TRACK #91:
Dead Man’s Party by Oingo Boingo
Well, it wouldn’t be much of a dead man’s party without Dead Man’s Party, now would it?
A classic and obligatory party playlist inclusion, no Halloween would be complete without at least one go-round to Oingo Boingo’s certified horrified hit.
No frills, no samples, no nothing. Just Dead Man’s Party.
Enjoy!
TRACK #90:
Anything Can Happen On Halloween by Tim Curry
If you thought you’d only get Tim Curry singing as Dr. Frank-N-Furter here on the Shindig, then boy are you in for a treat.
From the 1986 shot-on-video oddity The Worst Witch comes this ridiculous tune about Halloween itself, sung by Grand Wizard (did they seriously call him Grand Wizard?) Tim Curry to Mrs. Cackle’s Academy for Witches.
Anything Can Happen On Halloween reassures us that anything can happen on Halloween, like a dog turning into a cat, or a toad appearing in your bass guitar. You know, crazy shit. Demonic shit.
A YouTube viewing of this drug-induced mass hallucination is definitely advised. Here it is if you’re feelin’ lazy.
Crazy gif-blast to follow. They’re good ones too.
TRACK #89:
The Gonk by Herbert Chappell
Is there any song that says “zombie” quite like Herbert Chappell’s strange tromboner The Gonk? Ok, maybe Thriller, but you know what I mean.
George A. Romero’s bizarre choice for musical zombie accompaniment has gone on to exemplify human stupidity, mass consumerism and well, the two combined together in the form of zombification.
More recently, the song got a well heard revamp from Robot Chicken’s clucking outro, further stapling this catchy tune onto the brains of pop culture.
Rounding out the 80’s and wrapping up our little zombie interlude, it’s The Gonk, on KZMB, all-zombie radio!
TRACK #88:
Night of the Living Dead by The Misfits
Ah, Night of the Living Dead. A true classic by any definition. Romero’s Dead opener redefined horror, the zombie, claustrophobia and human villainy. And everyone’s been apin’ it since.
At the impressionable age of 12, it began a love affair with horror films that only gets stronger every year. It was the first one to really knock me on my ass:
“Holy shit?! Movies can end like that?!”
I shout to no one, in my Massachusetts bedroom late one Halloween night.
I respond 20 years later through a Halloween blog,
“They sure can kid, but most of em won’t, so don’t get too comfortable.”
It’s a film I love, no asterisk.
However, when it comes to a Halloween playlist, there ain’t much there to spin for your guest. No worries cause The Misfits have us all covered.
This ain’t no love-in, this ain’t no happenin’, it’s a goddamn Halloween party, so stumble in somnambulance!
They’re coming to get you, Barbara…
TRACK #87
I Walked With A Zombie by Roky Erickson & The Aliens
Roky Erickson’s a pretty far-out cat. So literally far-out in fact, that he once claimed he was an alien.
He was also admitted to a psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane where he underwent shock treatments, but that’s neither here nor there. Though the latter did occur before the former, I don’t mean to suggest that this clearly means he’s not actually an alien. Just saying…that happened too. It’s all pretty far out.
Originally the front man for psychedelia pioneers The 13th Floor Elevators, Roky embarked on a solo career after being released from the hospital in ‘74. What resulted was an altogether different experience in the form of Roky Erickson & the Alien’s The Evil One.
The Evil One is a pretty great album featuring all kinds of groovy monster tunes that could easily find a home on the Shindig. Particularly, I Walked With A Zombie, which has been a standing member of the playlist for some time.
There’s not much to it, honestly. It’s just the title, repeated over and over again, with the addition of the words “last night” attached to every 3rd go ‘round.
However, I like this song. Its got a cool and catchy, almost 50’s sound to it that I can’t help but sing along to. Maybe you’ll find yourself doing the same.
Included are some samples from the songs namesake, 1943’s I Walked With A Zombie. Here’s Roky & The Aliens kicking off a little zombie block here on the Shindig!
TRACK #86:
It’s Only Halloween by Butch Patrick
Show business can be a bitch. One day you’re a hit, the next day you can’t find work as extra in a retirement home theater production of Our Town. What’s an actor to do?
Well, it’s even worse if you’re a child star. Not every Richie Cunningham can turn lemons into Backdrafts.
So, what’s Butch Patrick left with? Well, when your 1983 hit Whatever Happened to Eddie fails to make enough waves to buoy your career, I guess you take another stab at referentially cashing in on your former success.
In 2007, Butch cut the seasonal track It’s Only Halloween, where he does his best Shanter impersonation over a requisite Halloween beat.
Say what you want about this song, but I like it and given it’s a Halloween song recorded by Butch Fucking Patrick, I can’t think of a more fitting place for it than right here, with every other spooky, bizarre and otherwise unwise track on Halloween Shindig!
TRACK #85:
Whatever Happened To Eddie by Eddie and The Monsters
Bob Mosher wasn’t the only one to throw some lyrics over Jack Marshall’s iconic theme.
In 1983, Butch Patrick, struggling to find his place as a child star in a Munster-less world, created the new wave band Eddie and The Monsters, and released this track featuring that recognizable theme to which he used to swing a giant bat.
The song finds Patrick, with his tongue planted somewhere around his cheek I suppose, poking fun at his flailing career and famous turn as TV’s favorite Wolfboy.
It’s certainly not the greatest track, but it’s kinda fun, with an uptempo enough beat. Definite Shindig material. It’s also fairly short too. So if you’re finding it difficult to endure, don’t worry, it’ll all be over soon.
However, if that’s the case, I might suggest avoiding TRACK #86. Cause if you think it can’t get any worse that this, you’re wrong.
TRACK #84:
The Munsters Theme (with lyrics) by Jack Marshall & Bob Mosher
Everybody loves The Munsters’ foot stompin’ surfy theme, but Jack Marshall’s tune actually had some lyrics to go with it.
Written by the show’s producer Bob Mosher, this version of the theme was never featured on the show.
However, thanks to the album At Home With the Munsters, fans are given a chance to hear this more typical sounding theme.
It may be a little slower, and definitely not better, but it does feature some clever lyrics and even a nod to our hallowed holiday. Shindig approved!
I led the track it with a clip from The Munsters’ Revenge, a TV movie produced in 1981 which actually takes place around Halloween, and features The Munsters at 2 different Halloween parities. Finally.
Because, every evening is Halloween, at The Munsters!
TRACK #83:
The Munsters’ Theme by Jack Marshall
Speaking of iconic, it’s high time we talked about the most iconic family in all of horror-dom, The Munsters.
Though only lasting 2 seasons, Herman, Lily, Grandpa, Eddie and Marylin Munster have lingered on, long past their short stint on the airwaves to become some of horrors most beloved characters.
With such talented actors as Yvonne DeCarlo, Al Lewis and Fred Gwynne hamming it up in such great costumes and make-up, it’s not hard to understand why the show has remained so wonderful to watch and still manages to capture new generations of viewers.
So loved are The Munsters, they’ve been revisited and recast more times than just about anything in the genre, with 5 separate actors playing Herman, Grandpa and Lily, and 7 stepping into the role of Eddie. Marilyn still has the most though, at 9, including 2 actresses (Beverly Owen and Pat Priest) during the show’s initial run. That’s pretty crazy.
However for fans, these revisits have run the gamut from quaint and acceptable (1981’s The Munster’s Revenge) to somewhat watchable (1995’s Here Come The Munsters) to the flat-out cringe inducing (the ill-advised, ill-conceived and ill-received The Munsters Today.) The latter, a rebooted, sequel-series that aired from 1988 to 199, somehow managed to stay on the air an entire season longer than the original show, though only producing roughly the same number of episodes.
While each installment has something of merit (The Munster’s Today does feature a rather good turn from Howard Morton as Grandpa) nothing quite matched or lived up to the series. Even 1966’s Munster, Go Home! (the closest to actually feeling like the show) is hampered by the decisions to film in color, recast Marilyn and lose the laugh track.
All that said, perhaps the most iconic aspect of the show is its oft played, oft covered and oft imitated theme song composed by Jack Marshall. If you’ve ever seen the un-aired (and colorized!) pilot for the show, you know just how instrumental Jack’s theme really was.
Instantly recognizable, it’s one of the great television themes of all-time, and just about every rehash (including Munster, Go Home!) has either failed to include it, or used some seriously bastardized version (The Munsters Today) that feels egregious.
Though they were changed a bit between seasons 1 and 2, I’m not quite sure which I honestly prefer most. I’ve included the season 2 theme on the Shindig because I believe it’s the one most often referred to, covered and imitated. Also, The Los Straitjackets’ version appears later in playlist, and that definitely has a distinctly Season 1 sound.
So, let’s spend some time on the Shindig with America’s First Family of Fright, The Munster.
TRACK #82:
The Black Widow by Alice Cooper
Vincent Price is awesome. I’m not really sure how else to put it. I could use words like “extraordinary,” or “singular,” or even “eminent,” but they all just sound like “awesome” to me.
Another, even more appropriate word, might be “iconic.” Having starred in over 40 genre pictures, Mr. Price, though not exclusive to horror (having appeared in almost 200 film and television productions) has left his indelible mark on the world of the macabre.
Simply anchoring some of my all-time favorite horror films, including The House on Haunted Hill, The Masque of the Red Death, and The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Vincent Price already equals horror. And that’s not even mentioning The Tingler, The Raven, Last Man on Earth, House of Wax, A Comedy of Terrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, Twice Told Tales, Witchfinder General orThe Fly. 
You get the idea.
Even outside the sphere of horror, Price still owns my loyalty, adding his distinctive flare to Egghead, one of my favorite villains from one of my favorite TV shows ever, the old Batman series.
Again, that’s not even to speak of his radio work, The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo, his Sears-Roebuck sponsored Fine Art Collection, The Great Mouse Detective, Laura, Dead Heat, Edward Scissorhands, and this absolutely insane album of him talking about witchcraft and the demons. I’ll type that again just in case your breezed passed it: Vincent Price recorded a 90 minute spoken word album all about witchcraft and it’s fucking incredible.
His credits even include a stint on Hollywood Squares. Seriously?
Seriously.
So iconic is Vincent that he appears on the Shindig at least 3 times without any intervention from my sampling hand. You wanna spook up a track, you tapped Vincent for that little extra something sinister. Never a bad decision.
The first example of this is from none other than Alice Cooper, no stranger to the sinister himself. Price leads in Track 82, The Black Widow from Cooper’s 1975 album Welcome to My Nightmare.
As if that wasn’t enough, Price also starred in the corresponding television special which followed the album entitled Alice Cooper: The Nightmare, where he reprises this monologue, in perfect Price fashion, almost identically.
Vincent Price may have passed, but among horror fans he will live on forever, ritualistically resurrected with each push of the play button. And as for the Shindig, his extraordinarily singular and eminent voice can be heard all over it.
