Since we’re talking about Frankenstein, I figured this might be a good time to slot in a song that’s been waiting to get on the playlist for years now.
It’s an old Halloween classic you might recognize straight away called At the House of Frankenstein!
Coincidentally, this swinging booger from Big Bee Kornegay, was released along with Burt Convey’s Monster Hop in 1958, a full 4 years before The Monster Mash, proving once again that one needn’t be the first to do something to be everyone’s immediate association.
There ain’t a whole lot of info on Big Bee, or rather Big Bob, Kornegay (or even rather Bob Cornegie) other than some attributions to vocal groups like The Du Droppers, The Dixieaires and The Ravens.
Whoever this Mystery Man of R&B really was, he knocks it outta the park here with At The House of Frankenstein, a monster party blueprint from as far back as they come.
What’s more? It’s our first Mysterioso Pizzicato offender of 2024, and doubtful to be our last.
And as reasonable people, we can overlook the fact that there isn’t any actual film called The Evils of Frankenstein
Cause c’mon, it was 1976, after all. Cross referenceable material, albeit available, wasn’t nearly as ubiquitous as we’ve come to expect in our cushy age of instantaneous digital information. Unwittingly adding an “S” to the title of some movie you randomly caught on Creature Features one night…a movie that scared the shit outta you so bad you had to write a song about it…isn’t nearly the worst thing you could do. Who knows, he was probably hammered anyway.
But was this dude even watching The Evil of Frankenstein?
First and foremost, he describes Frankenstein and his hunchback assistant building a creature. This does not happen in The Evil of Frankenstein. Not only does Victor not have a hunchback assistant, he doesn’t even build a creature. They discover Victor’s original creature frozen in ice, ala Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman.
And speaking of ala, of all the Hammer Frankenstein’s to write a song about, you pick Evil? Hammer’s co-opted, financed by Universal “let’s just retcon this whole thing and port the entire Universal aesthetic over to Bray Studios” travesty? Really? C’mon John. Just about every other Hammer Frankenstein is better than that mess.
And to that point, despite being called The Evil of Frankenstein, it’s probably Cushing’s least evil portrayal of the character, and thus the least likely to turn your hair white.
Part of the Universal-ization of Evilextended to the Doc’s entire demeanor, I guess. Cause gone was Hammer’s original and refreshing take, which placed Victor front and center as a villain, a man willing to straight up take life in his obsessive quest to create life.
But hey, maybe he just picked that name out of a hat. Maybe he just liked the way it sounded… after he added an “s” of course.
Cause I mean, he clearly didn’t watch it. And if he did watch it, he didn’t remember it too well. Maybe it just scared the shit so far outta him his mind blocked all the small details like, ya know, the entire goddamn plot. Who’s to say?
But then he changes the channel and lands on some idealized version of House of Frankenstein or some such thing, who knows. We’re clearly in the realm of fantasy here and that’s fine, cause I don’t wanna pick on Choctaw John too much here. I mean, outside of perhaps naming yourself Choctaw John, but that’s a matter for a different website.
For our part, John recorded a great Frankenstein tune and we’re happy to have him. This 7″ also contains the B-side World of Darkness, which is another wild-ass banger chocked to the brim with dark imagery about global nuclear holocaust. Shit, John. I guess when you weren’t sittin’ around getting scared by old monster movies, you figured you might as well just scare the fuck outta everyone else, huh? Yeesh.
Well, thanks for the dark twang, bud. Now go rewatch…or maybe even just watch…The Evil of Frankenstein, will ya? And when you’re done, pop in any other Hammer Frankenstein flick, as they’re pretty much all superior to that pile.
Whether talking about the man himself or his godforsaken creation, lots of folks have sung about Frankenstein. I still think not as many as Dracula, but it’s a pretty hefty list either way.
However, I don’t think anyone has sung about him as enthusiastically as Chuck Osbournedoes here, on his 1975 single, Frankenstein.
Like the bastard son of Louie Armstrong and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Chuck practically throws my voice out screaming the praises of the creature for doing a bunch of shit I’m not even sure he ever did. Hard to know really, cause I can’t rightly understand most of whatever the hell Chuck’s even saying in this song. But man, is it awesome.
I might even go so far as to call this the coolest song I’ve ever heard about Frankenstein, Doctor or otherwise. I’m not sure why it took me so long to find this one, but I’m sure glad I did, and I hope that you are too.
Seems there’s a little confusion over Chuck’s name, though. See, he released this song twice on a Pennsylvania label called Hittsburgh USA, which I gotta say, is a pretty outstanding name for a label from the Monongahela Valley.
Can’t tell which record was first though, as they both got released in ‘75. One of them was the B-Side of Day Dream Drifter. That one is credited to Chuck Osborne. And that guy had a couple of other singles.
The other one is a A-Sider with an instrumental version of the tune on the B-side. Now, that one is credited to a guy named Chuck Osbourne, with a U. That’s weird. Chucky U doesn’t have any other singles, just this one.
Was this just a typo? What gives? Guy hiding from the Feds? What’s the deal here?
I imagine if my name was spelt wrong on my own goddamn single, the only single Hittsburgh USA had to their name mind you, I’d be pretty pissed off. Maybe that’s why he spends the whole song just screaming.
And it’s not like they didn’t know how to spell it. One of these pressings got it right. Useless, of course, that’s not even his name at all, and it’s some kinda cover. Maybe he is hiding from the Feds. Guy sounds a little unhinged here about Frankenstein, it’s not outta the realm of possibility to think he’s done some wild shit. I better stop asking so many questions.
I’d say I’m gonna go with Osborne, cause that guy had more releases, but I don’t think so. That no U business is some B-Side bullshit.
I’m goin Osbourne, cause that’s the guy who released the full-on Frankenstein single, with the instrumental on the flip. Frankenstein by Chuck Osbourne is an goddamn A-sider, fuckin’ Hittsburgh USA. Put some respect on that name, however you spell it. Cause if this song is any indication, Chuck deserves it.
So here’s another (allegedly) Italo tune about Frankenstein. This one is really from Italy as well, which is nice. It also appears to definitely be about the Doctor, which is also nice.
It’s also by The Doctor, which is a little confusing. It also seems to be The Doctor’s only musical contribution to the world.
Here he is rockin a sweet Frankenstein mask, which is more than I can say for the intense and sweaty Phoebus. But maybe Phoebus had just taken his Frankenstein mask off. Latex is notorious for inducing a good sweat.
