Dancin’ On Midnight

TRACK #441:

Dancin’ On Midnight by White Sister

We’re gonna sneak another inclusive Halloween track in here, cause why not, right? And this one comes from a literal Halloween movie.

Now, the Halloween franchise isn’t known for its inclusive hits. Outside of incidental additions like (Don’t Fear) The Reaper or Mr. Sandman, Michael’s handlers never engaged in cross media synergy to promote their boogeyman.

In an era where Dokken and The Fat Boys were teaming up with Freddy, and Alice Cooper was swinging on vines in a hockey mask, Michael should be lauded for resisting the urge to debase his name with an MTV tie-in. Would that have been cool, though? I dunno, honestly. I mean, maybe. Really depends on the song and what band provided it. And even then, I’m still not sure. Feels wrong.

Something about Michael was always a little classier (is that the word?); like something from an older, more dignified era of horror. To be fair though, by the time Freddy hit the scene and Jason jumped on the billboard bandwagon, Michael had already seemingly packed it in. And when Michael did make his return, those guys were already hitting the home stretch.

But even on his initial return, Michael didn’t succumb to temptation. Composer and Shindig hero Allan Howarth returned himself and continued the great work he’d provided since Part II. It wasn’t until the following year, for Michael’s revenge, that the producers finally waded into the waters of licensed music.

In addition to (again) Alan Howarth’s (and again great) score, 5 additional songs appear in the movie and on the soundtrack. Tonight’s track comes from previous Shindiggers White Sister, who (with songs featured in both Fright Night and Twice Dead) are seriously threatening to become Shindig All-Stars.

At least, it would appear to be from White Sister. The song is written and performed by Dennis Churchill Dries, lead singer and bassist for White Sister, under the name Churchill. At least, that’s what the album claims and discogs agrees.

However, all the YouTube videos and even IMDb credits the song to White Sister. Why the discrepancy? Well, it’s because the movie itself credits the song to White Sister. So, The Shindig is following suit. Why the soundtrack credits the song to a band called Churchill instead of White Sister I couldn’t say, but this rose by any other name still sounds like White Sister.

The song plays, albeit briefly, at the Tower Farm Halloween Party. Double bonus! That party features some weird ass costumes too. Like this guy?

What the fuck is he, some kind of Rat Man? Also this ghost with the giant mouth is a little weird too.We’ve talked about Halloween 5 before, and say what you will, I don’t hate it. There’s an argument to be made that it’s the worst addition to the franchise. At the very least, the worst installment from the 80’s.

And that mask? Woah, buddy. I know it’s from KNB and all (Or, shit. Have you seen that new Cryptkeeper? Holy fuck.) but man is it terrible. Like the movie, it ain’t the worst (for me that would be H20’s mask) but if you told me that Nicholas Cage-ass looking thing was your worst, I wouldn’t fight ya.

But I have a soft spot for Loomis in this outing, cause he is absolutely unhinged. Screaming at a 9 year old girl the whole time and then using her as bait to catch a dude that basically just absorbs bullets? Sure, it paid off, but it didn’t have to, man. And hell, it might not have either. It was just a chain net. Heavy, OK, but what the fuck is some chain to a dude that just gets shot the fuck up and blown apart in gas explosions? The plan was a just a tad risky and pretty damn unethical, you ask me.

And while we’re on the subject, why are we making a little girl who was only last year the target on her deranged uncle – a man currently at large who routinely attacks his family on Halloween – attend a goddamn Halloween costume contest? Whose fuckin’ awful idea was that? Loomis again? Fuckin’ Cookie Woman over here? He’s the strategic genius? C’mon Haddonfield. Hasn’t this dude routinely showed he can’t be counted on in this scenario?

Either way, it’s not often Michael gets an inclusive track, and when your other options include fuckin‘ Creed from the complete shit show that is H20, The Shindig’s gotta keep it real with our old pals White Sister.

Here they are again, rockin’ a Halloween party no less, with Dancin’ On Midnight.

Sex Slave

TRACK #439:

Sex Slave by Ten Foot Faces

Our third “Hey this song is from a Halloween Horror movie so you’re gonna hear that shit on Halloween Shindig whether you like it or not cause buddy, there’s a skip button, don’t act like it’s 1982 and this is Dr. Demento and you gotta listen through all this junk just to hear The Monster Mash this Halloween” song hails from 1989’s horror anthology smash hit, Night Terror.

Like The Basement (only with a slightly larger budget, question mark?) Night Terror sets one of its tales on Halloween. Thankfully though, Night Terror has the decency to serve that segment up right out of the gate in Stuck With The Drinks.

