Elvira

The Mistress herself. No Halloween would be the same without her. However, did you know she’s produced enough horror music to take the field 3 times over?

The Gal in Black takes her at-bats.

Audio

Here I Am

TRACK #251:

Here I Am by Elvira

Since we seem to be hearing a lot from Shindig members we haven’t seen in a while this year, let’s welcome back That Gal in Black Who Keeps Coming Back, Elvira.

Yep, it’s been about 4 years since The Shindig’s gotten a hitter from Casandra Peterson’s beloved horror icon. To be fair though, we front-loaded this playlist with a ton of Elvira, so giving ourselves a chance to cool off has been helpful.

By 1988, Elvira had burst from the confines of local Los Angeles late-night Television and into homes across the nation with guest appearances on shows like CHiPS, The Fall Guy and endorsements with companies like Coors Light.

However, that was the year Elvira made the great leap from the small screen to the silver screen with Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, a film she co-wrote herself with disembodied Pee-Wee’s Playhouse head, Jambi!

It’s a fun piece of 80’s horror camp that’s very entertaining, with some great special FX work and Elvira at her double entendre-delivering best.

After being sexually harassed by her station’s new owner, Elvira quits her job. Then, she finds out her Great Aunt Morgana died and left her a giant old house! So, she moves to Massachusetts to receive that inheritance.

Unfortunately, the town’s uppity constituency of conservative buttinskis don’t like the cut of her jib.  This doesn’t stop Every Tricker’s Treat from indulging in a montage to fix up the old mansion or host a late-night horror fest at the local movie palace. Eventually she gets accused of Witchcraft and almost gets burned at the stake!

All’s well that ends well for Elvira though, as she ultimately uses her inheritance to finance a life-long dream of starring in a lavish Las Vegas show; an occupation Casandra herself actually held at a rather young age.

I do regret to inform you, dear readers, that our beloved Casandra was nominated by those despicable cretins at the Golden Raspberry Committee, for worst actress 1989! Can you believe such a thing?

The good news is she lost to Liza Minnelli for a double-dose of dreafull performances in Arthur 2: On the Rocks and Rent-A-Cop. Still, I can’t believe Casandra was even nominated. Really? It’s a character, and a singular one at that. God, I really think I hate those Razzie fucks.

At any rate, Here I Am is the song she performs in that lavish Vegas show. And while it’s a tad short of my liking, it eventually evolves into a full on Monster Rap, which more than makes up for it’s brevity, in my opinion.

Since the very end of the song has no lyrics, due to Elvira beginning her famous tassel-swinging dance, I’ve included a gif of said dance, to fill the void.This is a dance, I’m proud to say, that I finally got to see Casandra perform live back in 2017, which was the farewell season of her famous, 21-year running Halloween stage show at Knottsberry Farm.

Here she is…Elvira!

 

Audio

Trick or Treat

TRACK #132:

Trick or Treat by Elvira

If you’re an Elvira fan like me, than you’re no doubt at least tangentially aware of her Halloween albums.

There are a number of them, the bulk of which feature the mistress herself singing on her own original tracks. They’re pretty great.

What you may notice however, is that while these Halloween albums feature lots of allusions to the holiday, Elvira herself only participates in songs tangentially related to Halloween itself. What gives?

If you’re like me and you administer a Halloween themed music blog, you may have even dug deep enough to find the many references to an actual Halloween song she sings called Trick or Treat. There’s even a couple of clips on YouTube of her performing the track. So where’s the damn song?

Who knows exactly, as it seems it was never officially released on any of her albums. However, The Shindig dug deeper still and purchased an episode of The Dr. Demento Show from October of 1983 that featured Cassandra Peterson as co-host.

As you’ll hear in the clip, The Doc mentions Elvira’s forthcoming album will be including original tunes, one of which they preview on the show, our white buffalo Trick or Treat. Why this never came to fruition is a Halloween legend of limited and myopic interest.

So, here it is Weeners! Enjoy.

 

Audio

End of Side One

TRACK #121:

End of Side One by Elvira

Elvira’s albums are chock full of the Vinyl Vixen bullshitting between songs and giving everybody audio hard-ons.

For many years I have used this spoken word outro from Vinyl Macabre as a way to split the playlist in two.

As of last count The Shindig clocked in at 240 tracks, making This Is Halloween the last track on “side one.”

Should the playlist grow in length (as it always seems to) I’ve decided to let this bumper be its own track so it can float to wherever that halfway point should fall in the future.
So we’re officially halfway through the playlist, gang!

If that sounds daunting and just makes you feel tired then go shit in a hat, bub. All you have to do is wait and listen. I’m doing all the heavy lifting over here, so if anyone should fell tired, it’s me. And I do, as I’ve fallen asleep during a total of 10 movies this October. My horror stats for this month are at an all time low.

But along comes Elvira with a little pick me up..

So, come on. Turn her over…

Good Lord is she sexy.

 

Audio

Haunted House

TRACK #64:

Haunted House by Elvira

Well, we couldn’t do a block of Horror Host hits without including the most successful, recognizable and desirable Horror Host of them all, Elvira.

Casandra Peterson was initially picked to become the new Vampira, when KHJ-TV in LA approached Maila Nurmi to reboot The Vampira Show in the early 80’s.

Maila wanted Lola Falana. KHJ did not, and essentially just hired Peterson on their own. This irked Maila so thoroughly that she completely walked away from the entire project.

No matter to KHJ, they went ahead and did it anyway, without Maila, renaming their host Elvira, and proceeding with “Elvira’s Movie Macabre.”

This also irked Ms. Nurmi. So much so that she sued Casandra Peterson for likeness infringement.

She lost the suit however, as the court found a striking similarity was not infringement enough,  and ruled in favor of Peterson. Casandra went on to find great success as The Mistress of the Dark, becoming a brand unto herself, with national syndication, spokesperson deals, 2 pinball machines, 2 feature films and scores other Elvira themed products.

A whole new generation of horror nerds had their own wet nightmares at the…hands…of the almost impossibly beautiful Casandra Peterson, who remains so iconic to horror culture, it’s difficult to think of a time without her.

Wrapping up our Horror Host block is the Mistress herself (who else) singing about the dangers of a Haunted House.

 

Audio

Full Moon

TRACK #42:

Full Moon by Elvira

Segueing nicely from that last sample is this gem from everyone’s favorite wet nightmare Elvira.

Of all the Elvira originals on The Shindig (and there’s a few), this is perhaps my favorite. It’s got a fun 80’s synth-pop sound, and it features the Mistress of the Dark singing seductively about how essentially a full moon makes her crazy horny. Um, ok. ‘Nuff said. I’m in.

Here’s Elvira with Full Moon.

Thanks for the boner.