What’s also peculiar about this song, is that it too is from 1986. So, that year saw 2 separate Frankenstein related Italo-Disco tracks that were actually from Italy, by acts that never released ny other records? That’s weird. I mean, at least i think so. Is that weird? Seems weird to me anyway. What was going on in Italy in 1986 with Frankenstein that produced such similar efforts? Beats me, cause these songs don’t even really sound similar.
I do like this one though. More than the Phoebus tune anyway. It’s strange. What’s also strange is that The Doctorhere is sporting that mask while the song appears to be about Doctor Frankenstein for a change. Meanwhile Phoebus, clearly singing about how The Monster gives him a boner or whatever, appears mask-less, all intense and sweaty. Hmm. Perhaps that’s more apropos than I initially gave it credit for.
But I digress. This song is fun and certainly very danceable, but I’ll be honest here, I don’t really know what The Doctor is saying. But, unlike the Ecstasy song, I’m not sure I really care. Something about Chris Dobarts accent and the variety of words in Hey Frankenstein made me genuinely curious as to the lyrical content.
But here, I dunno. I guess I’m just not as interested. Either way, this could be the night!
We’re gonna segue out of Disco here with 2 different Frankenstein tunes from the same year out of the Italo-Disco scene.
We’ve got a few Italo-Disco tracks already on The Shindig, namely Disco Halloween from Forbidden Fruits. But what the hell is Italo-Disco? It doesn’t seem much like Disco, nor does it sound terribly Italian.
It’s been years now since we posted that song, and you don’t feel like clicking away to reread stuff you maybe never even read back then, so why don’t we just talk about it again, huh?
Well, it seems the question of “what is Italo-Disco” elicits a fairly complicated answer. Enthusiasts and historians can’t seem to agree on what exactly is, where and when it all started or what even really qualifies as, Italo-Disco.
As such, the sound of Italo-Disco can be a bit elusive. Some of it skews more Disco and Space Disco, while a bunch of it leans more toward dancey 80’s Pop.
The short versions seems to be that it’s what happened when inexperienced Italian producers in the late 70’s tried to imitate the Disco hits that were no longer flooding in from outside Italy in the wake of Disco’s stateside decline.
That said, it was also the eventual electronification of Disco and the precursor to just about every form of EDM that now exists. Wow, ok Italo-Disco, shit. Take it down a notch, huh. That’s a pretty bold statement.
These 2 things seem to be most important to a definition though: heavy use of electronic instrumentation (synths, drum machines and vocoders) and either overly melodramatic themes of love and sex, or robots. There’s lots of robots.
Most of it was sung in English, perhaps explaining why a lot of it doesn’t sound terribly Italian. Dunno if that was an attempt to mimic classic disco tracks or simply to appeal to an American audience.
Oddly enough, it’s was a German Record label ZYX, that is largely cited as being the originators of the term. They marketed full-on mixes of the emerging pop scene out of Italy as “Italo-Disco.” Soon, that sound was coming from all corners of the globe and getting slapped with the same moniker.
Meanwhile, over here in the States, guys like Patrick Crowley and Bobby Orlando were touching upon some similar sounds with Hi-NRG. That also featured heavy use of electronic instruments, but typically ran at a higher tempo than Italo, so is somewhat easy to pick out of a lineup. It was popular in the Gay club scene of the mid-80’s and was very much a precursor to Techno and House. We even have a Hi-NRGhit here on the playlist courtesy of Bobby Orlando’s own Whisper to a Scream, which appeared (perhaps less than coincidentally) in 1985’s Freddy’s Revenge.
So, as you might suspect, I’ve been listening to a lot of Italo-Disco over the last year or so, and given its overall variety, I find it to be a wildly mixed bag. Some of it I love, some of it I hate.
The beat and the bass are typically right on the money. The first couple minutes of any Italo song is usually pretty great. But by the time the singer joined the party, it seemed like a 70/30 split on whether I was bailing out. A lot of it just sounds like cheeseball dance music of a variety I’m not terribly fond.
Now, I love Giorgio Moroder, and his pop-driven 80’s work is great. Kano released some good tunes. Koto, Scotch and Casco too. But the genre seems less defined by particular artists then it does the one-off records dropped by total randos never to be heard from again. Those can definitely be hit or miss.
I seemed to prefer the older, earlier variety which leaned a little more into Space Disco territory, a genre that I love which has a lot of overlap with Italo.
But the point at where a thing stops being Italo and starts being any number of other genres that sprung up in its wake, is located somewhere just outside my range of hearing.
Consensus seems to be that the genre had mostly dried out by the early 90’s and had given way to House, or Eurobeat or Eurodisco.
Tonight’s selection, Frankenstein by Phoebus, is a great example of what I’m talking about. This song doesn’t bear the hallmarks of what I think of when I think of Italo-Disco. To me, this just sounds like generic 80’s dance music, which isn’t not what Italo is, but it’s hard to explain. I dunno, maybe I’m not even really sure what Italo is, but I don’t know if it’s this. However, according to the folks on Discogs anyway, it definitely is.
Despite that, I still kinda dig this tune. Perhaps it’s a testament to the fact that just singing about Frankenstein can afford you a fair bit of goodwill over here with The Shindig.
This one seems to be about the Monster. And specifically the monster from the movie, as Phoebus has just recently seen a Frankenstein picture at the cinema.
From what I can gather, the monster has left an impression on our dear narrator. The nature of which, however, I can’t exactly say. Is this guy sexually attracted to the creature? Is that what’s goin on here? Am I adding that in? Am I sexually attracted to the creature? What’s the deal? Cause Phoebus seems to be getting real worked up over this thing, and I’m not sure it’s of the “Hey, just pick up a copy of Famous Monsters and an Aurora Model kit and work it out” variety.
So much so, in fact, that his friends all say he needs a doctor, his dad has kicked him out of the house and his girlfriend won’t even talk to him.
As such we dropped in some clips from Andy Warhol and Paul Morrisey’s Flesh For Frankenstein, cause…c’mon.
But enough of my rambling about a genre you probably don’t care to know about for some Monster song that I’m not even sure is prime example of that genre, in theme or sound.
He’s talkin’ about Frankenstein, so lose your mind already.
P.S. – If anyone listening happens to be familiar with this song but is finding they not familiar with this particular version, that is because it is a Shindig specific edit exclusive to the playlist.
It is a mashup I made of the 7” Mix and the Horror Mix. Not sure why I did this exactly, as I did it quite a while back. I think I liked the Horror Mix better in general, but preferred the opening of the 7” Mix. I think anyway. There’s something going on at the end too that’s different. Either way, we hope you enjoy!
