When I saw this group of adorable Halloween Monsters, of course I thought of Monster Mash by Bobby “Boris” Pickett & the Crypt-Kickers!

Who hasn’t heard the famous novelty song Monster Mash?  No one that I know.  I have to tell the truth here, for me it just isn’t Halloween until I “jam” to Monster Mash.  Luckily, my 16 year old son humors me and “jams” along with me.

If you have never heard the song, or just want to hear it again, you can hear Monster Mash on YouTube.  Fans of Dick Clark and American Bandstand will enjoy this October 13, 1964 performance by Bobby “Boris” Pickett. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNuVifA7DSU

Well, I decided to do a bit of research into this much loved song, and found a wealth of information on https://www.songfacts.com/facts/bobby-boris-pickett-the-crypt-kickers/monster-mash

Apparently, two pals, a nightclub owner (Pickett) and a piano player (Lenny Capizzi) wrote “Monster Mash” in about two hours!  Cool, right?  Pickett did a mean Boris Karloff (of the Frankenstein movie fame) impersonation, and they wanted to tell the story of a monster starting a new dance craze… and the Monster Mash was born!

If you have listened to the song, you know there are some pretty cool sound effects… well, here’s what they did to achieve those cool effects, according to songfacts.com:

• The bubbling sounds, perhaps a cauldron or bubbling test tubes, were made by blowing air into a glass of water using a straw.
• The coffin lid opening squeak was achieved using a claw hammer to pull an old nail out of a block of wood.
• The sounds of chains rattling?  Well, of course, they simply dropped chains on the plywood covered floor in the recording studio.

If you can’t get enough of Bobby “Boris” Pickett, then you should check out the album!  The Original Monster Mash and included songs like “Blood Bank Blues,” “Graveyard Shift,” “Transylvania Twist,” “Me And My Mummy” and “Irresistible Igor.”