Every season there’s a song (well probably a number of songs really) but always at least one specific song, that finally gets it moment to shine.
A song that has been in the bullpen for years, waiting patiently for its moment. A song I have desperately wanted to squeeze in for years. A song for which getting on the playlist was never a question. A song that was always destined to show up, just a matter of when.
I think of such long suffering additions like last years Freaky Halloween from EJ Rock, or Solcyst’s Haha! I Need Your Blood from 2023, or hell, the entire 2 season spanning run from track 100 to 130. That’s a meaty part of the playlist right there.
And for 2025, that song is definitely tonight’s addition, Don’t Let Go from Unit Eight. I can’t tell you how long this one has been in the bullpen. A while, like over 10 years, if not since the beginning of the bullpen altogether.
Now, I’m not sure why I’ve left it out of our last 2 disco blocks (yeah sorry, Cerrone was the opening salvo of our Biennial Disco Block) but I’m glad I still have something this damn undeniable after 400 tracks.
And is this one ever undeniable. If you know, I definitely don’t need to convince you, but to those out there that don’t recognize this title (and aren’t immediately jogged by the album art above) this is the kind of song that makes Halloween Shindig the kinda playlist it is.
From 1982 horror opus Creepshow comes the song a young Ed Harris absolutely cuts a rug to during the Father’s Day segment. If you’re as big a Creepshow fan as me (and the many others reading) that’s all there is to say. Tonal incongruous and questionable inclusions that seem wildly out of place if you don’t understand their origin is what Halloween Shindig is all about. Plus, the song absolutely slaps. Unless you don’t like Disco, which I can understand.
Unit Eight was a band out of the UK, and this song can be found on their 1978 album Discos Like This, which features a full line up of fine disco cuts. How this one found its way in George Romero and Stephen King’s epic team-up I simply couldn’t say. But man I’m glad it did, as it gives us another example of actors (maybe even future stars) doing ridiculous dances in Horror movies. Crispin Glover in Friday 4, or Jim Carey in Once Bitten, or Tiffany Helm in Friday 5, and now, we present Ed Harris in Creepshow…
Now, that is some Disco dancing. Again, I know not everyone reading likes this kinda thing. I get it. But personally, and at the risk of losing all semblance of musical credibility, I enjoy the hell out of Discp. Or at least Disco about monsters and ghosts and shit. And boy we got a whole acrylic plaform’s worth of disco fish in the tank. So we’re gonna blast you with another hardcore block of coked-out, fever inducing disco demons to haunt your dance floor.
I came across this randomly, on eBay as it happens, and was instantly intrigued. I had yet to come across this yet. What was this curious title? It was a cassette and it was expensive. Apparently this thing is pretty rare, so I immediately investigated.
While the actual copies may be in short supply and command a hefty price, the music itself is fairly available. But hey, who wants to just listen to things on YouTube? And how annoying is it if I simply direct you to YouTube when we have all these playlists here?
Time was it was on Spotify. Dunno about Apple Music, cause fuck apple music (I mean, fuck Spotify too, honestly, but definitely Apple Music as well) Either way, it’s not on Spotify anymore, so I figured I might as well toss it up here.
Cause this shit is the straight trunk-rattler I wish I had back in the fall of ’97, bombin’ around Brockton Massachusetts in my buddy’s busted-ass Nissan Sentra with a bass box he had no business having. This boom-stick of a Horror soundtrack would have shaking windows all up and down our block ’til Hallow-goddamn-Ween.
So bump this shit and get rattled, cause it rules.
To be completely honest, I have no idea how long I’ll keep doing this or how long the playlist will end up being when it’s all said and done.
Early on, some of my more inclusive lists had the total topping out at around 250 tracks. As such, in 2015 I claimed Track #120 (This is Halloween) was the center of the playlist. Yeah, that was 10 years ago and we’ve added almost 3 times that many songs to the playlist since. For those playing at home, we actually hit that end point 4 years later with Halloween by 220 Volt in 2019. Now, it’s 6 years from even then and we’ve put another 160 songs on top of that.
What can I say? I kept finding cool songs I thought needed adding.
That very same year (about a week prior, it seems, in the The Monster Mash post) I said I’d love to get the playlist’s total runtime to 24 hours, then your Halloween couldn’t possibly hold anymore music. I’m proud to say that, without really thinking about that goal much since writing it, we hit that marker just last year. About a minute into Track #368, Igor At Midnightby Cagé, The Shindig officially broke the 24 hour mark.
And yet here we are, 400 songs in the rear-view and we’ve got a playlist that’s entirely too long for any party and literally can not be listened to in a single instance of Halloween. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not, but it’s certainly a thing.
Should I keep going? Should I keep adding music to this playlist, because hell, isn’t October really just a perfectly structured 31 day countdown to Halloween anyway and now there’s a shuffle button and we got all the Mini-Playlists and people can cherry pick what they want and leave the rest and walk out knowing that regardless of what they came away with they were presented with a serious list of classic and obscure tunes appropriately suggested for their holiday festivities? Yeah, we’ll keep diggin’ up tunes a little while longer I suspect.
Well, at the very least there’s the rest of this year’s tracks, and whatever else I have sitting in the bullpen that can scratch its way out onto the field. Is that another 100 songs? Roughly 3 seasons worth of tunes?
I couldn’t say, but after 400 tracks, we need a little reset. We need something epic to recenter things and usher in a new phase of the playlist. We need something…supernatural.
And what better tune to fit the bill than the dystopian dance floor disco ‘digger, Supernature?
From French drummer Marc Cerrone’s 1977 album of the same name, comes a song about how scientists in the future basically use GMOs to battle starvation but unwittingly transformed creatures below the surface into hideous monsters that rise up and terrorized mankind back into the Stone Age. Ok, disco, let’s get fuckin’ serious, I guess.
Apparently this song enjoyed some popularity last summer when it was used by France during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics. I was unaware. I’m not tapped into the Olympics like that. Or at all. Like not even slightly. I kind of hate the Olympics, if I’m being honest.
My apologies if you’re an Olympic fan, an Olympic hopeful or even a former Olympian yourself (as my visitor data fully leads me imagine you probably might be) but the whole business has never sat right with me.
I have conceptual interest in the strongest and most accomplished humans from all over the globe competing in good natured feats of skill and strength. That sounds nice. Sounds nice. In practice though, it doesn’t really seem to be that and it mostly causes people to just be irritating.
And maybe this is me just living in the United States. Maybe it’s different in other parts of the world, but when my fellow countrymen, who couldn’t be arsed for the proceeding 4 years, suddenly won’t shut up about curling, are suddenly all experts in the pentathlon, or become inconceivably invested in the various athletic performances of underage girls or – its annoying.