Guy’s kinda boring, ain’t he? Drink a little blood, flash a little cape, hiss a bit with some fangs maybe, whatever. Big deal. Why’s this dude getting so much love in the tracks?
What about ole Frankenstein?
Well, while seemingly not as referenced as The Count, Frankenstein is still no slouch when it comes to recordings. In fact, according to a title search of “Frankenstein” on Discogs, there’s 785 master recordings. That’s almost 120 more than Dracula! Maybe old nut-neck ain’t 2nd banana after all. Maybe he is the big dog at the party. Though in fairness, a ton of those releases are just various compilation appearances and covers of the Edgar Winter classic. Without meticulously scrubbing either search for duplicates of that nature, it would hard to say for sure who emerges as the clear winner.
That’s of no real concern to us though, cause we’re gonna show Frank a little love now anyway, cause Lord knows he’s been getting the high-hat. Plus, I got a bunch of Franken-Jams clogging up the bullpen. Not as many as Dracula, but still quite a few.
I think it’s worth noting that in 9 out of 10 songs it’s the monster that’s being referenced rather than the Doctor. Sometimes that can be hard to determine with some of these songs, but it’s a safe bet it’s usually the creature.
And we can look the other way on that one, right gang? We can just accept that most people are calling the creature “Frankenstein,” accurate or not. I’m prepared to let it go for a block of Franken-Rock, aren’t you?
Yeah, of course you are, cause you don’t give a damn. Does the track groove? Yeah? Well then fire it up.
And groove this one does, cause we’re flippin’ the switch on this block with another song I had to fish outta the drink just to hear. And once again, it was definitely worth it. Some people had the A-side from the Ecstasy single What’d I Say? but no one seemed to have the B-side, Hey Frankenstein.
Ecstasy was a French disco band in the late 70’s that cut a number of 45s, but seemed to fizzle out just before the turn of the decade.
Chris Dobat, otherwise known as Mister Ecstasy, was the driving force behind that band and he seems to have pivoted to solo Funk work in the 80’s. Not bad.
Here, he lets it all hang out with some funky disco dedicated to Doctor himself. At least, I think anyway. Cause I’m not gonna lie, half the time I can’t tell what the hell Chris is actually saying. The fact that this is the B-side to What’d I Say? seems entirely appropriate.
However, I didn’t wanna leave y’all hanging. So, I decided to listen to this song on repeat, for an ungodly amount of times, until I figured out what the lyrics are.
Here is my best attempt. If anyone would like to assist me or correct any of these lines, I’ll take all the help I can get. We posted the song to YouTube last year, and you can use their playback speed to help with the translation. Though I warn you, it’s only so helpful.
Hey Frankenstein
Hey Hey, Hey Hey (x2)
Hey Frankenstein
Comes walking in
you know its him
Oh, bad Frankenstein
Hey, Frankenstein
He’s gotta prove
He’s in the groove
Oh, bad Frankenstein
He takes a drink
To make it quick
It’s all feelin fine
He can’t play fair
He doesn’t care
He’s bad Frankenstein
Hey, Frankenstein
He’s doctor
When his medicine
Oh, he’s Frankenstein
Hey, Frankenstein
He wore his dice
And they’ll look nice
He’s no valentine
So full of ice
He wore them twice
He’s no friend of mine
And if your taught
To live to start
Don’t, bad Frankenstein
Hey Frankenstein
Hey Hey, Hey Hey (x2)
He’s moving fast
He’s moving where it’s at
Looking for fun
Anyway, anywhere, anyone
When there’s no more fun
He’s back on the run
Playboy #1
Always looking for fun
On the run
?
He’s got a secret
Dice!
He wore them twice!
Louder
Sexy
Horns
He begs it
Mr. Frankenstein
Comes a-walking in
Mr. Frankenstein
Funky Valentine
Hey, Frankenstein
He’s gotta prove
He’s in the groove
Oh, bad Frankenstein
Hey, Frankenstein
When it get hot
He’s very bad
He’s bad, Frankenstein
He knows the way
To scare his prey
Oh he’s Frankenstein
He’ll never let you get away
Here comes Frankenstein
Hey Frankenstein
Comes walking in
you know its him
Oh, bad Frankenstein
Hey, Frankenstein
He’s gotta prove
He’s in the groove
Oh, bad Frankenstein
He takes a drink
To make it quick
It’s all feelin fine
He can’t play fair
He doesn’t care
He’s bad Frankenstein (x4)
So, that’s what I got anyway.
Can’t say I’m entirely convinced I got any of this right, and lots of it just sounds wrong. But some it of seems right, and after entirely too many listens, I gotta call it a wrap. But please, if you’re feeling like maybe you also gotta know what this guy is saying and my translation seems like trash, help me out. Lemme know what you think.
Oh, and hey! Speaking of letting it all hang out, that’s a full on fully up there adorning the front of this 45. Cause hey, if you jump into a tub to record your single, maybe a nipple slips out, ya know? It’s ‘78! It’s disco! What’s a nipple? C’mon, get loose, will ya?
Now, I probably should have just wrapped this all up with another Drac-Track and gotten us straight to the 10 slot on nothing but Draculas. And I could have too, Lord knows I have enough. But I figured we’re all a little fanged-out.
So we’re gonna double down on Meco and pivot to a bit referential werewolf action.
Cause If you ever wanted to hear what it might sound like if you asked AI to give you 80’s KISS covering Queen’s nonexistent Almost Title Track from An American Werewolf in London, allow me to present Meco’sWerewolf (Loose in London.)
In 1967, Mike Nichol’s tapped Simon and Granfunkel to provide songs for his new film The Graduate, and proceeded to blow Hollywood’s collective mind. A #1 hit single, a #1 hit album and 3 Grammy awards later, that town had a whole new blueprint for cross-marketing. One that generated its own goddamn revenue stream to boot.
And it was cheaper too. At that time, anyway. It isn’t any longer, but in the late 60’s and 70’s it sure was. Need a soundtrack? Just populate your film with licensed music, get a popular band to cut ya an exclusive track or two, then take all the money you just saved and put it in the bank to wait for all the other money you’re gonna make.
In 1977 however, John William’s skirted this new trend and brought soundtracks back to the golden era with Star Wars. In the process, he created the best selling non-pop album of all time and a theme which itself hit #10 on the Billboard charts.
As we know, Mecothen made his disco version, and that fucker shot to #1 and stayed there for 2 weeks.
The same year though, the Bee Gee ladened soundtrack from Saturday Night Fever dominated the charts with four #1 hits and selling over 16 million copies. It’s still one of the best selling albums, not just soundtracks, but albums of all time. It was even the first soundtrack to win the Grammy for Album of the Year. And that’s only happened twice since.
