’t appear as though they released this soundtrack, though. They released the score, by director Frank LaLoggia and David Spear, but not this. That seems like a real missed trick to me. I’ll bet they coulda sold a metric shirtsworth of these things at that time. And then I wouldn’t have to pull the song from the end of the DVD. But at least it’s clean and clear and presumably complete. Can’t say that about a lot of In-Movie-Only songs.
Now, I’m not sure how any of this actually works, cause I’m just a dumbass that recklessly types potentially unsubstantiated nonsense onto the internet for people all over the world to not read. But I’m gonna blame this collection of songs on Soundtrack Coordinator Jonathan Brett.
Jonathan had just come off coordinating the soundtrack for 1979’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Highschool, which we know definitely featured the Ramones. Hell, the whole movie does. That’s an interesting story too.
Apparently that movie was originally titled Disco High, and producer Roger Corman wanted Todd Rundgren, despite Todd not producing anything close to what I’d call Disco. But Todd wanted more money than the notoriously cheap Corman was willing to part with for the job. At least that’s how I read it. Wikipedia says it was a “scheduling conflict” but IMDb says they “couldn’t come to an agreement.” Oh yeah? An agreement about the scheduling, I’m sure.
So, they went to Roger’s second choice, Cheap Trick. As it turns out Cheap Trick isn’t quite as affordable as they bill themselves and not nearly enough for the miserly Corman, and they were summarily dismissed. Or rather, ya know, they just couldn’t come to an agreement.
However, The film’s director, Mr. Allan Arkush, had some connections over at Warner Bros. Music, and after poo-pooing both Van Halen and Devo, they finally landed on The Ramones, because they recorded on Warner subsidiary Sire Records. Ahh interesting.
Ok, well that’s just fuckin’ swell, buddy. What the fuck does all this Rock ‘n’ Roll High Schoolhave to do with Fear No Evil?
Well, just about the entirety of the Fear No Evil soundtrack is Sire Record acts, including Title Tracker’s Trybe.
And outside of that fact, I can’t find a one lick of information about this fuckin band. Discogs list about 6 different Trybes and not a single one performed this Title Track.
I will say that Colin Jacobson over at DVD Movie Guide called the tune an “awful title song by some flop band called Trybe.” Nice!
This is good news, as it seems to suggest that he thinks they were some band that just didn’t make it. I wonder what he knows?
Me? I’m not convinced they’re even band at all and aren’t are just some one-off from writers Andy Paley and Erik Lindgren. We may never know.
Oh, but hey! What about the movie?
Well, I’ll tell ya, as derivative as it feels most of the time, it’s not terrible. It’s got some good moments in it, some creepy, some with fun FX or some that are just plain bizarre. It’s a weird movie, with a weird vibe.
I like the look of it. It’s hazy and warm, like comfort photography. This isn’t too surprising, directed as it is by Frank LaLoggia, the man behind the Class of 1988 alumni Lady In White. That movie have a spot on feel of fuzzy vintage Halloween, with a hazy glow of its on.
But that’s all a whole lot, so I’m gonna let y’all get the song already.
Here’s Fear No Evilfrom Trybe, whoever the hell they even are.
If a movie hits you off so with its Title Track before introducing you to all of its main characters or even an inkling of its plot, than you know you’re off to a good start.
When that Title Track get played diegetically in the film by a literal garage band, that’s even better.
If that Title Track is played directly after a young boy drives a stake through his grandfather’s heart cause the old bastard was terrorizing the kid by screaming “I’m a Vampire!!?” at the top of his lungs…then you’re watching Hard Rock Nightmare, my friend.
This psychological thriller cum Scooby Doo episode features a fair amount of rocking from our heroes, The Bad Boys, a name so dumb even their own band members clown on it. But as you’ll hear in the song, the local police force is getting a little tired of their loud and lousy rock.
So, now they’re out practicing at Jimmy’s Grandma’s house. Ya know, the one she left him despite him ruthlessly murdering her husband like a creature of the night. Hey, he was being kind of an asshole. She said as much herself.
But, it seems that there’s a werewolf on the loose too and doing some murdering of its own. But is the wolf real? Are the mysterious phone calls Jim’s getting from his Grandfather hallucinations? Is anyone gonna get to bang the undercover reporter writing about the band for her sister‘s rock magazine? Who knows!
What we do know is that it’ll be a Hard Rock Nightmare, cause they’ve let us know that shit right out the gate. And God bless ’em for that.
Here it is, just another Title Track from 1988. It’s Hard Rock Nightmare!
We’re keeping Title Track train chuggin’ along with a Title Track to 1989’s Night Visitor.
Now you may notice, however, that this song is not Night Visitor. That is because tonight’s Title Track is an Alternate Title Track, where the song was very much a True Title Track for most of the film’s inception and production (and hell, even in some Foreign market releases) but for some reason was stripped of its status by reckless executives.