I don’t care. You can’t make me care. I have no appetite for some nebulous surge in pride I’m supposed to feel cause “our” guy swam .2 seconds faster than that “their” guy. Yeah, you can miss me with this nationalistic horseshit.
And that is to say nothing of the legitimate economic, political or human right issues associated with the either the games themselves or the IOC. But realistically, it’s not going anywhere. I’m not even saying it should, or needs to, go anywhere. I obviously don’t patronize it and I will continue to do just that. I’m just saying, this is why I had no idea this song was making the rounds last year.
Which is probably good. This should make the rounds, cause this song is awesome. And it’s dance-able as all get out. So c’mon!
You’re not getting tired already, are you? It’s only been 400 songs! The night is still young!
Seems we haven’t heard from Shindig All-Stars Acid Witch in like 3 years. What? Is that even real? How can that be? That doesn’t sound right.
But it’s true, and what’s more, last time we didn hear from ’em it was when we hit 300 tracks, of all occasions. Weird.
Well, we’ve now hit 400 tracks and though we didn’t give the boys the hundred spot, 401 with that lead in ain’t too shabby.
After 400 songs though, with my own energy waning for this endeavor, Acid Witch’s I Hate Halloween seemed like an appropriate flag to place at this important milestone. After 13 years, all this Halloween has gotten to me. I’m sick of all this spooky bullshit! So much orange! Too many skeletons! More fuckin’ songs about Dracula?! Enough of this shit! I wanna start a blog about 4th of July music, or write too many sentences about four-leaf clovers, or line my walls with vintage Valentines Day cards.
I jest. I mean, I am starting to get a little tired of all this, but I obviously do not hate Halloween. I mean, at least not as much as the Christian Fundamentalist dick bag featured in tonight’s song.
See, Glenn is a liar. He’s certainly not the only one in the Pagan Invasion Series, and gems definitely not the only one in that volume, but he may be the biggest. But that’s how the Satanic Panic rolled, innit? Make wild baseless claims about some wild ass life you lived prior to being saved by Jesus and just trot that shit out like you’re talking about how you used steal candy bars from Cumberland Farms. You did what? You drank blood and got ritually abused!? Cool! Now you’ve got a testimony so unimaginably insane and scary ain’t no Grandma in the congregation second guessing that shit.
Thankfully, critical thinking exists for the rest of us heathens who aren’t taking that claptrap at face value. Heathens like Kerr Cuhulainor Cassidy McGullicuddy that absolutely second guessed that shit, and bless their hearts.
Like take Glenn here, who fully admits to murdering a little girl. Like, murdering her, with an M. He says this shit, on video, that he murdered another human being. Of course he was just a child and someone kinda made him do it and that was after some ritual sexual abuse they both received as members of the Satanic cult into which they were born. Oh yeah, I totally believe you Glenn, you seem like a real straight shooter.
What do you mean you murdered her? What about once you found Christ? Did you tell anyone else about this shit, I mean other this interviewer? Was there was no investigation? No police? No parents behind bars for these heinous acts?
Oh, that’s just some shit that happened before, but you’ve since moved on from all of that cause you got saved and that little girl was bred in secret so no one knew she even existed, so no one even she knew she was missing? Oh, ok. I got it now. Makes sense. What’s the statute of limitations on murder? Oh, never? Yeah, that’s what I thought.
But the petrified pearl clutchers that would be watching this thing in earnest were just eating it up. I’d love to say this was only possible because the internet didn’t exist yet and calling people out for their bullshit was a bit trickier. But nowadays all sorts of people, elected fucking officials even, just blast all kinds of lies right on the goddamn timeline and nothing comes of that shit. It’s 2025. Nothing really matters past a 10 day news cycle. Telling dumb shit fundamentalists you used to be a werewolf or sacrificed a small girl on Halloween at the height of the Satanic Panic was like giving candy to a Trick or Treater.
Glenn was too late though. That same Satanic Panic was winding down by the time he jumped the gravy train. He had to pack it up and go be an actual preacher, which he did in the 2000’s at the Lake Elisinore Christian Center in California. And wouldn’t you know it!? He’s had sermons talking about his family and not once does him seem to mention being a Generational Satanist. Damn Glenn, that seems like that would be a pretty formative piece of your childhood to just leave out of the sermons now, wouldn’t you say? Doesn’t murdering a small girl for Satanists seem relevant to your congregation? Oh well, I guess. That was a long time ago.
Or let’s see, you got Mike Warnke’s totally not at all fake book The Satan Seller, Michelle Smith’s even more not fake book Michelle Remembers , or hell Lauren Stratford Satan’s Underground, an account so extra legit Lauren Stratford isn’t even her real fuckin’ name! Or who could forget Beatrice Sparks, who doubled down on her preternaturally genuine Go Ask Alice, with 1979’s Jay’s Journal, also extremely not hogwash. Then you’ve got everyone involved in the McMartin Preschooland Little Rascals Daycare scandals, and god knows how many other examples one could scrounge up. It’s a lot of bullshitters doing a whole lot of bullshitting, all in the name of…I dunno. Money? Notoriety? God? Their own sense of purpose? Who knows?
So, is Halloween all evil and shit? I dunno, probably. I mean, look at it. It’s way more likely that it is than it isn’t. But I don’t rightly know. What I do know is that all these didos who ran around in the 80’s crying bloody Satanic murder about it were all completely and verifiably full of shit. Charlatans, the lot of ’em, that in some cases actually did harm to people. So, fuck ‘em.
Well, here we are, 400 tracks. It’s wild to think that this playlist has made it to 400 songs. If you had asked me back in 2012, when I first started writing about these songs on Tumbler, if I’d still be doing this in 2025, I’d have said you were nuts. I wouldn’t have been surprised that there were 400 songs (there’s always been too many songs to talk about) but I would have been surprised I had actually kept up the practice consistently enough to make it to 400.
So, this one should probably be a special kind of addition. And though after 399 songs you might imagine we’ve exhausted the reserves, I think we have just the right creepy old tune to ring in the occasion; a tune that’s been sitting patiently in the bullpen, waiting for the right moment to arrive and I think 400 is just that moment.
The name Oscar Brandmight not be immediately familiar to some readers, unless of course those readers happen to be pretty big fans of Folk music. Cause Oscar was an incredibly influential cornerstone of the folk music scene of the mid-20th century. A Canadian by birth, Oscar moved to at the United States at a fairly young age. Despite that, he played extensively in Canada throughout his career and even hosted the Canadian Television program called Let’s Sing Out in the mid 60’s. which gave the world their first views of artists like Joni Mitchell, Dave Van Ronk and Phil Ochs.