So by 1981, movie soundtracks we’re big business. They could helped promote a film just as much as TV and Radio spots or good word of mouth. The movie sold the soundtrack and the soundtrack sold the movie and everyone was riding that ouroboros all the way to the bank.
But John Landis’ new horror comedy An American Werewolf in London posed an interesting problem to the formula. Elmer Bernstein’s score for the film, though wonderfully atmospheric, only ran about 7 minutes long. The rest of the soundtrack was made of moon-tunes from the likes of Van Morrison, Creedence ClearwaterRevival and 3 different versions of Blue Moon. All good stuff, to be sure.
However, trying to pass off that limited assortment as a real LP for public consumption seemed like like a hard sell, I guess.
So, Polygram got the ingenious idea to let international Disco soundtrack leech Domencio Monardo loose on an “inspired by” album.
What resulted was Impressions of An American Werewolf in London, a double entendre of an album that I’m not sure was intentional or not.
This bizarre mishmash of weird covers, reworkings and strange originals is the official soundtrack for the film. For real. It’s listed in the credits. This was it. This is the thing. And they weren’t exactly flying off the shelves either.
And why not? Isn’t that why people buy soundtracks? To listen to a bunch of weird shit that wasn’t in the movie mixed with bastardized versions of the stuff that was?
No. It’s not. And they didn’t.
For us fans though, some 40 years after the fact looking for referential jams for our Halloween playlist, Impressions is like a weird little dish of what-the-fuckery cooked to order.
Namely, the cut Werewolf (Loose in London), which is exactly the kind of song you’d wish had actually been in the film, if only it didn’t sound like the kind of song that shouldn’t be in a film like this at all.
But it’s here for us now, in all it’s officially sanctioned and referential glory.
I’ll leave you with this quote from John Landis himself, which like Meco’sMoondancer, appears right on the back of the sleeve.
“Here I would like to brag about how unique this is, however I’m afraid Meco has done this same thing rather spectacularly before with the scores of STAR WARS, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, SUPERMAN, STAR TREK, THE BLACK HOLE, THE WIZARD OF OZ, and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK….”
Oh, I’d say this is just a little bit different than that, John.
So here’s a weird Disco Dracula with a confusing release history.
I originally came across this song as simply Dracula, sung by Linda Susan Bauer. I loved it and shoved it in the bullpen, as is custom.
Later, while digging around for other monster disco madness, I ran across the suggestion of the song Ooh Dracula, as performed by Hysteric. I listened to that, but it wasn’t really much of anything except a remix, yet it sounded a little different from Linda’s song.
What was it a remix of then?
Well, apparently the song Ooh Dracula by the German Disco groupEmpire.
So, I double checked around on Linda Susan Bauer and found out she was one of the singers for Empire, and that her version was itself a reworking of that version. Ok then.
Problem is, the band Empire isn’t really a band at all. They’re basically just this other band called Methusalem. Wait, what?
Ok, so bear with me with on this, cause the information is a little spotty. From what I can garner, Methusalem was a project of a producer named Jack White. Not that guy with the white pants, but this guy.
See, he was German. He also used to be a professional soccer player. But more importantly, he produced David Hasselhoff’s albums, including his Berlin Wall-leveling hit, Looking for Freedom.
More famously (I would assume), he was the man responsible for producing Laura Branigan, including her very actual hits Self Control, How Am I Suppose to Live Without You? and her insanely popular version of Umberto Tozzi’s Gloria. In fact, he also produced her hit The Lucky One, which appears in 1986’s Killer Party, is sitting in the bullpen and waiting it’s debut on The Shindig.
I think even more importantly though, Jack White is the man that produced the soundtrack to the 1984 Sci-Fi Musical Pia Zadora vehicle Voyage of the Rock Aliens. Choice.
However, before all of that success, Jack had been releasing disco singles to limited acclaim in the late 70’s. Methusalem’s lone album, Journey Into the Unknown, was released in 1980, also to limited acclaim.
So, Jack just continued producing disco singles, including one with Linda Susan Bauer entitled Shot Down under the moniker Empire.
When that single performed well, Jack figured he’d try and give Methusalm a new set of legs. So in 1981, he took Journey Into the Unknown, added Shot Down and another a new song he’d also produced with Linda entitled Ooh Dracula and released it as Empire’s lone LP, The First Album. Incidentally, that was also their last album as neither Empire nor Methusalem released anything after.
Some later, bootleggy repressings of Journey Into the Unknown feature the additional 2 songs, but from what I can tell, those are mostly erroneous. Even some places online will attribute this song to Methusalem, which is just as well I suppose. But as far as I can tell, nothing official by the Methusalem moniker was ever released containing Ooh Dracula. This appears to be “Empire”song, whatever that really means.
Linda herself released the song as just Dracula in 1982, and that’s the one I was familiar with. It’s not terribly different, from what I can tell. Maybe a little less synthy. Hard to say, really. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think it was the same track.
So what is Empire then? Well, basically Shot Down and Ooh Dracula, that’s what Empire is, featuring vocals by Linda Susan Bauer.
Methusalem is the rest of that album, with vocals from English singer Vicky Brown.
Now that that’s cleared up, what with this song?
Well, it’s your typical sort of Dracula tale. A woman is obsessed with that god forsaken creature of the night, and despite what everyone (including common goddamn sense) tells her, she’s determined to become a slave to that thing.
Oh well.
Better her than me, I suppose. Seems like it’s hard to resist that guy. Thankfully, we’ve never crossed paths. However, I do feel confident that my years of listening to Dracula songs has given me the tools necessary to fully protect myself from his evil ways.
Disco was pretty big in Japan. While American Rock ‘N Roll grabbed Japanese pop culture for the late 60’s and early 70’s, by 1974, that island was dancing to a new beat.
As such, lots of Disco artists enjoyed great success overseas. Some even went so far as to release records exclusively in Japan. Ice (aka Captain Dax) is a good example of a band directing their attention almost entirely to the Japanese market. And it seems such was the case with our next Disco Dracula enablers, the curiously French named, Café Au Lait.
Café Au Lait is a coffee drink. I know this now because if you try and search for this band, the results are pretty much exclusively this drink. It’s kinda like a latte I guess, only it’s made with regular coffee instead of espresso. Great. I feel more sophisticated already.
Now, what the fuck a French coffee beverage has to do with Disco, Dracula or Japan is anyone’s guess. But let’s talk less about coffee and more about those other 3 things for a moment.