In it, mustachioed 80’s Gordon Gecko-enthusiast sales-dildo Rick is a real manosphere prototype. After trying to give his coworker Harvey some real cocksman’s advice, he turns around and spits game at the girl Harvey was trying swerv on. Dirty pool, Rick.

The smooth talker that he is, Rick gets himself invited to a primo Halloween party, featuring tons of 80’s babes and song rockin music. It’s the kind of music that sticks out like a white pumpkin if you’re a guy like me watching a thing like Night Terror. Truth be told, it became half the reason I was watching whatever the hell I was watching well over 15 years ago. If I didn’t hear a good song, or even any song, it’d feel like a wasted effort most times. So, hearing a jam is always a welcomed sound. And what better place than a Halloween party?

When that happens, I go straight to the credits (or at least IMDb depending) and hope the damn thing is credited. Supposing it is, I just hope the damn thing was released. Good news for Night Terror, as that was the case on both accounts.

The song was 1 of 2 featured in the film from a band called Ten Foot Faces. They were a rock outfit out of LA formed in the 80’s that mashed up Surf, Garage and Experimental elements into a decidedly unique sound.

Though the group had a pair of independent releases in the 80’s, the song is question, Sex Slave, came from a 7” inch released the year after the film in 1990. While it wasn’t a particular hard release to track down, it didn’t seem to exist anywhere online. As such we’ve crossed posted this one to DigTV just to increase its digital footprint.

But back to Rick. He’s wandering around the Halloween party while Sex Slave is blaring and now your Halloween party can finally feel the one from Night Terror. Oh, but you are gonna need those babes, and be totally committed to Wicker Manning some prick during a full-on All Hallows Satanic ritual.

You bring the babes. I’ll bring the tunes.

Here’s Ten Foot Faces with Sex Slave!

Blackmail

TRACK #438:

Blackmail by Avalon

Getting back on track, tonight’s song was a selection set to be featured in the next Halloween episode of Shindig Radio.

It comes courtesy of an obscure and short lived AOR outfit named Avalon. This, along with 3 more of their tunes, are all featured in the 1982 slasher parody Wacko from director Greydon Clark.

While not as good as its 1981 predecessor Student Bodies, I think Wacko is easily the best from a trio of slasher parodies released in 1982, including National Lampoon’s Class Reunion and Pandemonium.

Despite where you personally slot it in the roster of OG slasher parodies, one thing is for sure, it’s definitely the only entry that takes place on Halloween. It’s so Halloweeny, in fact, that it features a Halloween Pumpkin Prom and a killer with a giant Jack O’lantern head. It might even hold the record for utterances of the word “Halloween” in a single film.

OK, now that I’ve made this dumb joke, I have to actually look into it.

OK, I’m back. Thankfully, I was able to find an incredible website called subslikescript.com, that provides viewable subtitles for just about any movie you can think of wanting to search.

Even though I was kind of joking, it turns out I wasn’t far off. The word “Halloween” is uttered a total of 20 times throughout Wacko, which from my digging, is just shy of being #1. That honor goes to The Halloween Tree which contains the word “Halloween” 24 times. Nice!

Well, it’s #1, that is, if you don’t count the Silver Shamrock Theme in Halloween III. When factored, H3 has a grand total of 84 utterances of the word “Halloween.” Holy Samhain! However, if you just account for the dialogue, that number drops to just 16.

It’s a similar story for a Nightmare Before Christmas, which boast a total of 45, but just about all of them are from the opening number. Remove that tune and the count drops to a measly 6 utterances. Pssh. Pumpkin King my ass.

Right behind the Halloween Tree in 2nd place is Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers, which manages to have its characters say the word 22 times.

Trick ‘r Treat, from 2006, edges out Halloween III just slightly with a total of 18 occurrences. Not a bad showing.

Hollow Gate is coming in hot at number 5 with 17 utterances. Nice job Mark, ya nut cake. But it’s also in a 3-way tie with Spirit Halloween (yikes) and Satan’s Little Helper.

More recently, Goosebumps 2 provides a shocking 16 occurrences, tying it with Halloween III for 6th place. But more than anything that begs the question of how many of these Johnny-come-lately Halloween movies do I need to be searching? I’ve been keeping it relegated to the movies we usually talk about around here, but there’s an army of dumb shit that’s come out in the last 20 years with an overtly Halloween focus. Where do they rank? Eh, I don’t know if I care.

Alright, I had to look, at least a little anyway (hence the Spirit appearance above) and after further review, maybe I should care, because V/H/S Halloween from last year is apparently the new leader at 33! I guess bump up all those all those previous rankings by 1. I suppose I could do that myself cause this hasn’t published yet, but I’m feeling pretty lazy amidst all this, admittedly unlazy, scrubbing of scripts. I ain’t rewriting all that, we’re just gonna push through.