Because dear readers, I ask, is Night Visitor a better title than Never Cry Devil? I should think not.
This thick slice of late 80’s Rock ‘N Roll cheesery comes from Willy DeVille, whom is perhaps best known being the leader of Mink DeVille, an early house band at New York’s famed CBGB.
Willy also earned himself an Academy Award nomination for writing and recording Storybook Love with Dire Straits’ Mark Knophler for the film The Princess Bride. Aces.
Here, Willy sets a mood while vaguely (very vaguely) singing about the things that might have something to do with the plot of this 1989 thriller about a boy who thinks he’s gonna see his sexy neighbor Shannon Tweed get buck, but just ends up seeing his fat History teacher ritualistically murdering her in a crazy Satan mask. It’s kinda wild.
But I can picture wilder. Much wilder.
Michael J. Pollard plays the muderer’s brother and (as always) just about steals the show. Elliot Gould showed for a few days to collect his checks and they somehow talked Shaft himself, Mr. Richard Roundtree, into playing the investigating detective.
None of it’s bad, per se, but it doesn’t quite amount to what you want from the premise.
However, it might just be more evidence for Mikey’s theorem that the quality of a movie’s Title Track is directly, and inversely, proportionate to how much that movie sucks.
Now, I’m not sure if that’s always true, particularly for the heavy hitters (Fright Night, Monster Squard, fuckin Ghostbusters for fuck’s sake) but it definitely seems to be the case here again at Track #375, cause this song’s delivering the goods. It’s Wily DeVille with Never Cry Devil.
Ok, that’s enough fake Title Tracks. Let’s get to with real deal, cause we got a bunch of these.
The good news is I thought I’d be playing catch up here with all the new songs from Title Tracks Pt. 6, but since that episode has yet to air, they can all debut right here on the Playlist for a change, like the old days!
You can thank Mr. Josh Spiegel over atMovie Timelinesfor our first Title Track, as I became aware of this tune and film it hails from while watching an episode of his ongoing series, The 80’s Project.
But Josh is generally pretty good about throwing Title Tracks my way whenever he stumbles across new ones. I’m just grateful to have a guy in the field doings some work for Title Track identification and acquisition.
And this one is a funky, disco-esque groover from Joyce Vincent Wilson, who is perhaps best known for being part of the group Dawn, as in Tony Orlando and Dawn. They were a trio of singers responsible for a string of hits in the early 70’s including Candida, Knock Three Times and Tie a yellow Ribbon Round the ole Oak Tree. They were so popular in fact that they even had a short lived variety show on CBS called, you guessed it, Tony Orlando and Dawn.
I love this tune, and since he mentions it in the first 2 seconds of the show, it’s going to be no spoiler to say it was Kyle Sullivan’s choice for favorite Title Track out of the Ep. 6 lineup.
No one else felt that way however, particularly Graham, who used it as solid evidence that he didn’t actually need to watch the film. Which I had to concur with, he didn’t. No one does, honesty. I mean, it’s fine, for what it is, but it doesn’t need to be burning a hole in anyone’s watch list, knowhutimean?
It’s a bit of a lighter, comedic take on the Fritz Leiber novel Conjure Wife, which had previously been adapted into the 1944 film Weird Woman and the 1962 film Burn, Witch, Burn.
There’s a cool gargoyle thing that comes out of a giant egg, I’ll say that. Richard Benjamin, of Love at First Bite fame is pretty fun. Terri Garr is great, and it was Lana Turner’s final film appearance. Whether that’s a positive or not is up to you, but she gives a solid performance despite the general Made-for-TV vibes this movie generates.
But you can’t blame Joyce Vincent Wilson, that’s for sure, cause it may not really fit that vibe, but this is a certified jammer. Kicking off a full-on Title Track Pt. 6 block, here’s the 1980’s Witches’ Brew!
We’re gonna hit ya with another Tie-In Title Track here, this one from 1959, that I very much wish was in the actual movie.
Cause I love The Tingler. It’s easily and simultaneously one of my favorite William Castle and Vincent Price movies. It balances the right amount of camp with just the right amount of ingenuity to create a memorable picture that has truly stood the test of time. And not for nothing, but it features the very first LSD trip ever shown on film. And it’s taken by Vincent Price no less. What could be better?
Well, how about this song? C’mon, it’s amazing. It’s everything you want from a Title Track in 1959 to a movie about a creature that lives in your spine and feeds on fear. So why wasn’t it featured in the film itself? Well, it’s a great question and of course it’s one that I have absolutely no real answer for.
I could suggest that it’s perhaps because the song was produced after the film was shot and edited, solely for the purpose of marketing the film. That seems reasonable. Maybe it was just an after thought. Doesn’t mean they couldn’t have dropped it on the credits real easy before they released the film, but they didn’t, so here we are.