Hot Blood’s 1975 gateway drug Soul Dracula, was a pretty big hit in Japan. I mean, it was a pretty big hit here too, and practically spawned what’s shaping up to be an entire sub-genre of music, but in Japan, they were clamoring for it a bit more insatiably.
So much so it seems that, according to wild and unconfirmed sources on the crazy ass internet, Japan (the entire country, I guess) asked Mr. Alain Goraguer to produce his Soul Dracula sound-alike Sexy Dracula. Ok, that seems plausible, weird commenter on discogs, sure. We’ll just go with that.
Was it a hit. I dunno. Maybe?
Not to be outdone, Café Au Lait sought to court a case of Japanese disco fever 3 years later with Sweet Sexy Dracula.
Now, it can be tricky digging up info on these old, sometimes one-off, bands from over 40 years ago. And that difficultly gets compounded if you name your group after a fuckin’ coffee drink.
They don’t sound French to me. Could be Canadian, I suppose. Hell, could be French, but I’m not hearing it. Least not from the lead singer.
So, who were Café Au Lait? Where were they from? Surely they’re not Japanese, but this record was released there. They actually produced a whole LP titled Midnight Bazaar. That’s more than you can say for a lot of these Disco Dracula folk. Sweet Sexy Dracula is the lead-off batter on that album too and you’re goddamn right it is.
I search and type, and dig through YouTube comments and discog notes. Search again with different keywords but mostly I just find people selling the record or featuring it on write-ups or mixes of Disco Dracula songs with no more information than “Hey, here’s another one.” Maybe I’m just bad at looking. Maybe I can’t read Japanese. Maybe the information just isn’t out there.
That was the night of the infamous anti-disco promotional shitshow cooked up by Shock Jock Steve Dahl in Chicago. They held it at Comisky Park after a White Sox double-header in July of 1979. The plan was that everyone who came to the stadium that night would bring a disco record with them and then Steve would blow up the whole lot after the games. And he did! Then shit got a little out of hand over at the ballpark. It always comes back to baseball around here, it seems.
But this article appears to be the only thing of its kind really. And perhaps rightfully so. But it doesn’t touch upon any of the little guys; the Hotlines, the Bob Babylones or sadly, the Café Au Laits.
Am I crazy? Am I the only one who cares? Am I the lone person hearing these tunes thinking – man, I’d like to know just a little bit more about the people that made this weird song, so I can write more than “Hey Dracula and cocaine were a crazy duo in the 70’s, huh?”
Feeling at my wits end I actually consulted the harbinger of human civilization’s ruin du jour, ChatGPT.
After wrestling for hours with that goofball, who can’t even seem to return the results of a basic Google search, I did get a bit of information.
Who knows how solid that it is though, as I have yet to get that dipshit to provide me a link that actually takes me where it says it’s suppose to.
Seriously, anyone who’s afraid ChatGPT might be the end of humanity, go have a fuckin’ conversation with that nimrod about a 40 year old Dracula Disco song. Your fears will be instantly quelled, particularly when it repeats back the information you just feed it as though it dug it up on its own. Oh Café Au Lait seem to be fairly obscure Disco band that only released 1 record called Midnight Bazaar, huh? No shit, buddy, I just fuckin’ told you that.
So alas, that’s what I’m left with. That and some speculation. Maybe no one actually cares. Maybe no one wants to read about me caring that no one seems to care. Maybe nobody wants to read at all, particularly dumb things written by dumb me on this dumb blog devoted to dumb shit. Who knows?
Maybe all they want (if they even want this at all) is to just hear the damn song and move on. And maybe that all ya’ll want too, so here it comes.
Now, I know when I started this Dracula block, I forgot to mention that it was basically gonna be another Disco Dracula Block. Sorry about that.
If you’re all like “Seriously? There’s more of these fuckin’ Disco Dracula songs? How is that even possible?” I feel it’s only courteous to inform you that this batch doesn’t even cover them all.
So, you’ll definitely be hearing more, eventually. But this will probably be the only other “block” of them, as after this batch, there aren’t as many I really like.
First and foremost, there’s Sweet Exorcist’sDisco Vampire. There’s a few different versions, but even the best of them can’t stop that tune from being just a little bit irritating.
Sweet Exorcist was one of many aliases used by our old friends The Lafayette Afro Band, whom you may remember as Captain Dax of Dr. Beezar Soul Frankenstein fame. They used a lot of names over the years like Krispie and Company, Bionic Unlimited and Ice.
As Ice they actually released a grip of Playlist prospects like Disco Frankenstein, Igor’s Reggae and Creature from the Freak Lagoon. Unfortunately, I don’t particularly like those much more than Disco Vampire.
Then there’s Possession’sBlack Dracula. That one kinda grooves. You might catch this one of the playlist eventually.
Of course there’s also the other 2 tracks I mentioned from Dracula Blows His Cool. I may still include one of those yet, I dunno.
Pan Demonium cut a tune in 1979 called Dracula’s Dream, which definitely looked to jump on Disco Dracula train. That song’s fine and all, but it wasn’t really exciting enough for this block. Later on in the playlist? Possibly.
Maya’sMister Dracula is definitely worth a spin and likely to join this playlist within the next few years I’m sure, while Bobby Babylone’sViva Dracula definitely will be and narrowly escaped not being featured this year.
There’s also Disco Vampirella, Vampire State Blvd., Super Blood Sucker, there’s even The Rah Band, with their cut Vampire Vamp. Now, I like that one a lot, but it’s only an instrumental and doesn’t directly reference Dracula or have much ambience.
Tonight’s Disco Dracula tune, however, has that in spades. It too is mostly an instrumental, like Soul Dracula or Disco Blood. But also like those songs, it’s got Dracula vibe to spare.
From Monsieur Goraguer, comes Sexy Dracula, a sort of Disco Blood with a French tickler twist complete with the requisite moaning and sucking sounds you’ve come to expect from this kind of thing.
Monsieur Goraguerwas a barely-alias used by pianist Alain Goraguer, who was an incredibly prolific composer and arranger in France. Though having scored music for dozens of features and TV shows, he’s perhaps most famous for his work with the French legend, Serge Gainsbourg.
Now, why this classically trained and renowned Jazz musician would cut something like Sexy Dracula is anyone’s guess. The pull of Disco Dracula was just too great, I reckon.
We’re all glad he did though, cause he uncorked a doozy here, as maybe only someone of his skill could.
If you would have told me 10 years ago that some of my favorite songs on this playlIst would turn out to be disco jams, I’m not sure I would have believed you.
There’s something about the combination of this era’s empty, danceable sound and monster bullshit that at once seem so completely at odds yet uniquely suited for each other.