Now this new (and potentially not even fully correct information – God, that’s gonna wreak havoc on my OCD) information pulls Hack-O-Lantern into a tie for 9th place with 14 separate utterances along with 2015’s Tales of Halloween.

Perennially favorites Halloween 4 and Trick or Treats and Night of the Demons now all tie for 10th position, with appropriately, 10 instances each.

And just to be thorough, how do the OGs themselves stack up? Well, John Carpenter’s original only mentions the word 7 times, as does its sequel. For shame!

So, what have we learned here from this foolish exercise?

Well, for one, that Wacko is definitely not the champ, despite my joke. It puts in a good goddam showing though, and it was not a bad random guess on my part. I really does sound like everyone keeps saying “Halloween.”

And two, we learned that’s there is a load of other movies that I didn’t even search which could prove to be the top dog around town, but I have to put and end to all this and get back to something real. Well, something more real than counting stupid mentions of the word “Halloween” in movies. Yeesh.

With that moronic tangent out of the way, where the hell were we? Oh yeah, Wacko.

So, Wacko’s pretty fun and it has a stacked cast, including genre staple and star of Arnold, Stella Steven’s.

We also get Naked Gun’s Ed Hocken and Hector Savage, an ex-boxer named Joey Chicago who fought under the name Kid Minneapolis.

Russ Meyer regular Charles Napier shows up too, along with the guy who played Weather Wizard in Legends of The Superheroes, and the guy who played Zanti in Critters. Weird. And that’s not to mention a very young E.G. Daily, and an even younger, so much so that he didn’t have the “dice” yet, Andrew Clay.

And, then there’s this band, Avalon, who are actually playing on screen during the Halloween Pumpkin Prom, which is pretty awesome. Though they can be heard performing all 4 of their contributions, it’s Messin With My Baby that is featured most prominently. As such, it’s probably the song I should have selected for the playlist, but out the 4 tunes, I like Blackmail the most. Incidentally, it’s the one featured the least, but it does make an appearance again during the credits.

Ultimately, I think there’s some fun to be had with Wacko, despite it’s reputation. It’s humor, while more successful than that of Pandemonium (in my opinion anyway) suffers a lot from the same dated comedic style and shifting audience tastes. With its seemingly unending slew of incestuous and inappropriate jokes concerning high schooled aged girls, I’m not sure how palatable it remains to a modern audience.

The same might be said of this song, which, now definitely 44 years old, may also not be palatable to a modern audience. But hey, if I worried about that, this playlist might only be like 23 songs deep. So, here’s Avalon’s Halloween Pumpkin Prom hitter, Blackmail, cause this is Halloween Shindig goddamn, and unpalatable is what we’re all about.

Help Is On The Way

TRACK #437:

Help Is On The Way by Horizon

Speaking of Halloween, we’re gonna wrap up the 430s with a short block of songs that were supposed to be additions from Shindig Radio Ep. 26 It’s In The Movie: Halloween Edition.

But since that episode hasn’t happened yet as planned, those songs will get a chance to debut on the playlist, as God intended. When that episode manifests is anyone’s guess, so let’s just do the honorable thing.

Ironically, it was last night’s song that was to be featured on that episode, which I can’t say for this song, because we already featured it back in Ep. 21, the What the Fuck? Edition of It’s in the Movie. Because if there was ever a “what the fuck is this song doing on a Halloween playlist, let alone a Halloween movie” it’s Help is On the Way from 1982’s Trick or Treats.

Now, I’ve expressed my love/hate/but ultimately love relationship with that Halloween (but not exactly) knock-off in the past, so I won’t necessarily reiterate those sentiments here. I’ll just say it’s got plenty of holiday atmosphere, is definitely worth a seasonal viewing and you can do that right here on TeleWeen.

As for its tonally incongruous closing number, it’s also worthy of inclusion, at least as far I’m concerned anyway.

This one comes courtesy of the band, well not exactly a real band with singles and albums and such, but the band Horizon. I’m not even sure how much of a “band” it is in the classical sense. They seem to be the pseudonym used by composer and editor Tom Barger when doing soundtrack work, specifically for Gary Graver, the director of Trick or Treats.

Gary Graver was mostly a cinematographer, famously working for years with Orson Welles on The Other Side of the Wind. He also shot Satan’s Sadists, Invasion of the Bee Girls, The Toolbox Murders and Spirits, to name a few. But he didn’t direct too many of his own pictures, that is unless you count pornography, of which he directed a few several dozen under the Name Robert McCallum.

And that’s where we can also find other Horizon songs. Gary’s 1983 film Private Moments features several tunes from the group and they are credited with providing the score for Gary’s Private Teacher. And they’re (or perhaps just he is) no slouch either, because Horizon can boast the Adult Film Association of America’s top honor, which they won in 1984 for their score to Gary Graver’s Susie Superstar. Solid.

