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Audio

Werewolf (Loose In London)

TRACK #359:

 

Werewolf (Loose In London) by Meco

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’s Werewolf (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, Meco then 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 Clearwater Revival 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’s Moondancer, 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.

And pretty fuckin’ unique.

 

 

Audio

Monster Movies

TRACK #336:

Monster Movies by Clif and Marty

Speaking of Jack and Jim, here’s another duo knockin’ out some more old time Monster Roll for ya.

Clifton Nivison and Martin Fulterman (the Clif and Marty here, respectively) were both former members of The New York Rock and Roll Ensemble. As it happens, they’re also former members of Former Members of The New York Rock Ensemble, but that’s a separate and confusing matter involving Opal Records selling a bunch of their music without Clif or Marty’s knowledge.

The Rock Ensemble were a group of Juilliard music students who decided to bust out some Rock ‘N Roll using conventional orchestral instruments. A novel concept at the time, to be sure.

After releasing 5 albums over the course of 6 years, The Rock Ensemble parted ways. Seems Clif and Marty were disillusioned with the Ensemble’s lack of commercial success, and signed with Specter Records/Opal Productions in order to make some career headway.

At Opal, Clif and Marty acted as a kind of utility duo, recording demos, writing music for other acts and releasing tunes under various pseudonyms.

And their single, Monster Movies, appears to have been just that kind of assignment.

Now, why Opal Records would assign these 2 guys some novelty Monster song in 1972 is anyone’s guess. What was the temperature on Monster Songs in ‘72? Hell, I couldn’t tell ya, cause the only other Track on Halloween Shindig from 1972 is Edgar Winter’s Frankenstein, and that’s definitely not a novelty monster song. In fact, ‘66 through ‘73 is a pretty barren wasteland for that kinda stuff, at least as far as this playlist is concerned anyway.

Now, that’s not to say the public wasn’t hungry for Monster Songs in ‘72, it just means there aren’t any that I’ve found or found and enjoyed enough to add to a 300+ rooster of songs which pretty much meet that exact specification. Just saying.

Regardless of how the 45-buying folks of 1972 felt, this is a fun and referential jam which goes so far as to specifically declare its love, not just for Godzilla, but directly to him, as though he might be out there somewhere in the South Pacific listening. Now, I gotta give that kinda thing just a little bit of love myself.

Outside of The Ensemble, and this particular single, I can’t suss out much about our boy Clifton, but Martin Fulterman is a bit of a different story.

See, Martin apparently changed his name to Mark Snow and went on to compose music for an almost absurd amount of Films, TV movies and shows. The most notable of his creations, no doubt, has got to be the famous X-Files Theme.  For real? Ole Monster Movie Marty? Pretty snazzy lineage attached to a 40 year old novelty song.

Other Mark Snow projects of note (to me anyway) include Ernest Saves Christmas, Dolly Dearest, Project ALF, Skateboard, TJ Hooker and even Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. And let me tell you, that’s cutting the list real short.

Mark Snow has composed, written songs for or worked on the music department of more shit than you’d believe. Over 350 different credits, including some ridiculous sounding TV movie called Ghosts Can’t Do It, which sounds like some PG-rated Lifetime version of Hellraiser that somehow features our 45th President himself, Mr. Donald Trump.

I’ll just leave you with that as we drop the needle on Clif and Marty’s lone 45, Monster Movies.

We love you Godzilla!

 

Audio

Midnight Monsters Hop

TRACK #334:

Midnight Monster Hop by Jack and Jim

We said we’re diggin’ deep and clearing out the bullpen in 2023, so here’s a Halloween compilation staple that’s been kicking around for longer than I can remember.

I’m glad I waited though, since last year’s Halloween Ends turned this Referential Monster dinger into a full blown Inclusive jam.

And much like Pete Antell’s It’s Halloween, Jack and Jim’s classic Midnight Monsters Hop is the best thing going for Halloween Ends and it’s literally the first minute and a half of the film.

Seriously, you can stop watching after this song ends. In fact, you could just listen to this, which features the opening dialogue with the entire tune, and probably have a more satisfying time than wading through that fan-fic grade afterthought jerk-off session they tried to pass off as the ultimate bookend to a legendary 40-year-old Horror saga. Hell, H20 is a more satisfying conclusion to the whole affair than that turd.

But I digress, cause we got this song. A bonafide Halloween jammer from 1959. Yep, you read that right. 3 years before Boris Pickett unveiled his own swinging Monster Party, Jack and Jim were laying the groundwork for monster get-togethers everywhere.