Like Monster Raps, it’s bizarre that these song even exists, but man, am I sure glad that they do. They make for great playlist inclusions.
If you don’t happen to agree, I apologize, as the rest of our Dracula block is unquestionably disco, because there’s just an inordinate amount of these fuckin’ things, and I can’t seem to stop finding them.
Leading the charge is a song I absolutely love. Legit. I love this song. It’s been in the bullpen for years now and over those years I randomly toss it on cause I haven’t heard it in a while and I miss it.
I’m not sure if I can even fully articulate why either. Is it the key? Is it the melody? Is it that short Rhodes solo? Those mean-ass Minimoog hits? I couldn’t rightly say. I guess I just like the way it sounds. I suppose that’s the reason anyone likes any song, really.
Unlike the last couple tunes though, which lean a bit more funk and soul, this one’s a true-blue Disco Dracula tune, at least in name anyway. There isn’t any explicit mention of him, but you do get the double-shot Disco Dracula hallmark of a vaguely Dracula-sounding voice mumbling bullshit while a woman basically orgasms into a microphone. Nice.
From the short lived band, Solcyst comes 1980’s Haha!…I Need Your Blood (Disco Dracula.)
Now strangely, this track was released in Germany. But the band only has one other single, featuring 2 songs, and that one was released in France. So is Solcyst German? Are they French? Italian? None of the above?
They’re singing in English, but it’s a bit strained. This was just around when Italo-Disco was starting to emerge, which was rife with tracks coming out of Germany sung in English by people from neither place, so who knows. This definitely isn’t Italo, though it’s Disco features a nice amount of electronic instrumentation, which is always appreciated.
We may never know with some of these artists, as real information doesn’t seem to exist. So, let’s just be thankful then that the song exists and be satisfied in that.
Our version here on the playlist is pulled directly from the 45, which sits proudly in the Halloween Hole. The single is split between side A and B, featuring Parts 1 and 2, respectively. We’ve combined them both for your epic Disco Dracula pleasure.
I will note that there is a nice rip of this on YouTube that also combines parts 1 and 2. For whatever reason though, that version cuts ’em together a bit early and completely forgoes the 3rd chorus. Not sure why it does that, but ours does not. Perhaps the other one is a bit less repetitive, and the impact of that climatic crescendo isn’t lessened by having already heard it. That version flows a little better too, not gonna lie. Maybe that’s why they did it. I’ll never know, unfortunately, because you can’t send people on YouTube messages and you can’t comment on that particular video, cause for some reason, the Disco Dracula sex song with the lady audibly climaxing is on YouTube Kids. Search me.
I think this is the way the song was meant to transition though, assuming it was meant to be combined at all. Besides, any excuse to make this one last a little longer is alright in my book. And it made some sense to me to let that version exist over there and have a different option over here, rather than just having the same version exist in 2 places.
We’ve bookended this one with samples from 2 contemporaneous Dracula adaptations. The first, 1977’s lengthy and faithful multi-part BBC production Dracula, and the other from Frank Langella’s classic 1979 turn in John Badham’s verison.
Hey, is it weird that 2 years after directing Saturday Night Fever, John Badham directed that Dracula and released it in 1979, the year you couldn’t get away from Disco Dracula? I dunno, but I think we were robbed of a classic John Badham crossover disco horror hit. Oh, well.
Kicking off the Disco portion of our Dracula Block, here’s Solcyst with Haha! I Need Your Blood (Disco Dracula.)
Looks like we got another Shindig Exclusive coming at ya, cause with all the Dracula Disco out there, we still somehow managed to dig one up that didn’t seem to be available anywhere else.
Finding this one wasn’t too big of a trick, but finally getting to drop a needle on it was definitely a treat. How this song isn’t in more places is beyond me, cause it grooves.
The song is titled Count Called Dracula, which is in the chorus, but it also features the line “Just a dude named Dracula” which is immeasurably cooler. Now, why they didn’t go ahead and call the song Just a Dude Named Dracula is beyond me, but I’ll take this track whatever it’s name might be, cause it’s a jam.
The funked out disco beat, the silly voices, the dated (even for 1978) Mae West joke. It’s all pretty great.
The Showman is actually a guy by the name of Alexander Simmons, who wrote and produced this one. He doesn’t seem to perform on the track however, which is a bit strange.
Here he is Dracin’ the fuck out with 2 ladies of the night, presumably Catalina Sevilla and Linda Kaye Hal, who both provide vocals on the tune.
Smooth.
Unfortunately, Alexander didn’t seem to produce anything else. The album lists a ton of players, but only Ray Chew seems to have much of anything under his belt. For the rest of the crew, a Count Called Dracula appears to be it.
But if I had a chance to produce and release one song, and only one song in my lifetime, I would be so lucky as to drop a banger like Count Called Dracula. Y’all should be proud, cause in deference to the songs lyrics, it is pretty spectacular.
Here’s another Drac-Track about the good count getting down. Or at least a dance that’s named after him, at any rate. Ya know, like The Lurch, or The Freddy. Either way, boogieing and Dracula are involved and that’s what we’re here for.
This one comes from Top Shelf, a Funk/Soul/maybe Disco (I guess) group from possibly New York. Discogs lists all three and the record company Sound Trek Records is a NY based outfit, so it’s inferences all around.
Sound Trek Records doesn’t seem to have released much outside of these singles and LP from Top Shelf. Though the label did aslo release a pair for singles from successful soul singer Laura Greene. Laura even had a role in Robert Downey’s classic satire Putney Swopeas Mrs. Swope. Nice!
Laura Greene, however, has nothing else to do with Top Shelf (that I can tell), outside of this minor intersection.
Needless to say, I couldn’t seem to find much in the way of information on these guys. Night People seems to be their only real album.
The funny thing is, Night People was released in 1980, however the single for Dracula’s Boogie(with the excellent b-side Goin’ Thru the Motions) was released in 1979. So, this song was certainly recorded and released in the 70’s, despite the release of the albums. I guess I’ll chalk it up to a 70’s, cause hey, that seems like a more appropriate place for it to be anyhow.
So, grab a cape and cut a rug with Dracula’s Boogie!
I dunno what the cocaine was cut with in the 1970’s, but people were goin fuckin’ nuts for Dracula. The amount of Soul, Funk, Disco and Rock tunes from that era, dedicated specifically to the old leech, is staggering.
In the bullpen right now I have another 16 Dracula songs from the 1970’s, of which 6 are from 1979 alone. And there’s already 7 of those on the playlist! So, I had to be a little picky here or we’d be stuck listening to Dracula songs until track #400.