Now, does that mean you should end your Halloween-themed slasher with this breezy, carefree, easy-listener? Absolutely not.

But does that mean we should add it to the Shindig? Abso-fuckin-lutely.

I make the joke in Ep. 21 that maybe playing the least scary and least exciting song is the most logical way to end one of the least scary and least exciting Halloween films of all time. So, maybe Horizon’s Help Is On The Way is the most appropriate Halloween Sweet Song possible.

It’s definitely a most appropriate addition to Halloween Shindig, cause what would this playlist be without a couple of real signifying head scratchers to keep the uninitiated guessing?

So, here to change up the pace, maybe run off the majority of your party goers, and make your Halloween as surreptitiously festive as possible, it’s Horizon’s Help Is On The Way.

The Fear (Morty’s Theme)

TRACK #434

The Fear (Morty’s Theme) by Esham

You don’t see a lot of Rap Title Tracks in Horror. There’s a few for Comedies and Action movies, and of course all the cultural movies dating back as far as Wild Style in 1982 up to Breakin’ in ‘84. Then there’s Tenement of course, in 1985.

But, It’s odd to think that the first real Rap Horror Title Track might just be Monster Squad in 1987. In 1989 you get Run DMC giving you their take on Ghostbusters, but that seems like the whole of it through the 80’s.

As you might expect, the 90’s saw a definite increase of in Rap Title Tracks, particularly with Will Smith providing 2 of the biggest Title Tracks of all time, but Horror still doesn’t quite get the nod. 1992 saw LA Posse providing the Subtitle Title Track Lost In Time for Waxwork 2 and that’s cool.

But then 1995 comes along and provides us with 2 fully Rap-centered Horror soundtracks which both feature Title Tracks.

There’s Rusty Cundieff’s excellent horror anthology Tales from the Hood which features Domino’s Tales from the Hood. Now, while that song it’s very much a Title Track, it’s an incredibly indirect Title Track that isn’t about the movie whatsoever, almost feeling like a track that wasn’t specifically recorded for the movie at all even though it was. That doesn’t really matter, but it’s kind of a bummer and has always kept me from adding it to the playlist thus far.

Such is not the case, however, for 1995’s (though the album released in 94) other rap soundtrack, The Fear. This one features horror-core pioneer Esham’s fully loaded Title Track The Fear (Morty’s Theme).

The whole soundtrack is wall-to-wall horror-core and it’s kind of weird. Why does this low-rent supernatural slasher with absolutely no tonal prompting have such a full blown rap soundtrack? Featuring acts like Half Pit, ICP and Gravediggers, it’s an album full of Shindig possibilities. Terror honestly provides a more fitting Title Track than Esham though, with the song Graveyard Tales, which is a great example of what I refer to as an Almost Title Track and is a real strong candidate for the playlist in the future.

Given all that, these songs still feel a little out of place in this weird movie full of lame white college kids at a cabin retreat. In particular, the other Esham song, Rockz Off, which plays during a sex scene (at least) sticks out like a sore boner in its comical vulgarity. What is this soundtrack?

As for The Fear itself, while certainly not anything I’d call “good,” it’s far from something I might call “bad.” It finds Morty, a life-size wooden mannequin supposedly carved by some Native American shaman, insinuating himself into a therapeutic fear retreat being conducting as a college thesis by our man protagonist, Richard.

All the acting is across-the-board serviceable for something of this nature. Plus, it features a few familiar faces like Humanoids from the Deep’s Ann Turkel, Z-Boy from Night of the Demons 2, and showing up outta nowhere for whatever reason is a goddamn Wes Craven.

The Morty suit was provided by Mr. John Carl Buechler and the boys at MMI, and it’s fine. It’s a bit too foamy looking to read as wood really, but I’m sure there were budgetary constraints. On the gore front, none of the kills are particularly interesting or graphic, which is a bummer, and you never really get to see Morty do much of anything, which is honestly probably a good thing given the suit.

As a would-be horror icon and antagonist, Morty is an interesting and somewhat unique attempt, if basically just Temu Chief Wooden Head. His early static appearances provide some genuinely unsettling moments, but by the time ole foam latex Morty gets to his psychic Tai-Chi, the shit has moved into the pure ridiculous.

This (borderline nominal) Title Track Sweet Song from Esham, however, is another matter all together. It’s a hard hitting Monster Rap for the books, and has definitely earn this long deserved day on The Shindig.

Monster Rock

TRACK #429:

Monster Rock by Mark Keefner

Now, you might look at Frankenstein The College Years and think “Yeah, ok. So they just made Encino Man but changed him to a Frankenstein? Cool, I guess. Whatever,” and you really couldn’t be blamed for thinking such a thing.