However, Bert Convy still has ‘em all beat, and no doubt provided inspiration to both, with his 1958 cut simply titled The Monsters Hop.

Credit where it’s due though, cause I think Jack and Jim here are serving up probably the swingingest tune of the bunch. It’s used to great effect in Halloween Ends too, actually tricking you into thinking you’re about to watch something cool. No such luck.

We’ve led it in, of course, with hometown hero Willy the Kid on WURG The Urge… Haddonfield’s home for rock!

You gotta love it when a horror movie gives you some solid DJ action, and Willy gets it good to The Cramp’s I Was a Teenage Werewolf. At least, I guess he gets it good. As good as that turkey is giving anyway. Unfortunately, he’s a little underutilized in the story and his death scene feels like it’s ripped from some other movie. Some movie you might rather be watching.

At least compared to the one you’ve been watching. I’m not sure the movie on display at WURG is worth watching either, but at least Michael’s not getting slapped around in a cave by some dildo who been getting bullied by a bunch of high school band dorks. A shame really, what they did to Michael.

And not just in Halloween Ends either (though perhaps the most undignified) but the whole damn lot of it, all the way down the line. From making him Laurie’s brother, to bringing him back from complete incineration, to positing him as some sort of Druid-curse vessel, to making his mask CG, to letting Busta Rhymes karate kick him out a window on a reality show, to making him some generic bullying victim with a white trash stripper mom.

It’s unfortunate that Michael couldn’t have been left to just wander off into the Halloween night, never to be seen again. Now there’s a reconned remakequel I could get behind.

Oh well, at least we got the 1st minute or so of Halloween Ends, featuring this classic monster tune from a duo who, like I so wish I could say for Michael Myers, we never heard from again.

 

 

Audio

Monster Christmas Mash (1974)

So, here’s a slice of bizarro-70’s-monster-weirdness I wish I knew existed back in 2018 when we did our Christmas episode of Shindig Radio. It’s the exact sort of thing I was trying to include.

Thankfully, it’s here now,  so let’s talk about it.

Back in 1974, it would appear as though someone just casually listening to Boris Pickett’s Monster’s Holiday and thought it would be a great idea for an entire novelty concept album.

And they were right, cause this thing is awesome.

Now, it’s not exactly the same as Monster’s Holiday because the monsters don’t rob Santa, as they plan to do in Boris’ song. What’s happening here is that Frankenstein’s Monster is sick and dying. Ok, off to a weird start. But then, just going right along with the weirdness, he laments that he’s never been invited to a Christmas party.  So, as some kinda Make-A-Wish Foundation move, the Association of Monsters decide to throw him a Christmas Party.

It’s a bizarre concept, no doubt, but it features a couple of fun new monsters tunes, a few classic Christmas carol renditions and some fantastic voice acting.

So, if you’re feeling like your Christmas is lacking a little Monster action, fire this thing up, because it’s one monstrously jolly listen.

 

Audio

(It’s A) Monsters’ Holiday

TRACK #245:

(It’s A) Monsters’ Holiday by Buck Owens and The Buckaroos

On Oct. 30th 1973, Hee-Haw co-host and future Country Hall of Fame inductee Buck Owens entered his Bakersfield California studio with his Buckaroos to record this shit-kickin’ country creep-out.

Released the following summer, just ahead of Halloween 1974, (It’s A) Monsters’ Holiday reached #6 on the Billboard Country Charts. Not bad for a silly monster song.

And boy howdy, is this one silly.

Rattling off all kinds of monsters – Frankenstein, The Wolfman, Dracula, The Hunchback, Gremlins, Goblins, Mummies and Zombies – Buck Owens gives shout outs all around in this goofy and upbeat tune.

Now, why all of these Monsters inexplicably appearing in Buck’s bedroom constitutes a “holiday” I couldn’t well say. To me, it just sounds like more work.

Cause for Monsters, scaring people is their job, right? At least, you could say it’s not below their pay-grade. So, if they’re just doing their job, than it sounds like they’re at work. Not much of  a holiday, just doing what you do for a living.

Now, if they were hanging out by the pool, hittin’ the slopes, or yuckin it up down at the local Monster VFW, I could see considering this a nice little reprieve from their everyday responsibilities; a true holiday.

As it stands, this doesn’t sound like much of a vacation to me. But it does sound like one down home, country-fried Shindiggin’ Halloween hoedown if I’ve ever heard one.

Atta boy, Buck!