Monster Mash by Bobby "Boris" Pickett & the Crypt-Kickers
Monster Mash by Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett & the Crypt-Kickers topped the pop charts in 1962 at # 1. This record is the most successful novelty song of all time. Bobby Pickett accomplished the rare feat of reaching the top 100 music chart three times with the same song. The Halloween hit entered the charts in 1962, 1970 and 1973.
Massachusetts singer Bobby “Boris” Pickett wrote Monster Mash in 1962 to spoof dance crazes such as The Twist and The Mashed Potato that were prevalent at the time. ... With lyrics like "it was a graveyard smash", the BBC failed to see the funny side and banned the song for being "too morbid.”
The lyrics are based on the classic story of Frankenstein, which started as an 1818 novel by Mary Shelley and evolved into various film adaptations. In the story, Dr. Frankenstein creates a creature who comes to life, but what he created is a monster. The book is sober tale of regret and unexpected consequences, but the story is often played for comedy. In this song, the monster throws a big dance party, which is enthusiastically attended by many other creatures of lore (Dracula, Wolfman).
Pickett is imitating Boris Karloff, but is narrating the story as Dr. Frankenstein, not the monster that Karloff famously portrayed. He (Pickett) was an aspiring actor who sang with a band called the Cordials at night, while going to auditions during the day. One night, while performing with his band, the crowd seemed to be restless and started thinning out. Pickett tried not to panic as the crowd was sort of dispersing, but he thought fast and began remembering a horror flick he’d seen recently.
So he started doing impressions of the monster’s voices for the audience to keep them from leaving. It turned into a monologue in imitation of horror movie actor Boris Karloff while performing the song Little Darlin’ by The Diamonds. The audience ended up going absolutely nuts for these little gnarly voices. As a result, fellow band member Lenny Capizzi encouraged Pickett to do more with the Karloff imitation. Thus was born the Monster Mash.
Pickett and Capizzi collaborated to compose the song and recorded it with Gary S. Paxton, pianist Leon Russell, Johnny MacRae, Rickie Page, and Terry Berg, credited as The Crypt-Kickers. Also credited on the record was Mel Taylor, the drummer for The Ventures.
The Monster Mash single was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on October 20–27 of 1962 just before Halloween. It has been an annual Halloween favorite ever since.
If you are fond of meaningless trivia, consider a few details of how the special sound effects were made in low tech 1962:
The coffin being opened was made by pulling a rusty nail out of a lump of wood with the claw of a hammer.
The bubbling sounds came from blowing through a straw in a glass of water.
The sound of the chains was made by dropping chains onto plywood planks on the record studio floor.
Meant as a monster spoof of the pop dance crazes back in the day, it’s now a Halloween tradition. It will make you want to move your feet. Or make you want to run, I’m not sure.
Below you can find some goofy Monster Mash videos (various versions for the easily entertained - like me).
Halloween Classics Playlist on Spotify
Monster Mash Official Video:
Monster Mash - Bobby “Boris” Pickett, performing the song on Dick Clark’s TV Show:
A Monster Mash/ Halloween Special featuring The Addams Family, The Munsters, and the Michael Jackson Thriller dancers,plus others, dancing to the Monster Mash:
In case you haven’t seen everything yet...
Just for fun, here are some singing Pumpkins doing the Monster Mash:
(But are they lip syncing or really singing? Hmmm... a Halloween mystery...) 🎃