Or I could assume it’s because they didn’t think the tone of this song really matched the tone of the movie, like say The Chucky Song. And perhaps just like that tune, they pulled it from the release. However, unlike The Chucky Song, they didn’t want the tune to go to waste and used it’ll as a piece of the marketing. Perhaps.
I honestly don’t think this song would have felt that out of place played over the credits or diegetically featured somewhere during the film. I guess I can understand why maybe Williams Castle and team thought so. It is a bit campy and silly. But I guess that’s my point, so is The Tingler.
Interestingly, the B-side to this Tie-In Title Track was another (Truncated) Tie-In Title Track called The Thirty Foot Bride from the Lou Costello comedy The 30ft Bride of Candy Rock, also from 1959.
But who are The Tinglers? Well, much like The Five Blobs, they were studio musicians and we might never know for sure. Except, that is, for once vocalist in particular. A very prominent voice you might just be familiar with.
Yep. That main voice belongs to Tony the Tiger himself, Mr. You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch, Thurl Ravenscroft. How cool is that?
Now, I don’t know about you guys, but you give me something like this, sung by someone like that, then watch out, cause that shit’s hittin’ The Shindig harder than a cease and desist from the Universal Music Group. I don’t care if it was featured in the film or not. Don’t get me wrong, that would certainly help, but it definitely won’t detract from The Tingler by The Tinglers.
If you’ve been hangin around here for any amount of time, then you know we talk a lot about Title Tracks. This is especially true what with Shindig Radio’s Title Tracks Pt. 6 dropping. Oh wait, that hasn’t happened yet. Shit. My predictive drafting has failed me yet again.
Well, in that episode, I kinda break down all the different types of Title Tracks, everything from Parenthetical jammers to Title Track After the Facts.
But there’s another sort of Title Track that I didn’t mention on the show, and that’s because they’re technically not really Title Tracks at all. But these are Tie-In Title Tracks.
These are songs that, for all intents and purposes, are true blue Title Tracks, meeting the same criteria and serving the same or (in some cases) an even more overtly, promotional purpose.
There’s just one problem; they’re not actually in the goddamn movie. Nope. They just exist, outside of the film, in a purely musical space operating as a full fledged audio commercials for the films they’re named after.
Now, we already have one of these on the playlist at #319 in The Devil Rides Out, but I’ve dug up a few more.
I wonder if they weren’t sort of a precursor to full-on Title Tracks, from a time when producers were starting to realize the potential effect a popular song could have in generating interest, but didn’t want to sully their film with something as coarse as a rock and roll song tonally incongruous to the film being marketed.
It’s possible. The oldest Title Track featured on the playlist is still The Blob from 1958. Not for nothing either, but it’s one of the oldest Title Track period. 1955’s Love is a Many-Splendored Thing has it beat by 3 years, but I’m not really seeing much else earlier than that, but I am always on the lookout.
However, The Blobwas released the year before 3 out of the 4 Promotional Title Tracks I’ve found, so a True Title Track certainly wasn’t unprecedented. But The Blob, at present, appears to be a bit of an outlier, as Title Tracks didn’t seem to gain real prominence until the mid 1960’s. James Bond films, long known specifically for their Title Tracks, didn’t start that ritualuntil 1963’s From Russia with Love.
The next closest thing is Hush Hush Sweet Charlottefrom 6 years later in 1964. That one’s interesting as it wasn’t technically a Title Track originally, because the movie was shooting under the name What Ever Happened to Cousin Charlotte. Bette Davis reportedly disliked the name as it made the film sound far too much like a sequel to What Ever Happened to Baby Jane. This song had already been written and recorded though and Bette recommended changing the films title to match. Wild! The movie naming itself after the original song to instantly turn that song into a Title Track is baller as fuck. That’s a powerful ass Title Track.
But I digress. Back to Dr. Terror, cause it’s interesting in its own right.
See, this track is sung by Dr. Terroractor Roy Castle, star of the Voodoo segment. Roy was an accomplished singer and trumpet player in his own right, which probably led to him being tapped for the task. Though Roy plays trumpet player Bailey in the film, the trumpet parts were apparently recorded by legendary Jazz player Tubby Hayes and not Roy himself. He does do a bang on job miming those parts though, as one might expect.
Another curious aspect of the song is that, despite it being sung by someone from the film itself, it completely misrepresents the nature of Dr. Terror’s house of horrors. Its treats it as though it were an actual brick and mortar location filled with horrifying surprises. If you’ve ever seen the film, you’ll know that the house or horrors is simply a metaphor Dr. Terror (or, more appropriately, Dr. Schrek) uses to describe his tarot deck. The fact that Roy enters a spooky old house and keeps meeting strange characters is so wildly out of sync with the film it seems almost laughable, particularly considering this is suppose to be the audio equivalent of a trailer or print ad. You’re selling the wrong film here fellas.