But then, you might notice that this movie debuted almost 7 months before Encino Man hit theaters. Interestingly for us, it aired on October 28th, 1991 as part of Fox’s Halloween Bash, which I fully have memories of watching, as I was already a loyal Simpsons fan by that point, eagerly awaiting the new Treehouse of Horror.

I can’t say I watched Frankenstein the College Years when it aired. I most certainly saw a promo for it, but I have no recollection of seeing this at the time. It’s possible my mind blocked that memory to protect itself, but this sort nonsense is the kind of thing I might have enjoyed at that age, so I think that rules out any subconscious memory suppression.

I wish I could very much consciously suppress the more recent memories I have of watching it, but that’s only due the movie’s failure to delivery on what is, at its core, a great concept. The idea of Frankenstein getting into some sex-fueled college hi-jinx has lots of comedic potential. Frankenstein The College Years, in practice however, lives up to almost none of that potential.

When 2 college students find a Frankenstein in the laboratory of their deceased professor, they decide to animate him, as ya do. What ensues is a lot of football and wardrobe changes, honestly. H.O.T.S.! this ain’t.

But, like any good movie from the early 90’s that hadn’t fully accepted the 80’s were over yet, Frankenstein The College Years features a sweet montage set to a song that’s practically begging to be on The Shindig. It’s a monster of an Inclusive Monster Song called Monster Rock.

Instead of showing us a bunch of Frank-out-of-water buffoonery around the campus though, the film quite literally spends the entire length of this song having him changes outfits. It’s pretty harmless, but it’s definitely a prime example of the movie squandering its promising premise.

This song comes to us courtesy of Mark Keeiner, who is probably best known for not being known at all. Outside of this particular song, I can’t seem to find any mentions of him at all whatsoever. So there’s that.

However, I forgot his name, so I looked at the credits the last time I watch it (yeah, I’ve seen this more than once) and the fuzzy quality of the rips left me with a bit of a mystery. See, IMDb is really the only place I see the performer’s name listed as “Mark Keeiner,” and so of course, all the YouTube videos of this song follow suit. However, I believe this is just an error. The on screen text is blurry but, to me at least, the “I” in Keeiner looks like an “f.” I know last names can be strange, but let’s be real here, how the hell would one even pronounce “Keeiner.” Surely it’s Keefner, right?

Here’s a screenshot, just to prove I’m an absolute loser who isn’t making any of this shit up. This is what I really do, in my spare time, as a fuckin adult no less – triple verify the performer of some goofy monster song featured in an completely memory-holed 90’s made-for-TV monster comedy. What in the quantifiable fuck.

C’mon! Is that an “i” or an “f”? Well, honestly it’s kind of unclear, and this was the cleanest copy I could find. Looks like and “f” to me, but I can see how this got input into IMDb as “Keenier” for sure.

On a whim, I gave the “f” a go, and as luck might have it, Mark Keefner got a hit! He’s a composer and performer no less, who wrote the song Where’s the Fire for 1989’s She’s Out of Control and performed the song Feels Like Home for the 1993 Swayze comedy vehicle Father Hood. Now, is this the same guy? Seems like a pretty odd coincidence that changing one letter (and into the exact letter I figured it looked like, mind you) produced a fellow performer and songwriter from the exact same era, no? I’m not finding shit else for a Mark Keeiner, with his weird ass last name.

After arguing with Google’s AI search for what felt like 3 hours, trying to find the song Feels Like Home and investigate Mark Keeiner vs Mark Keefner, believe I finally found proof that the performer in question is indeed Mark Keefner.

AI is dumb, especially when searching for basic information online. It confidently comes to conclusions that can’t be verified while tripping all over itself to confirm your bias. When you call it out on this (which I did, several times, and I have the logs) it simply admits to hallucinating details and apologizes. Ok. Thanks?

However, one thing it did provide, in the midst of all its back tracking and being wrong, was the web address for the United States Copyright Office. There, you’ll find a searchable database for any copyrights filed by (in our case) songwriters for music that’s been made commercially available. Of course, while what it was claiming it found on said database was completely false, I was able to search it myself and find some information.

Now, a search of copyrights filed on commercially available songs doesn’t necessarily help us when it comes to one-off, commissioned tracks for films that never got released publicly. But, as luck would have it again, Mark had written a second tune for Frankenstein The College Years that was later made available on a compilation CD of television love songs. I’ll give the AI search for being at least partially correct in digging up that little nugget of info. It was of course wrong about the title and performer, but that’s water under the bridge.

That track was titled Can’t Stop (Dreaming About You) as performed by David Burns for the film. A copyright was filled by a one Mark Keefner on the 8th of May, 1990 for that very song.

So, I can confidently say (with a verifiable, traceable source, unlike the overly confident Google AI) that Mark Keefner is indeed the performer of Monster Rock and as such Mark Keefner can proudly and officially enter the pantheon of Halloween Horror Music that we call The Shindig.

Here’s Monster Rock.

Thank you Mark Keefner. Sorry everyone’s calling you Keeiner, but maybe you’d rather not be associated with this song, so for that I apologize too.

Nudist Colony of the Dead

TRACK #414:

Nudist Colony of the Dead by Joyce Mordoh

We can’t just give you a Title Track about a woman and not a Title Track performed by a woman, that would be cruel and unusual. So here comes a Title Track from a film that is itself cruel and unusual.

From Mark Pirro’s 1991 “comedy” comes this absolute hitter from Joyce Mordoh, a through and through Title Track of the highest order.

We recently recorded our 7th volume of Title Tracks on Shindig Radio, and this one was definitely the big dog at that party. I’m not sure when you’ll finally get to hear that episode, but I’m hoping for a 2026 release.

Now, I haven’t listened through any of the raw audio yet, but I remember being pretty unkind toward Mark Pirro’s lighthearted musical. Perhaps too uncharitable. I know why I was unkind (cause I pretty much hate it) but it was late in the episode and I went a bit too hard, I think. If you’ve seen Mark’s other films like A Polish Vampire in Burbank or Curse of the Queerwolf, you have an idea of what’s going on with Nudist Colony of the Dead.

I get that it’s silly and not meant to be taken very seriously. That’s fine. I have plenty of patience for things that are objectively bad or silly for the sake of being silly. But so much of this movie is just bad humor that absolutely does not land, that it’s relentless torrent of unfunny bits just becomes tiresome and annoying. There’s nothing quite as infuriating to sit through as comedy that’s just not working for you. That’s not to say there aren’t of some bits I found funny, or that no one could find joy and humor in it, it’s just that I do not.

But alas, that takes nothing away from what I think is an absolute masterclass in Title Trackery from a woman who was no stranger to the game. She also sang Deathrow Gameshow for Mark Pirro and wrote the Title Tracks for Mark’s summer buffoonery Buford’s Beach Bunnies. Not a bad showing, Joyce. 3 puts you in Irene Cara territory. But nobody can touch the Queen.

So, let’s go bare assed, balls to the wind and stick it to those religious shitheels with a Title Track that’s enough to wake the dead!

Here’s Joyce Mordoh with Nudist Colony of the Dead!

Vampira (1974)

TRACK #413:

Vampira by The Majestics

Speaking of Black Face…

Holy Jesus, that doesn’t feel good to type. Doesn’t feel good that there’s even call to type such a thing, but facts is facts.

There’s also a man singing here, which while not exclusively against policy this week (there’ll be others), singing that is about a Woman rather than by a Woman is definitely a bit less than. However, this is a Title Track, and for that we can make this exception.

Because it simply wouldn’t be Halloween over here at Halloween Shindig if we didn’t add some more Title Tracks to the mix.

Actually, now that I’m reading that back, I wanna cross reference this claim of mine. One moment please.

Ok, Nevermind. Apparently it can very much be Halloween over here at Halloween Shindig without any Title Tracks at all, as both 2018 and even 2023 featured no Title Tracks on the countdown.

Still, 11 out of 13 years ain’t a bad ratio, and it suggests that Title Tracks are kinda of a thing around here. And for anyone around here who’s been around here who knows the score knows that.

Tonight’s Title Track comes from a British film called Vampira, pronounced Vam-PEER-a as opposed to Malia Nurmi’s original horror host Vam-PIE-ra. Not sure why the writers decided to call the film that but pronounce it differently, particularly since by 1974 (even in England) Vampira would have been a known quantity. Perhaps that why they pronounced it different? But who knows with them Brits.

I guess Malia took no issue with them taking her name, regardless of pronunciation, as I could find no evidence to suggest she approached production or sued the production company over the rights to the moniker.

And that might just be because, generally speaking, the film is widely known by its overseas title, Old Dracula. To capitalize on Mel Brooks’ smash hit Young Frankenstein, they released this sucker stateside as Old Dracula, get it? Har de fuckin har.

Despite that poor attempt to sideline a perfectly good Title Track, the movie was originally released in the UK as Vampira and features this definite Title Track from The Majestics, so step off, ya Yanks!

Plot wise we have the Notorious Phantom, Mr. David Niven, playing an aging and lonely Dracula attempting to resurrect his long dead love, Vampira, using the blood of young Playmates. Seems he needs a special sort of blood and he’s just gonna invite all these Playmates to his castle for a photo shoot and weird Dracula party (where he pretends to be Dracula) and gets the playmates to sleep overnight.