While Oscar was an accomplished musician in his own right and his television show was a big hit, his most enduring contribution is without a doubt his radio program, Oscar Brand’s Folksong Festival.
For 70 years Oscar hosted this New York AM radio program, the longest running radio program with a singular host in the history of American broadcasting. The show ran from 1945 until Oscar’s death in 2016 and was hugely responsible for ushering in the folk era of American Music. It was this show that introduced America to practically every singer/songwriter you can name. Interviews with Woody Guthrie, Dylan, Peter Paul and Mary, Joan Baez, and Peter Seeger (among countless others) were all broadcast to the country first by Oscar on WNYC-AM 820.
However, the most incredible aspect of the program was that Oscar did it as a complete labor of love. He received no payment for the entire run of the show. In an effort to keep it an uncensored bastion of free speech, safe from disingenuous attack, he ran it exclusively as a public service, even forgoing payments to the artists that appeared.
This freedom would become incredibly important as Oscar’s show grew up during McCarthyism, where many of the folks singers Oscar interviewed were being considered “Communist.” Oscar provided a platform for blacklisted artists to speak out without fear of financial repercussions because there weren’t any purse strings that could be used to pull him. That didn’t stop the House Un-American Activities Committee from branding his program “a pipeline to communism” for essentially providing Americans the ability to exercise their first amendment right.
Though he released over 60 albums since 1949, it is his 1979 release Trick Or Treat: Hallowe’en Celebrated In Story And Song that brings us here tonight. This full blown Halloween record featuring songs and stories for children makes for great vintage holiday listening. It’s like what The Old Gray Goose’s album might sound like if Goose was an accomplished folk singer and a more disciplined storyteller that didn’t have such a thick accent. I know that sounds 100% less awesome than The Goose (and it is, to be sure) but it definitely makes for a much more, shall we say, reasonable album.
Out of all these songs and stories, our selection for the evening and our 400th track has got to be Hallowe’en, Hallowe’en. Oscar attempts to tell some visiting trick or treaters a Halloween story, but when they show absolutely zero interest and beat feet, he decides we need to hear it instead. A bit presumptuous to just assume we wanna hear this shit if the kids didn’t, you ask me. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t.
So let’s sit back this October evening and let a folk legend tell us a spooky story about the origin or our haunted Holiday.
We don’t talk about The Devil much around these parts. I’m sure I’ve said this before, but I’m not that into him, as character. Or even as real entity vying for my eternal soul, honestly. I’m not into that either. But just as a matter of subject, he’s not terribly interesting to me.
Now, I like movies about The Devil, or probably more accurately, I like movies about the goddamn nutjobs that lick goat asshole or pour blood onto naked women out of some misguided loyalty to a being that, by all accounts, shouldn’t be trusted for even a second. Dumb shit cultists and their dumb shit rituals are interesting to me. But The Devil himself? Naw, not so much.
And listen, I know this holiday gets all wrapped up with him, what with the paganism and Christian fundamentalists crying bloody murder over the whole affair, but this just isn’t a day I largely associate with The Devil. Maybe that’s my naïveté. But look, I like Draculas and Mummies and Haunted Houses and shit. I like Witches and candy and Jack O’lanterns and maybe you’ll say all that occult paganism is Satanic and in service of The Devil, and the mere separation of the two in my mind is but the very trick Satan has pulled on me. Ok. Fine. Go off. That doesn’t mean I gotta talk about him or give a shit.
So anyway, all of that is to say we don’t have a lot of songs about The Devil on the playlist. But when I was looking for songs to round out this Classic Monster block, I figured the Devil might be due to get his due.
After auditioning a pile of possible Devil tracks, I finally landed on this one from Tom Rodhebecause, well I dunno really. I guess because it kind of a fun, danceable tune, but probably more because it’s absolutely ridiculous. What is he even talking about in this song? And what’s with that voice? It’s completely goofy and I love every second of it.
Now Tom Rodhe only ever released this single, but Tom ROD released plenty of other singles and even a 1978 LP called Understand. None of that quite sounds like Devil, though. In fact, most of it just kinda sounds like disco-tinged late 70’s AOR. It’s pretty standard sounding stuff. So what’s with Devil? It’s seems to materialize out of nowhere and then Tom, either Rodhe or Rod, never releases another song again. It’s strange.
Here’s Tom Rod looking all damp for some reason. What’s going on here? Is this a lip gloss ad? Was this photo taken in the middle of a boxing match that Tom was involved in, what gives? I don’t like the way he’s staring at us either. I just kinda want him to leave us all alone. Or at least go back to looking like he does in the other EPs, which is way less intense.
I think he’s French. I’ve seen him sing in French anyway. I know that doesn’t necessarily mean he is French, but it seems more likely than him being Polish. There’s not a lot of information on the guy it seems. You can find his songs easily enough, they’re all over YouTube, but information in another thing. Even weird tidbits of info that one can usually glean from comment sections is non-existent here. It’s kinda weird actually. He’s got tons of videos, all a number of years old at this point, that basically have ZERO comments and it’s strange to see. There is one notable exception, which is this video for Tom’s Lady Gonna Run Away, where the poster gets 1 comment and proceeds to launch into a 12 response thread that goes completely unanswered, where the poster even wishes him a Happy Easter for no reason. I got a real kick outta that.
But really I’m talking about all kinds of things here that aren’t really this song right now, so I’m gonna wrap this up by saying, I used samples from the Highway to Heaven episode I Was A Middle Aged Werewolf, which is a fun episode. Unfortunately, I haven’t thrown it up on the TeleWeen page yet, so if you wanna check it out, here’s a direct link. It’s definitely a fun one to watch this Halloween. Watch the other one from Season 2 though first, as this is sort of the sillier follow up to that Halloween episode.
Now, here’s a song about The Devil, I think anyway. It’s Tom Rodhewith Devil!
Despite enjoying a fair amount of success, by 1987 our dynamic and heinous duo of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde had called it quits.
It was at this point that Andre Harrell went out and formed Uptown Records. Mr. Hyde, known to the government as Alonzo Brown, ultimately went on to become a screenwriter and an Emmy winning producer of The Judge Mathis show.
Before he did that however, Mr. Hyde drop one final single for Profile Records called The Witch.
Now that song has been in and out of the bullpen over the years, because it’s a bop and it’s called The Witch. Problem is, it’s not really about a witch, it’s just about a girl that kinda pissed Mr. Hyde off, which is a bummer, cause it really is a cool song.
In fairness though, most songs about witches are just men complaining about some woman that spurned them or made them feel uncomfortable by being assertive or weird. This trend gets pretty annoying when you’re just looking for spooky songs for your Halloween playlist and you keep getting served up scorned men warning you about the last female they encountered. Men, please stop this. Resist the temptation. It’s cliched and tired to use a witch metaphor in your song about a woman that wasn’t interested in you. Stop sullying up cool evil witches with all your insecure sexism.
But all of that’s not really a problem, because I’m an idiot. See, the B side of The Witch is a song called Hyde’s Beat. Now, if I wasn’t an idiot, I’d have just listened to that B side straight away instead of just assuming that it was the instrumental to The Witch. If Alonzo Brown went by any other name, I may not have jumped to such a quick conclusion, but again, I just assumed it was the dub version, cause I’m an idiot.
Once I finally listened to it, and realized this Mr. Hyde was the Mr. Hyde of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, everything feel into place. Because Hyde’s Beat appears to be the spiritual successor (if not just the direct sequel) to Transformation. It picks up immediately after “Mr. Hyde” has killed “Dr. Jekyll,” and we find Hyde in a state of disarray – confused and scared at the prospect of the dead man on the floor, a dead man he’ll surely be blamed for killing.
Toward the end of the Robert Louis Stevenson’s original story, Jekyll begins involuntarily transforming into Hyde, such that he needs the serum to turn back into Jekyll rather than the other way around. Eventually, he runs out serum though and is doomed to transform completely into Hyde once and for all and remain that way forever.
Once that happens, Edward Hyde makes the decision to take his own life. He drink some poison Jekyll has laying around the lab, effectively kill the both of them and thus ending the story.
In our song however, we have Hyde “killing” Dr. Jekyll and completely coming apart at the seams as result. Because we’re people that know Jekyll and Hyde are the same person, we can only assume that this murder is purely metaphoric and represents the point at which Hyde can no longer turn back into Jekyll, right? Yeah, I think we can. Rather than take his own life though, Mr. Hyde just jumps out of a window and into a limo with Igor, as any one of us might do in the same situation.
Naturally, all the cops in the city are now looking for him, cause he just killed Dr. Jekyll, and since Dr. Jekyll is a totally separate person, there’s definitely a body on the ground indicting murder and thus leading to an investigation where law enforcement might be looking for Jekyll curios and off-putting friend, Mr. Hyde, right? Yeah, I think that’s safe to assume.
So, Igor does what a buddy might do, and he brings Hyde to a bar so he can lay low for a while. Unfortunately, everyone at the bar freaks out when they see Hyde and high-tails it outta there. But then, all of sudden its morning and Hyde is waking up next to a woman like he’s Jekyll again but has been dickin’ down all night like Mr. Hyde. Only he’s still Mr. Hyde, and she’s not really feeling that, so he jumps out of another window cause why not. Doors are for pussy. Get with it.
Then basically he just becomes homeless, wandering the city streets alone and shunned, proclaiming to whomever will listen that he didn’t kill Dr. Jekyll, which shouldn’t be a problem, because there’s no body, and everyone’s just like “Hey, where did Dr. Jekyll go,” right? I mean, if they’ve even noticed. Jekyll hasn’t even been dead a whole day yet, is anyone really looking suspecting foul play yet? Is this all just some delusion Hyde is spiraling into as he’s lays dying from the poison he drank in the lab? Is this thing coming at it all from an angle I hadn’t consider yet? Who knows.
Eventually though, Hyde comes to the realization that Jekyll being dead is actually kind of liberating and hopefully our humble narrator finally finds some peace. I sure hope so. He seems pretty distressed through most of this song. Or maybe his cries of “I’m free!” are his last words as he chokes on his own breath, dying on the floor of the laboratory. Who knows?
So yeah, it kinda deviates from the story a little, but there are references to Billy Dee Williams and Thriller and even Rodney Dangerfield, so that kinda re-centers things a bit back toward the original text.
So here’s Mr. Hyde, on his own at last, living his best life and rockin’ a beat that is truly his own.
Well, how bout Jekyll and Hyde? There’s a classic gothic horror staple that hasn’t gotten but maybe a passing mention here in the most fleeting of monster party verses. And even that I’m not 100% on.
So, let’s put a little mustard on it then, shall we? Instead of adding just any old song about Jekyll and Hyde, how about one from a pair of dudes that actually named themselves Jeckyll and Hyde, spelling notwithstanding.
The 80’s electo rap duo Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hydehave been on the Shindig’s radar for some time now. How could they not be? They’re an electro rap duo called Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. They’ve had a few songs in the bullpen for a while at this point. They’ve been waiting patiently.
They’ve also been pretty influential. In addition to being the first guys to sample the ridiculously sampled Genius of Love by Tom Tom Club, Dr. Jeckyll is actually Andre Harrell, the founder of Uptown Records. How’s that for crazy?
I love that monsters songs always seem to hiding in the closets of some of the movers and shakers in music. Call them novelties. Call them silly and unserious. Call them completely inconsequential in the grand breadth of musical history, because maybe they are. But you can not say that The Shindig does not boast among it’s ranks some of the most influential, popular and talented musicians, performers and producers the business had to offer, even if the songs represented here are not the pinnacle of those same artists careers.
But I digress.
Despite dropping their first single in 1980 (and then later a weird doo-wop style throwback mashup called Jeckyll and Hyde Dance that wasn’t terribly referential) it took 6 years for these guys to release a song about the men who gave them their names. But when they did, man did they unleash a doozy.
And that doozy was 1986’s Transformation, one hell of Golden Age Monster Rap that indulges in the clever gimmick of having each rapper assume their respective namesakes in alternating verses. Perhaps that’s the obvious choice, but a wise one never the less, and one that pays off for this fun modernization of the Jekyll and Hyde story, or at least the generally held notion of the Jekyll and Hyde story, anyway. Cause Jekyll and Hyde is kind of a…strange case…of apparent misunderstanding.
First and foremost, let’s look at the concrete stuff. The 1866 novella by Robert Louis Stevenson is a mystery that doesn’t so much focus on Jekyll had Hyde directly, as the story is mostly told through other characters reacting to the various actions of Jekyll and Hyde. Additionally, the reader is never really privy to Hyde’s actions directly. In the end, it is revealed that Dr. Jekyll was in fact Mr. Hyde the whole time and it is played as a surprise ending.
Now, that’s kind of a boring prospect for a moving picture though, I reckon, so Hollywood Hollywooded it up by focusing directly on the two titular characters, in particular Edward Hyde and the visualization of their transformation. Which is an interesting distinction. Most every adaptation plays with the idea the Dr. Jekyll is consumed by Mr. Hyde and then, like a werewolf almost, awakens the next day without any memory of what Hyde has done. The implication that Hyde is someone different and is no longer Dr. Jekyll. But this isn’t really what happens in the story, not expressly.
Dr. Jekyll does indeed transform into Mr. Hyde, but not in this somewhat metaphoric sense. Edward Hyde isn’t a separate person with conflicting goals and desires. Edward Hyde is Henry Jekyll. The Doctor does transform into Hyde, yes, but in the most literal sense, like Henry is wearing a Hyde costume. The serum changes Jekyll’s appearance, and that change (much like the Invisible Man) allows him walk unrecognized in the night, free to act upon his otherwise repressed desires, whatever they may be. Jekyll and Hyde isn’t a tale of a man with split personality disorder, it’s the tale a doctor inventing a physical mask as cover for his hedonistic desires.
Which brings us to another curious point about this story and its adaptations. Since we never really get to see Hyde doing what Hyde be doing, the reader is left to the second hand descriptions of his activies by Jekyll; activities that Jekyll is even reluctant to fully reveal on his deathbed, so there’s that. You’re a murder man, what else could you still be trying to…hyde? And why?
As such, many have taken to a queer reading of the story, with Hyde being an expression of Jekyll’s repressed Victorian homosexuality. To wit, there is practically no women in the story, it’s all a bunch of interpersonal relationships between these dudes. Homosexuality had been broadly criminalized in London the year before the story was released, and apparently Hyde Park was a a popular destination for homosexual rendezvous. Some of Stevenson’s close friends, including a former Reverend (curiously named Walter Jekyll,) were homosexuals themselves. One such friend wrote to Robert after reading the story, expressing his opinion that when viewed allegorically, (to borrow a modern phrase) it hit different.
There is this funny SNL skit with Bill Hader that (whether intentional or not) is in ways perhaps a more accurate adaptation on both accounts. Not only is Jekyll openly admitting to having sex with men after he takes the “serum,” but that he, despite claiming he doesn’t remember what is happening as Hyde…clearly remembers what is happening as Hyde. Indeed it is the reason he “invents” the “serum” to begin with – to provide cover for these acts to his wife and colleagues, as he can offload those desires directly onto “Hyde.”
Was this a widely held opinion of the story in the day? Was old time Hollywood aware of such an interpretation? Is that why Hyde was initially (and henceforth) always seen cavorting with female prostitutes, despite the fact that Mr. Hyde neither encounters, nor murders any prostitutes in Stevenson’s original story. Was it an attempt to redirect the story and reassert the character as unflinchingly heterosexual, lest anyone gets any untoward ideas? Who knows?
But where am I now? I was talking about this song, and now I’ve wandered dangerously far off course from this highly detailed account of a Dr. Jekyll just wanting to wear Timberland boots and embrace Hyde’s primal heterosexual trysts.
Let’s get back to this song that doesn’t concern itself with how Hyde should be interpreted, and certainly doesn’t have any patience for a queer reading of the text.
Here’s the duo themselves, Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde singing about their very specific predicament in the 80’s Monster Rap epic Transformation.
The Wolfman by The Chaz Jackson Band featuring Rudy Gleason
There’s not much I can really say about Charles “Chaz” Jackson. There’s even less I can say about Rudy Gleason, but we’ll get to that in a moment. Sometimes that’s just the way of it.
Chaz’s discogs profile talks about him being in love with a trumpet and buying a guitar at 18 while stationed in Japan with the Army. Doesn’t mention him playing those instruments, mind you, just that he loved one and bought the other. Alright then.
It goes on to talk about all the different musicians he went to see. It’s like a paragraph of different famous musicians. Not musicians he performed with, but rather acts he just saw perform. Ok, I guess.
It’s a strange little blurb that speaks not to his talents or achievements, but to encounters and influences. Perhaps it is no surprise, then, to see Chaz only has 2 singles and about 5 songs to his credit.
Now, credited alongside Chaz’s band on each release is Rudy Gleason. So is Rudy the guy singing? If so, why isn’t he just covered under the umbrella of the “band” like the other players here? Is it because Rudy had a prolific career of his own and The Chaz Jackson Band was just a side project for him? Well, not that I can tell, as these tracks (and all of them, it appears) seem to be the only official music Rudy Gleason ever had to his name. So that’s a little strange.
But despite this curious write up and the limited output, every one of these tunes is kinda slappy , including tonight inclusion, The Wolfman.
Thing about this song is, well 2 things really. One of them is that it was a little long and repetitive, so I kinda trimmed it down a smidge. I know, a little sacrilege, a little presumptuous, a little shitty, but hey, I took the liberty all the same, justified or not. Call it a Shindig Special Cut.
But really the thing about it is, despite being called The Wolfman, it kinda gives off more of a Red Riding Hood vibe really, no doubt aided by this guy (Rudy or otherwise) literally saying “The Big Bad Wolf is gonna get you.” So, I dunno. Should I not have included it? It’s called The Wolfman. They’re certainly saying “The Wolfman” but really nothing about this songs feels Wolfman-like at all.
I kinda like it though despite. At least, when it’s not pushing 6 minutes, which this song definitely doesn’t need to be pushing. It has a decidedly 80’s dance floor jam quality, which I appreciate. If I didn’t know any better and you tried telling me this fucker was on the Teen Wolf soundtrack (as it should have been) I wouldn’t bat an eyelash. And hey, at the end of the day this is supposed to be a party playlist, and sometimes a little jiggle juice is just what the doctor ordered.
So, let’s inch a little closer to 400 with our next Monstrous inclusion, however unmonstrous it may actually be, with The Wolfman from The Chaz Jackson Band Featuring Rudy Gleason.
Spooky Shindig Post Script. SSPS? Yeah, I guess.
Tonight is a Full Moon! The Harvest Moon – and a Supermoon – to be precise. That’s a little weird. And while I’d love to say I orchestrated such a thing consciously, I did not purposefully place The Wolfman song on the Full Moon. That happened purely by coincidence.
The Creature from the Black Lagoonby The 3-D Invisibles
Speaking of things the Shindig has inexplicably avoided for 13 years, let’s talk about The 3-D Invisibles. Because it’s crazy to me that we haven’t talked about The 3-D Invisibles this far into this whole Halloween-Monster-Movie-Music-Whatever-The-Hell-Is-Goin-On-Around-Here Playlist thing.
Being a huge surf music goon from an early age, The 3-D Invisibles are a band that’s been on the edges of my radar forever, appearing on numerous surf and rockabilly compilations since the mid 80’s. Back before Spotify existed, Napster didn’t exist either and I certainly didn’t exist near a record store better than a Sam Goody, (Newbury Comics notwithstanding. They probably might have actually carried them, to be honest) so the chances of me having access to a band like The 3-D Invisibles was a pretty unlikely.
Now, that certainly doesn’t account for the nearly 12 year span from 2000 to 2012 before I created this website (where I had increased access to such music) or the 13 years since (where I had absolutely unprecedented access) where they have gone completely unheralded. But, like I said, existing on the edges. I wasn’t really thinking about them. If I was, it wasn’t for long and if I was hearing them, I certainly doesn’t appear as though i was absorbing them properly.
And that’s a shame. These guys could easily have been Shindig All-Stars by now, and probably should be. But all recalculations start somewhere, and for The 3-D Invisibles, and garage punk outfit from Michigan that’s been pealin’ off monster rock from over 40 years, that starts with Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Cause you can’t do a Classic Monster block without good ole Gill-Man, I don’t care how under represented he might be. And make no mistake, of the Big 5, poor Gil is woefully under represented. I think this is like the 3rd track we have that’s exclusively about him, and that’s not for a lack of searching either.
So, let’s finally welcome The 3-D Invisibles aboard and chalk up another one for ole Fishman, Lord knows he could use all the help he can get.
Also, if you are an Invisibles fan, I’m aware this song was released on the 1993 Split LP B-Movie Brain from Neurotic Bop Records, I decided to go with the Love of Mars/Monster Island single just cause it’s got a stereoscopic anaglyph of the Creature from the Black Lagoon and says it says The 3-D Invisibles. C’mon, how could I not?
Phantom of the Opera by Long Tall Ernie and The Shakers
In an effort to flesh out our Classic Monster Block, we’re gonna lean on our old friends Long Tall Ernie and The Shakers.
These guys should probably already be Shindig All-Stars by now, as their 1979 album Meet the Monsters plays like ready-made, 8 track Shindig Mini-playlist. However, this is only the second time we’re pulling from that album. And the last time we did? 2019! That’s 5 seasons ago! That’s enough time for us to have added most of this album.
But who knows, maybe one day Long Tall Ernie’ll suit up with the All-Star Team, lord knows he could.
For today, we’re just gonna let them fill the Phantom of the Opera sized hole, not just in this block, but in this entire playlist. evidently. Seriously, is this really the first legit song we’re getting about the Phantom of the Opera? In 13 years? That can’t be true. Hold on.
Ok, yep. It’s true, I guess.
You get Title Track goofballs Phantom of the Mall and Phantom of the Ritz showing up in 2022 and that’s about it. You could argue Phantom of the Paradise made an appearance back in 2017, but I still don’t think that qualifies as a legit Phantom of the Opera tune.
Man, that’s crazy. The Phantom of the Opera is a a huge iconic character to have just roundly ignored like that. I mean, you have Lon Chaney, not even Jr. mind you, but Big Daddy Chain, pulling out all the stops to create one of Hollywood’s original movie-magic monster transformations. And the whole thing it’s about music! How have I seriously hit on this subject ‘til 2025? I guess there’s just not that many songs about the Phnatom? I dunno if that’s true. I’m sure it’s not. I just don’t think I was looking, for whatever reason. But hey, what are ya gonna do? We’re here now, ain’t we?
If you’re a real big Phantom fan that’s been patiently waiting for this blog to finally drop a Phantom of the Opera mini-playlist, I don’t know what to tell you. You never spoke up, I’ll say that much. I’ve yet to get one complaint about the lack of representation for Erik, The Phantom of the Opera, on this playlsit.
But, if that was you, quietly suffering like I’m not a DM shimmy slide away, tonight is your night. So let’s let Ernie and his Shakers introduce us all to…The Phantom of the Opera!
For every Shindig All-Star with multiple songs on the playlist, or even huge stars with one-off additions like Michael Jacksonor Chuck Berry, there’s probably 10 tracks from guys that never cut another record in their entire careers. Hell, some of them never even released another song.
The Zane Brothers, whomever they may be, are just such fellas.
Now, thank the maker though, because with their one musical life they choose to make a song about Dracula. It’s quite probably the very reason they only got to shoot one shot, but it’s definitely what I’m looking for, and (by extension) what you’re looking for, as a person reading these words.
It’s a humdinger of Drac Track too, one that ought to get your feet moving. At least if you’re already in a dance-friendly environment that is, like maybe a Halloween party, expecting to hear dance worthy songs about Dracula. If you’re just driving in your ‘83 Ford Fiesta on your way to a double shift at the diner, perhaps a song about Dracula just gets shut the fuck off, who knows?
Me? I’m keepin it on, rolling down the window and leaning on the volume knob just pumped that any station is broadcasting a song about Dracula through actual radio waves. And that’s not simply because I’m the kinda guy who would compile songs like that onto an unnecessarily and obnoxiously long Halloween playlist for the past 13 years. I mean, that certainly doesn’t hurt, but it’s not the only reason.
Naw, it’s cause this song is cool. Trust me! I’ve waded through a several pints of Dracula songs that aren’t even worth mentioning, much less listening to, and this is definitely not one of them. Not at all. This one grooves and it’s even, dare I say, kinda funny.
And I still have a capes worth of Dracula songs sitting in the bullpen, but I’ll leave it at just the one this year. Maybe next year I’ll drop another full on Dracula block, cause man, they are seriously piling up.
For now, let’s let The Zane Brothers spin their unique yarn about that age old Halloween song staple, Dracula.
When my 4 year old daughter first heard this song while driving around in my car this summer – which opens as it does with background singers proclaiming “Frankenstein is a great big friend of Dracula” – she very innocently asked me “Is that true, Daddy?”
So obviously I told her, “Of course they are! They hang out all the time.”
She accepted that answer, but I quickly realized that wasn’t gonna be quite enough for the internal nerd that was now silently screaming inside my head “Oh yeah, smart ass? Are they? Are they fuckin’ boys?”
So now, of course, I had to investigate.
So, Dracula and Frankenstein, the novels at any rate, both received the silent film treatment as far back as 1910 for Frankenstein (by Thomas Edison, no less) and 1922 for Drac, though German and totally unauthorized, as Nosferatu. They remained separate entities (as well they should have, they are completely unrelated characters) for the next 20 years of so.
The first time I think they even exist in each other’s realities is in Universal’s first full monster rally attempt in 1944, House of Frankenstein. But that movie sucks and they don’t actually share the screen together.
The following year, Universal tried again (and fucked up again) with House of Dracula, which also kinda sucks and again features no real interaction by these two characters, friendly or otherwise.