Either way, it’s a fun song with silly interludes that reminds me quite a bit of Carry On Screaming! also British and from the following year, 1966. I wonder if Ray Pilgrim and the crew were taking a bit of a piss on Amicus and Roy here. I certainly wouldn’t put it past them.
At any rate here’s the first of 2 Tie-In Title Tracks we got on tap for you this season. It’s Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors!
Sometimes you just wish you knew a song existed sooner.
This would have paired perfectly with the 2022 addition, Stay the Night, which sounded suspiciously similar to Bon Jovi’s You Give Love a Bad Name.
But even earlier than that, this song would have fit in nicely with all the other Haunted House hits in 2017.
Or perhaps, if I had know about this tune even earlier, I could have thrown it where it probably belongs, directly after Thriller, because damnit if this isn’t the most shameless Thriller knock-off I’ve ever heard.
Ok, maybe Golimar, but that thing was tucked away inside some obscure Telugu musical that no one saw for 25 years. Additionally, it doesn’t sound anywhere near as similar to Thriller as Doin’ It In a Haunted House does, which released to the American pop charts within a year of Thriller’s debut.
So shameless is this tune, in fact, that it sample’s directly from John Landis’ Thriller video in the opening minutes of the song. That’s either some kinda balls, or just plain wearing it on your sleeve. Cause if they didn’t think people would go “Hey! That sounds just like Thriller!” then someone is outta their goddamn mind.
And apparently they did, with Yvonne Gage herself stating (at least in retrospect) that she expressed concerns over its similarity to Thriller. These concerns were brushed away by the production team and they moved forward with the tune.
And boy am I glad they did, because Yvonne Cage’s Doin’ It In a Haunted House is a glorious thing. Not only is a fairly groovin’ tune, because well, it’s basically Thriller, but it’s called fuckin’ Doin’ It in a Haunted House. That’s just fantastic. And it’s not played for laughs either, at least as far as I can tell. This doesn’t strike me a jokey tune. This is just a straight faced Thriller knock-off with a ridiculous goddamn title and it’s beautiful.
It’s not terribly often that a song just gets an instant spot on the Plyalist based on its title alone. Most of them, I need to at least hear first. But this one? I was basically of the opinion that if it was even remotely listenable, it was goin on there, no question.
Then, I fire it up and it’s some ridiculous Thriller knock-off on top of that? Where has this song been all my life?! There’s still gems to be uncovered, even after years into this juggernaut.
But let’s talk about this song, shall we?
Let’s start with Yvonne, who began singing (as many girls do) at her local church from a very young age. Soon, she joined a band called the Soulettes and they even released an album under the band name Love, but Yvonne had already moved on by then, singing back up for a guy named Captain Sky. From there she met producer Don Burnside.
In addition to introducing her to Ministry (of all bands, with whom she recorded in their ) Don also produced her first 2 albums.
Originally, Doin’ It in a Haunted House was envisioned as a “response” record in the vein of Lydia Murdocks Superstar. If you’ve never heard that tune, I recommend giving it a listen, as it’s pretty wild if you’ve never come across it before.
Sung from the perspective of Billie Jean, Lydia posits Michael Jackson’s No. 1 tales omits some pretty big details and she means to set the record straight.
That record also sounds suspiciously like Billie Jean, aping the bassline and basic rhythm.
That sort of thing isn’t unheard of either, though not typically so overt. In fact, Response Songs (or Answers Songs) are as old as recorded music itself. Take a look at that list to see just how many songs are in fact (a good many of which I was totally unaware were) response songs.
What you might notice missing from that list, however, is Yvonne Gage’sDoin’ It in a Haunted House.
And probably not unjustly.
Despite being sold as the “Female Answer to Thriller,” the lyrics do little to suggest this is anything other than a similiar-ish concept wrapped up in a package sounding entirely too much like Thriller.
At least Rod Temperton thought so, anyway. See, he was the co-writer of Thriller and he proceeded to sue Gage for copyright infringement. Nothing really came from the suit, with Yvonne herself stating that Rod didn’t so much want money as he wanted to simply kill her record. Which, in effect, it kind of did, with deals and appearances evaporating from Yvonne upon the lawsuits release.
Mission accomplished pal, cause I haven’t heard of this thing in 40 years of its existence and I’m looking for shit like this. I guess I’m just not looking hard enough. Or maybe just not in the right places.
But like we always say, these kinds of things can’t hide from The Shindig forever, even if they should have been on there since day 1.
If you’ve never heard this one before, enjoy! If you’ve long been a fan, what the fuck? Drop The Shindig a line, will ya? This is too good an addition for ya’ll to have been sittin’ on.
TRACK #390:
