Tune Tuesday – The Monster Mash

It was on this day in 1962 that The Monster Mash hit #1 on the charts! It’s one that still gets airplay today.

From songfacts.com:

The most famous Halloween song of all time, “Monster Mash” was concocted for that holiday in 1962 by Bobby Pickett, a nightclub entertainer who performed with a group called The Cordials. He wrote the song with Lenny Capizzi, the group’s leader. They were both big horror movie fans, and Pickett would do an impression of the actor Boris Karloff (known for playing the monster in many Frankenstein movies) during the speaking part of the Diamonds “Little Darlin” that went over well in their act.

As Capizzi played the piano, he and Pickett put together “Monster Mash” with Pickett doing his Karloff impression on the vocals. They came up with the plot about Frankenstein’s monster starting a dance craze. It’s not very spooky, but it’s fun, easy to sing, and danceable, giving the song a timeless appeal. It was a #1 hit over Halloween 1962 and is resurrected every year around that time.

Pickett and Lenny Capizzi wrote this song in about two hours. They recorded a demo to tape and brought it to Gary Paxton, lead singer of The Hollywood Argyles (famous for “Alley Oop”). They recorded the song with Paxton and studio musicians Leon Russell, Johnny McCrae and Rickie Page, who were credited as “The Cryptkickers.” Paxton, who is credited as the song’s producer, also added the sound effects.

Paxton put the song out on his Garpax label and distributed it to radio stations around southern California. Response was overwhelming, as the stations saw their phone banks lighting up with requests for the song. A deal was struck with London Records, who distributed the song worldwide.

The rest, as they say, is history.