Now in 1948, Universal finally got the Monster Rally formula right with Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. This entry, in addition to finally being good, also featured actual Bela Lugosi Dracula reviving an actual Frankenstein’s monster in the form of Glenn Strange. Now those particulars are somewhat beside the point, but it is cooler than if it wasn’t them. Also, it establishes a long standing tradition of Dracula endeavoring to control Frankenstein as a means to his own ends, much like in Monster Squad or Van Helsing – two other instances where they’re together but I wouldn’t really consider the relationship friendly.
Things got pretty quiet for the dynamic duo through the 50’s and 60’s though, what with Hammer taking up the monster mantle but producing no crossover rally efforts of their own.
Then however, the early 70’s offered up 3 distinct versions of the two, but decidedly at odds with each other. At least, conceptually anyway.
First up, from 1979, was Germany’s Assignment Terror, where aliens hatch a Plan 9–esque scheme to take over the world using monsters. It’s not really Dracula and it’s not really Frankenstein, but it doesn’t really matter cause they’re not really friends. They’re just kinda there. This one got retitled Dracula Versus Frankenstein for US distribution, but they don’t really fight either, so, while it’s cool and totally worth watching, it’s kind of a bust for our purposes.
The following year, trash auteur Al Adamson unleashed his own Dracula vs Frankenstein on the world and everybody rejoiced.
Well, not really, but maybe they should have cause that shit is wild and absolutely worth watching. What’s more, Dracula finally squares off against Frankenstein and it’s pretty damn great. Seriously, if you’ve never seen Dracula Vs. Frankenstein (1971) I highly recommend a viewing. Well, I recommend it for a certain kind of viewer, cause it’s bad. Like bad, bad.But it’s also awesome cause Dracula has a laser ring and he basically dismembers Frankenstein, and that credit sequence! Oh boy. It’s a winner for sure.
But then, not to be outdone (or at least not to be left out maybe) good ole Jess Franco joined the party and offered up Dracula Prisoner of Frankenstein in 1972. Now this one kinda flips the script and sees Dr. Frankenstein using Dracula to further his plan for world domination. It’s got something to do with creating an Army of Shadows using Dracula blood or some shit. It doesn’t really make any sense, but it is kinda fun to watch. Frankenstein rolls around in a weird ass Van-Hearse, there’s a tiny bat with a giant stake through its heart, and then The Wolfman shows up for some reason and just fucks shit up. Its pretty cool. Unfortunately it isn’t helping us pin down this idea of platonic love between these 2 monsters.
But hold on, what if we step away from the movies for a moment and talk about some television? It may have been quiet at the movies in the 1960’s, but the television featured lots of the monsters interacting in a friendly capacity.
First up is probably no surprise, but 1964 gave us The Munsters, turning the family sitcom formula of the late 50’s on its head by inserting Monsters into the mix as an average suburban unit. Now, it’s not exactly what we’re talking about, but it’s certainly on the right track.
A closer approximation is not a TV show, (though certainly worthy of note at this point in the timeline) but Rankin and Bass’ 1967 feature Mad Monster Party. The stop motion animation from the team that gave us Rudolph and The Year Without Santa Claus delivered a full on Monster Party of friendly fiends.
After that, we got the Groovie Goolies from 1970, which was purposely fashioned as an animated Laugh-In for monster kids growing up with Aurora kits and Famous Monsters of Filmland. Dracula, a Frankenstein’s monster and the Wolfman all hang out in Horrible Hall, making jokes and performing monster songs. It’s pretty goddamn great and I’m sure you’d assume we’re fans over here at The Shindig – and we are.
Similarly, in 1976 we got the live action Monster Squad TV show, featuring wax versions of Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolf Man coming to life to fight crime. If that sounds awesome to you, that’s because it is and you should watch it.
Then the early 80’s followed suit, bringing such things like Scooby Doo’s A Halloween Hassle at Dracula’s Castle and Hanna-Barbera’s Drak Pack, which almost plays like an animated version of The Monster Squad show, with the trio fighting crime in an attempt to redeem themselves for their former evil deeds. Weird.
Now, that’s a lot of examples of them being friends, but where did television suddenly get this idea?
While it certainly seems like we can point a finger squarely at The Munsters, I think the lion’s share of the responsibility falls on the shoulders of…and maybe you’ve already guessed it… but Monster Songs! Do we even get a prime time sitcom like The Munster’s if not for the popularity of The Monster Mash? I doubt it. But The Monster Mashdoesn’t just spring up outta nowhere, and as avid visitors here can attest, it’s not even close to being the first Monster Party Anthem that suggests monsters might hang out.
So, somewhere between Universal’s Monster Rally pictures of the late 40’s and the 70’s homage-oddities from around the globe, we have a very interesting phenomenon, and it’s the Shock! Theater revival of the late 50’s.
In October of 1957, Universal bundled much of its back catalog into a syndicated packaged known as Shock! Theater. Suddenly, TV stations all across the country were playing classic horror movies while meteorologists dressed up like Draculas and Monster Mania took a nation by storm.
And wouldn’t you know it, 1958 seems to be the precise moment that we start seeing bona fide Monster Songs. And not just run of the mill monster songs about a Dracula or a Wolfman, but full-on, Monster Rally-style gatherings of monstrous proportions.
There’s A Screaming Ball (At Dracula Hall) from The DuPonts, Bert Convy’sThe Monsters Hop, Big Bee Kornegay gives us At the House Frankenstein, and well, well, well…look at what we have here, also from 1958. It’s tonight song, Frankensteinby Bart Lewis, the song which posits that these 2 dudes might be friends.
So where did everyone get this idea, we ask? Well, hell…it might have just come from this very song itself. How about that?
Tonight, for our first track of the season and the first track of our Monster Rally, we’re gonna dig up our old pal, The Mummy.
Now, there aren’t a whole lotta songs about The Mummy.
I mean, there’s plenty, don’t get me wrong. In fact, there’s probably more than anyone ever really needed about this character, to be honest. But when compared to Dracula, or Frankenstein or even The Wolfman really, the repertoire starts looking a little thin.
However, between 1958 and 1959, we got at least 3 different songs about our bandaged buddy. And for some reason the Mummy character in each one of these songs is saying some dumb phrase over and over again.
First, we got Lee Ross’ 1958 trend setterThe Mummy’s Bracelet. That one finds the Mummy repeatedly demanding the return of that selfsame bracelet; “Give me my bracelet back!” he pleads through the finest tape-based effects 1958 had to offer.
Jump to 1959, and we got Bob McFadden and Dor’s classic (and classically annoying) The Mummy, in which a poindexter-ass Mummy dweebishly repeats “I’m a Mummy” and it’s enough to make you want to punch your radio. If you’ve ever been curious just why this particular Halloween compilation staple has been ignored over here for 13 years, now you have an answer. I think it’s dumb and listening to it makes me mad, so you don’t have to hear it here. It is a classic, and I should probably at least acknowledge it. Maybe one day it’ll find its way onto the playlist, but not while there’s The Naturals to contend with.
Which brings us to tonight’s selection , a song also called The Mummy and also from 1959. This one is way less irritating and thus appears on the playlist. A group called The Naturals serve up this also-ran number which too features a Mummy catch phrase. “Put Me Back In My Tomb” is the mantra here, which is way better than the other two options. In fact, subjectivity aside, I’d say this is the best of the 3 tunes. Lee Ross’ song is a bit more moody and perhaps more fitting for the playlist, but I think I like this one better.
It’s funnier than Bob McFadden by a furlong and it’s far less irritating. Plus it grooves, something I definitely can’t say about Bob McFadden’s and would rather not say about Lee Ross’ take.
But enough about all of that, let’s get this Monster Rally, and indeed this entire season, off to an ancient start, with one of the oldest Monster Songs about one of the oldest monsters.
Welcome back to the Halloween season and another festive run of tracks from your pals over at Halloween Shindig.
This year is kind of special in that we’re about to reach the milestone of 400 tracks! Now that’s either an impressive feat that fills you with excitement or a dumb milestone that makes you tired just thinking about.
Now, if you find yourself in the later category, my guess is you’re probably not even reading this, but since I kinda find myself in that category as well, maybe you are still reading. But if you are, in fact, there with me, I’m happy to announce that we have finally updated the web player so you listeners can now shuffle Halloween Shindig!
In addition, you can download tracks directly from the player using the cloud button or go straight to the original post of any song by hitting the shopping cart button. I know, that’s a little weird but it didn’t seem like I could change the icon.
And don’t forget, we have a bunch of Mini-Playlists that focus on certain kinds of tracks or genres and they can help keep the playlist from becoming stale and predictableas well.
So, to kick off our 13th season, wrap up the 300s and pave the road to 400, we’re gonna lay down a big ole block of classic monster action to celebrate all the monsters that make Halloween Shindig swing.
It’s been 5 long years since Shindig Radio kicked down a stack of action-packed tracks. So, we’re coming to hard hand-off a whole new volume of wilding-ass tunes!
Join fan-tolerated guest, and Action Distraction rookie, Matt Mastrella, as we laser-focus on Action Title Tracks and the songs of PM Entertainment genius Jastereo Coviare: The King of The Title Tracks.
So, put your pimps up and hose down with the summer’s coolest diversions fromL.A. Heat, Lady Avenger, Shotgun, Drug Runners and more!
There’s always more action-strapped tracks to extract on…
The Action Distraction Vol. 3
And don’t forget to pick up some horror-themed cookies for your own listen-along snack breaks at Coven Cookies!
And this were a link to Graham C. Schofield’s Hard Handoff (aka Deadly Currency) would be, if it was available yet. Check back soon, cause you know we’ll update this link immediately.
It’s 2025 and Shindig Radio is back with an episode that was actually recorded in 2025! Yeah, we can’t believe it either!
Come In the Hole with Halloween-episode staple Matt Mastrella as he leaves the pocket to pregame for Action Distractions Vol. 3 by listening to Jose attempt to get through on the Creep Phone, Don Dickens attempt to compliment the show and John De Hart attempt to sing!
Empathize with Matt’s schoolgirl love of Road to Revenge!
Feel Graham C. Schofield put a tip in your sandwich!
Listen to the Creep Phone Creep come to life through A.rtistic I.llegitmacy!
Hear Mikey Rotella accurately predict an Iranian war!
Shindig Radio is finally back with fan favorite Kyle Sullivan listening to some fan favorite Title Tracks, as promised.
Join Kyle as he sleepwalks through a Non-Halloween Halloween episode with pals Mikey Rotella, Graham C. Schofield and a hit list of misses from the likes of…
1963’s Ruby, the subtextually frustrated Fear No Evil, the packed and stacked Dangerous Seductress, the unfortunately titled Night Visitor, the unfortunately made Road Meat, the long ignored Lost Boys…and many more.
It may be literally over a year late, feature absolutely nothing Halloweeny, and contain an uncomfortable amount of questionable songs, but we hope you remember…
On Saturday mornings in 1986, The Real Ghostbusters cartoon aired on ABC to the delight of an entire generation across the country.
What resulted over the next 7 years was one of the finest pieces of animated children’s media to come out of the 80’s. This high quality program was hugely creative, thoroughly entertaining and massively expansive to the Ghostbusters mythos. The variety of wild creatures and situations this iteration of the Ghostbusters went up against was singular, and the animation that brought them to life was top notch.
Like any good cartoon of the era, The Real Ghostbusters acted as 30 minute commercial for all manner of useless shit your parents didn’t want to buy you. The difference here was that this commercial was impeccably crafted and could stand on its own outside of any merchandise. It never felt like the product informed the art, like say with Transformers. The other difference? Real Ghostbusters shit is awesome, specifically the action figures and the wearable toys. If you don’t remember these things, never had any or are too young to fall into either category, do yourself a favor and Google that awesome shit.
One other piece of very rare merchandise attached to this show is the album presented here today, The Real Ghostbusters Soundtrack. Released in 1986, it features the in-show pop music from specific episodes from the show’s first season run. They’re all performed by two young girls Tonya Townsend and Tyren Perry, a duo known as Tahiti. Unfortunatley (for me at least) this appears to be the only thing Tahiti released. Tyren released a solo album in ’89, but Tonya didn’t
But none of that matters, because for one shinning moment, these two girls were the literal sound of a weird occult children’s cartoon based on a strange supernatural comedy about ghost fighting scientists in New York City and the whole damn thing is too goddamn 80’s to bear. I love every second.
A huge thank you and shout out is due to Paul Rudoff at Spook Central. I’m not sure if he’s the sole responsible party for this rare piece of media existing in the digital domain, but he’s been running Spook Central since 1996, and he’s certainly the reason I know about this album. So, my credit and my thanks land on him directly. I mean no ill will posting the playlist here, nor am I interested in diverting traffic away from his site. You can listen to all of this on Spook Central, or on several different YouTube accounts. It just seemed again like the kind of thing people should be able to listen to here, so now they can.
If you love The Real Ghostbusters and always wished there were full versions of these songs, I’ve got good news. If you just love the most 80’s of 80’s synth pop syngery, I’ve also got some good news.
Here it is, in all it’s glory, from straight heaters like Don’t Play Her Game, to the epic 80’s beauty of Hometown Hero, to Shindig Halloween solid gold like Midnight Action…it’s all here. Enjoy.