It’s a solid plan, except that the one the playmates (incidentally, the one with the special blood) is also Black, so Vampira is resurrected as a Black woman.

Now of course this isn’t a problem at all if you’re not a total piece of shit, but this is a guy who has literally murdered thousands of humans so he can live, what’s a little casual racism on top? It might be hard for non-murdering not-pieces-of-shit to understand how naturally one might take to simple racism while regarding an entire species as sub-vampire.

This is compounded by the that fact that Vampira is played by the stunningly gorgeous Teresa Graves, who was very famous at this exact time for playing TV cop Christie Love on Get Christine Love. Readers might remember the scene from Resevoir Dogs where the gang wonders aloud about who played Christie love – you under arrest sugar! Well, Vampira played Christie love, that’s who

In addition to Niven and Graves, it being a British production and all, there’s definitely Hammer babes afoot. Here we have the gorgeous Veronica Carlson from Dracula Has Risen from the Grave and Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed anLinda Hayden from Taste the Blood of Dracula and The Blood on Satan’s Claw and that’s pretty cool. So big up there.

We also get Nicky Henson, whom you may remember from Witchfinder General and Psychomania, which is also a treat.

Thanks to the blog Denim Disco, where I’ve been lucky enough to find out about a number of different tracks, I can tell you the guy who wrote this also wrote the lyrics for Goldfinger, his name was Anthony Newley. And that singer? Despite The Majestics being a UK soul band, that’s American actor Clarke Peter’s whom you may now as Dectective Lester Freamon from The Wire.

So, let’s turn the mic over to a man, for a moment, as he does what so many men with microphones have done for as long as their have been microphones; sing the praises of a woman. In this case, the resurrected body of a bloodsucking Queen of the night named Vampira.

Don’t Let Go

TRACK #403:

Don’t Let Go by Unit Eight

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.

And to set it all on fire is Unit Eight…

Where’s my cake!?

Tormentor

TRACK #387

Tormentor by W.A.S.P.

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!

Hard Rock Summer

TRACK #386

Hard Rock Summer by Alice Cooper

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 realized this coincidence until I just typed the above sentence. Both of the 6th films in these franchises changes the title to feature the character’s name first and their states of existence. How interesting. 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, evading her dad’s goons during the attempted jailbreak of our hero, Tommy Jarvis, while 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 quite as much love as the others.

Well, as we’re wont to 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. Or a chance for me to have grown enough to accept it for what it is. But man, I just can’t do it. At least not yet; 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’s Summer So…oh wait, I mean, here’s Alice Cooper with Hard Rock Summer!

Why Was I Born (Freddy’s Dead)

TRACK #384

Why Was I Born (Freddy’s Dead) by Iggy Pop

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 installment 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 kind of irony only Hollywood could produce with a straight face.

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.

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.

Thankfully (depending on your prospective that is) Hammer also unleashed his Addams Groove upon the world in 1991, preventing Iggy from taking the top spot. I’m sure he was grateful.

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 coomercial-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 over here 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.’ Y’all know how I feel about those 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.

Lost in the Shadows (The Lost Boys)

TRACK #379:

Lost in the Shadows (The Lost Boys) by Lou Gramm

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.

Fear No Evil

TRACK #378:

Fear No Evil by Trybe

1981’s Fear No Evil has a pretty wild soundtrack.

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 School have 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 Evil from Trybe, whoever the hell they even are.

Hard Rock Nightmare

TRACK #377:

Hard Rock Nightmare by The Bad Boys

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!

Never Cry Devil

TRACK #376:

Never Cry Devil by Willy DeVille

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.

Episode 21: It’s In The Movie: What the Fuck? Edition

It’s October and if you’re listening to the Halloween Shindig playlist and you hear a song that sounds like it doesn’t belong, that’s probably because…

IT’S IN THE MOVIE!

Special guest and YouTube creator Josh Spiegel – writer, director and star of the new film The Last Amityville Movie – joins Graham C. Schofield and Mikey Rotella as they wade through some out-of-place inclusive tracks from the likes of Trick or Treats (1982), Night Train to Terror (1985), Berserker (1987), Paganini Horror (1989) and more!

It might not sound like it belongs on a Halloween playlist, but it does, cause it’s not only in the movie, but it’s definitely in the movie on…

IT’S IN THE MOVIE: WHAT THE FUCK? EDITION

Scary Scary Movies

TRACK #349:

Scary Scary Movies by Ossie D. and Stevie G.

Cause what would the Shindig be if we only offered up one referential tune called “Scary Movies” from a referential horror movie about Horror Movies themselves?

I guess technically this one is called Scary Scary Movies, but that’s close enough for me, especially since it’s a Referentially Inclusive Monster Rap to boot.

From our old Prom Night pal Paul Zaza comes this tune, the sweet song from 1991’s horrorthon gone wrong, Popcorn.

Now, if you’re a keen eared viewer, a giant fan of Popcorn or you just happen to own this soundtrack, you’ll note that there actually is a song featured in the movie called Scary Movies. It’s briefly played and in front of the theater too, right before the horrorthon starts.

To be fair, it’s pretty much the same song, only it’s not a fun rap, and you know how we roll on The Shindig.

We’re using the term “rap” here pretty loosely, as you’ll hear, cause this thing ain’t droppin bars. In fact, it’s kinda difficult to listen to, but that’s never stopped us before and it probably never will when a certain set a circumstance arrives.

And all of those boxes are being ticked by this one;

From a horror movie? Check
About horror movies? Check
Fits the current block like a glove? Check
A monster rap? Goddamn right
A sweet song? Oh yeah

So here is where you’ll find it, no matter how it may sound.

Now, IMDb claims the song was written by Paul Zaza (the film’s composer) Yvonne Murray (another performer on the soundtrack) and Alan Ormsby (the film’s writer and original director.) Curiously though, the soundtrack credits only Paul Zaza and no one else. However, the film itself credits Alan Ormsby as its sole writer, with Ossie D. and Stevie G. as the song’s performers. Ossie and Stevie were a duo of prolific Reggae artists from Jamaica. They may very well be the band playing out front of the theater as well. If they were, which I suspect, they are uncredited for their performance.

Now, if that seems a little weird it’s probably because Popcorn was shot almost entirely on location in Kingston, Jamaica, and I’m sure they scooped up some locals to lend some tunes.

If you’ve never seen Popcorn (which isn’t so crazy, as this early 90’s slasher has somewhat fallen through the cracks) I highly recommend giving it a go. Certainly do not judge it by this song alone. If you’re a genre fan, the film department’s William Castle inspired horrorthon of in-theatre gags like Fright Form Waivers, Aroma-Rama and the Shock Clock countdown, is a definite treat.

Then there’s all prop building, life-casting, mask masking and movie theatre hokery that brings the horrorthon to life. Add to that the absolutely incredible crowd that shows up to the theatre. It’s a bevy of Don Post and Distortions mask and homemade costumes. It’s a blast and makes for great Halloween viewing.

Genre staples Jill Scholen, Dee Wallace, and Kelly Jo Minter are joined by the likes of Mr. Hand, Crispin Glover’s dad, and One Crazy Summer’s Clay Stork (in an inspired turned as the face-swapping Toby) all conspire to make this early 90’s offering a fun time.

It wouldn’t make a bad double feature with last night’s Return to Horror High either. So, pick up that one, grab some popcorn and kick back this October with the very Halloweeny Popcorn and enjoy some scary scary movies.

You know the kind I mean!

Scary Movies

TRACK #348:

Scary Movies by Pleasant Company

We’ve been on a pretty solid referential run here so far in 2023. It’s been 13 tracks since we had an inclusive jam (that I’m aware of anyway) and to be fair, that last inclusive tune was a pretty classic referential monster song that just became inclusive less than a year ago.

Tonight’s tune, however, was born into that role. And 36 years ago to boot.

At least, that’s how it appears anyway. The band Pleasant Company has only 1 release, so far as I can tell. It’s a 5 song eponymous LP with the inscription “Featured in New World Pictures – Return to Horror High” on the label.

So, I think it’s safe to say it appeared in the film before it appeared on this LP. Now, I couldn’t say whether is was written specifically for the film, but Scary Movies plays like just the right kinda comedically self referential thing for a film like Return to Horror. So much so in fact, I find it hard to imagine anything other than it being written for the film. But I could not say.

And the movie lucked out, cause Pleasant Company smashed out a banger for ‘em, that’s for sure. I love this tune, and its tone is perfectly suited for the picture. Return to Horror High knows exactly what it is, and it’s exactly the sort of thing that ends with Scary Movies by Pleasant Company.

All the tropes and cliches of horror are on display in this end credit Sweet Song. And what better way to send off a hyper referential, movie-within-a-movie meta-meditation like Return to Horror High.

It’s probably best known now for being an early film in the career of George Clooney, who takes his leave pretty quick despite his name being smeared across subsequent DVD releases.

So, I wouldn’t watch it specifically for him, Return of the Killer Tomatoes this is not. But it’s fun to see him, and Marcia Brady and Moe Greene, and that jerk from the diner who beats up Clark Kent in Superman 2, all playing it for laughs along side some good gore gags with a behind the scenes bent.

Those are all pluses to an already fun and self aware late 80’s slasher story that, when capped it all off with a song like Scary Movies, is a return worth making.

It’s Halloween (Stop Look and Listen)

TRACK #329:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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