We’ll stake out a healthy block here though, cause I gotta clear out some of these long suffering prospects.
And to kick off our Dracula block in style, we got Jimmy Castor, aka The Everything Man, and his funked out ode to the Prince of Darkness.
In 1975, right on the heels of (or perhaps even before) Soul Dracula, Jimmy and his Bunch dropped Dracula Pt. 1. Don’t worry about Pt. 2 though, it’s just an instrumental version.
Jimmy takes on the persona of Drac and slips in and out of character on this laid back cut that pays tribute to what a smooth motherfucker that count was.
According to the BBC (who are clearly the authorities on such matters) Jimmy Castor is one of the most sampled musicians of all time. And Jimmy’s been sampled quite a bit, no doubt. Specifically, bits of his 1972 songs Troglodyte and It’s Just Begun have popped up on tracks from the likes of N.W.A., Kool Moe D, Ice T, Arianna Grande, JJ Fad and Redman!
But one of the most sampled musicians of all time? I dunno about all that.
So, I consulted an actual authority, ya know, not just some tosser over at the British Broadcasting Company, to find out if that claim held any water.
According to whosampled.com, Jimmy isn’t even cracking the top 100 most sampled artists of all time. At 320 samples, Jimmy is a full 183 samples away from the 100th most sampled musician, legendary composer Ennio Morricone.
So, one of the most sampled? Not exactly, but definitely more than most.
And what of Dracula Pt. 1? Well, unfortunately no one seems to have sampled any parts of this tune. Which is a shame, cause this thing grooves. If the hip-hop constituency doesn’t wanna show this Jimmy Castor track any love, it’s ok. That’s what Halloween Shindig is here for.
So let’s let Dracula introduce himself now, cause we’re gonna be spending a little time with the old Count.
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.
Curiously, 1962 saw the release of 2 songs called “Spooky Movies” where a guy discusses how his girlfriend is all into the horror pictures. That’s a little weird, no?
Since we don’t know exactly when Gary Paxton’s song came out, we can’t for sure say which one of these came first. But apparently, in 1962, 2 different somebodies thought it was a good enough idea to put a pen to paper on the matter.
In this case, it was a fella named Buddy Lee.
Steve Stone gets the credit for Gary Paxton/Roy Clark version.
Now, the Discogs “notes” tab would have you believe this record was reviewed in an issue of Billboard Magazine from October 20th of 1962. I was pumped to read that too, and was very eager to find that review and glean some first hand, 60 year-old hot-takes on this tune.
I was not previously aware, but apparently all the old Billboards were digitized years ago, so you can look ‘em up by date. Score! So, I scoured through that entire issue, and while it does make an appearance, buried as it is under the 3-star “Moderate Sales Potential” section on page 44, I’d hardly call it a review.
So, unfortunately, there was no information to be gained down that particularly avenue. However, I did manage to pick up a new tune thanks to this issue. Cause just off to the side, under the “Limited Sales Potential” column was Vladamir and The Grave Diggers, with their single Vladamir Twist/Drac Walk. Now, I can’t say for certain if either will get added to the official playlist, but they’re both sitting in the Bullpen right now getting the requisite consideration. It’s always fun going to look for information on one monster tune and walking away with the title of 2 others. That’s a double bonus.
But for now, let’s just listen to Lee Lilly,the man they called “The Big Masher.” Which, now that I’ve typed out, reminds me. If you will, indulge me here for a moment please.
So, apparently Lee Lilly, was known around town as The Big Masher, which isn’t so weird, really. Lots of musicians had these kinda nicknames. It appears ole Lee got his name from a song he performed called The Big Masher. Only, this 45 is the only 45 Lee Lilly seems to have released. And it’s the one that features The Big Masher! It’s not even the A side, it’s on the flip? What?
This guy is goin so hard with this name that they emblazon it upon a record that no one has heard yet, featuring the very fuckin’ song he’s named for? Am I missing something here? That’s weird, right?
Like, the guy’s not even a real guy yet when the records getting pressed, and yet he’s got a nickname from a song that not only is not itself a hit yet (cause it hasn’t been release) but isn’t even the feature track?
Maybe he was called The Big Masher for some other reason, unrelated to the song. And perhaps the song itself is all about how he’s The Big Masher and all the big mashin he gets up, whatever wholesome thing I’m sure that’s suppose to be in 1962s
I couldn’t say, cause it didn’t listen to that song, cause that song doesn’t feature any monsters.
Or shit, maybe it does. I wouldn’t know, cause I was too busy gettin spooky.
Here’s The Big Masher himself, Mr. Lee Lilly, not mashing with some monster kind you, but with some Spooky Movies.
Though made popular by famous country singer Roy Clark in 1963 as Spooky Movies, according to secondhand songs.com, it was first recorded by Gary Paxton here in 1962 as Spookie Movies.
Seems it didn’t see an official release, however, until 10 years after that though. I’m not sure. Information isn’t exactly abundant on this one. Gary’s 45 has no release year printed on it and discogs is apparently in the dark on a release date.
Either way, I’d probably opt for Gary’s version anyway, as I just like it better than Roy’s. Sorry Roy, I dunno what do say. I just like it more. Thankfully, you’re probably not digging around unfrequented corners of the internet looking for the dumb shit I’m writing. Although stranger things have happened.
Claude Lahenaff once commented on an episode of Shindig Radio that featured his title track Dr. Hackenstein. Seriously. Check it out! He’s down at the bottom chiming in.
Now sure, that could just be some bozo taking a piss in the comments, that’s certainly not unheard of on the internet. But I’ll tell ya, if that’s some prankster, then my hat is well the fuck off.
That is such a seemingly improper place to comment upon a song as wildly random as that, in the persona of such an insanely obscure musician that it’s approaching genius level fuckery. I’d be so impressed at that joke that I wouldn’t even care that Claude LeHenaff hadn’t actually reached out, as sad as that would be.
Now, unfortunately, I needn’t worry about that in this case, as Roy passed away in 2018. However, I’d still like that sentiment to be hanging out in the ether. Some people just like some things better than others. It ain’t personal. I’m sure you were a swell guy.
But hey, that’s enough about a guy not directly involved with this version of the song, so what’s up with Gary?
Well, Gary Paxton (or rather Gary S. Paxton, as he preferred to be referred) was an acclaimed producer, known to have struck fear into the heart of convicted murdered, Phil Spector. Now, that’s spookie with an IE.
Gary’s probably best known for producing the hits Alley Oop for The Hollywood Argyles, Sweat Pea for Tommy Roe and Along Comes Mary for The Association. He was also shot 3 times in 1980 by some hitmen. Like seriously, hitmen. Like men hired specifically for the purpose of rubbing him out. How wild is that? He lived thankfully, but it definitely put him out of commission for a bit, and the men were arrested. He supposedly visited them in prison and forgave them, as at that point Gary was a pretty devout Christian convert who was very much involved in the Christian music scene at the time.
However for our part, Gary S. Paxton most importantly (and most graciously) produced and recorded Boris Pickett’s 1962 smash The Monster Mash. Yep, the same year he was himself recording Spookie Movies, he cut the biggest novelty song to ever hit Halloween. So while Boris was shredding up the charts, Gary’s own spookie tune was slowly fading into relative obscurity. Considering the residuals on The Monster Mash, I’m on I’m sure he got over it.
So let’s pour one out for the man behind 2 monstrous novelty hits, including the biggest one of all time, Mr. Gary S. Paxton.
There’s so many “Hey, girls get scared at horror movies, so maybe I can cop a feel” tunes that they could probably sustain their own mini-playlist.
Hell, the most universally recognized and beloved song on this playlist is kinda exactly that sorta tune. Referential sure (if mostly in a generic kinda way) but really just about a girl getting so scared they let ya get to second base maybe without putting up too much of a fuss. Now, how believable all of that is coming from the King of Pop, I’ll leave for you to decide
For now, I’ll spare you that mini-playlist and even some of the songs that might be on it, but I’ll rock a block of these fuckers cause, hey, that’s just the kinda ship we run around here. And off the bow of a course-correcting jam from Skyhooks seems like the perfect time.
We mentioned Dickie Goodman a while back, and he’s a pretty big wheel down at the Novelty Monster Song factory. Hell, the guy could even be considered the Grandfather of Sampling. See, Dickie made it big releasing what he called “Break-In Songs.”
Dickie would conduct an interview of sorts, with say, Frankenstein, and the responses would be in the form of samples from popular music at the time. They were a pretty big hit.
As clever and innovative as that was for the time, it doesn’t necessarily make for good playlist listening. Thankfully for us, Dickie cut some real songs too, and one of them just happens to be Referential Monster Song.
However, if you happen to be a Novelty Monster Song fanatic, you might think this tune sounds strikingly similar to the 1964 Jekyll and Hyde tune, My Baby Loves Monster Movies
And that because it’s basically the same song. It was even written and performed by Dickie as well. Outside of some differences of arrangement, and the line “Horror Movies” being changed to “Monster Movies,” it’s pretty much the same tune. Now, why he did this and released it under a different name is beyond me, but it certainly seems to be the case. His son Jon released a biography about him in 2000 called the King of Novelty. Maybe there’s an answer in there somewhere. I’ll keep you posted.
Dickie continued to make Break-In records for the better part of 30 years, covering contemporary events from the moon landing to The Watergate scandal and films like Frankenstein and Jaws. His break-ins even reached into the 80’s with songs like Hey E.T. and The Return of the Jedi Returns.
Unfortunately, at the age of 55, Dickie took his own life in the winter of 1989. Though he did live to see sampling utilized in the most unprecedented of ways (and was himself sued for using unlicensed material) he didn’t quite get to see just how ubiquitous sampling would become or just how much legal controversy it would stir.
What he left behind though was a legacy of innovation, parody and fun and a Monster Song so nice, he went and recorded it twice.
Here’s the man himself, The King of Novelty, lamenting that he can’t compete with those gnarly monsters his girl just goes crazy over in Horror Movies.
Oh yeah? Big Eric, huh? So, what’s this guy’s deal?
Well, let’s start with that name. “Big Eric “ appears to be a one-off pseudonym used by German artist Eric Billinghurst specifically for this track.
But Eric Billinghurst is better know throughout Germany as Bill Hurst, a standard issue AOR style rocker who produced 2 albums including the (apparently quite rare) 1982 release, Ice Cold Calculation. That fucker’s going for over 200 buck right now on Discogs. This is a shame because it contains a track called Horror that I’d love to investigate. Is it a different take on this song? Is it some other referential rock rarity? Who knows? Not us. Well, at least not yet anyway. That’s fuck off dollars from something I ain’t heard before. I’m hesitant to buy the Critters LPs that are goin for half that much, and the playlist needs a cleaner copy of that song pronto. But Ice Cold Calculation is in our sights, so we’ll keep you posted.
Until then, we can satisfy our Bill Hurst fix with Horror Ball, a peculiar Discoish tune that doubles as a fun play on words.
This one’s a bit silly, but that’s never been a problem around here, and it’s got a good groove, which is always a plus.
On top of that, it’s giving you what you need. All the Monsters you want getting shouted out to an infection disco beat.
And look at the cover to this thing! That’s just plain old fashion monster awesome.
So let’s get some horror going with Big Eric, shall we?
Now, there’s a ton of this kinda old timey Monster Rock ‘N Roll, but I don’t add it to the playlist that often. It’s monstery, sure, but something about it always feels a little off, like they could be singing about any old thing. There’s nothing distinctly spooky or festive about it most of the time.
There’s even a similar tune to tonight’s inclusion titled The Mummy’s Ball by The Verdicts that I removed from this block of balls for just that reason.
But Screaming Ball has a few things going for it that help it make the cut.
First and foremost, I dig this tune. It swings.
Secondly, from what I can tell, this is the very first pop song to actually reference Dracula. At least in the title, anyway.
Thirdly, it’s a pretty referential tune. In fact,The Duponts even have a similarly structured reference to Spike Jone’s Ball-Tune, only The Duponts make The Thing from Another World do The Stroll instead of a Mole Person. But both of them do reference the Thing.
And lastly, it’s from The Duponts, whom were also know as Little Anthony and the DuPonts, after the main vocalist, Anthony Gourdine.
But The Duponts weren’t the only crew associated with a Little Anthony, as Anthony Gourdine is also the Little Anthony of Little Anthony and The Imperials fame, best known from their hits like Tears on My Pillow and I Think I’m Going Out of My Head.
In 2009, Little Anthony and his Imperials were all inducted into the Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame, and any time you can add a Hall of Famer to the roster, you should probably just do it.
And dammit if I don’t just love idea of a future Hall of Famer his cuttin’ his teeth on some forgotten old novelty monster record. What’s cooler than that?
Well, it’s also a Mysterioso Pizzicato offender. How do you like that? Another one for the fire, boys.
So let’s all having a screamin’ ball over at Dracula hall. C’mon, it’s a horror party!
