The song was released as a single on Gary S. Paxton’s Garpax Records label in August 1962. The single was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on October 20–27 of that year. In 1974, Buck Buck re-invented the song with the title “Monsters’ Holiday” and released it as a Christmas-themed follow-up.
About Monster Mash in brief
“Monster Mash” is a 1962 novelty song by Bobby Pickett. The song was released as a single on Gary S. Paxton’s Garpax Records label in August 1962. The single was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on October 20–27 of that year, just before Halloween. Pickett was an aspiring actor who sang with a band called the Cordials at night, while going to auditions during the day. In addition to narrating the song in the Karloff voice, Pickett also impersonated fellow horror film actor Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula with the line, \”Whatever happened to my Transylvania Twist?\”, and character actor Peter Lorre as Igor. The producers made extensive use of sound effects in the recording; the sound of a coffin opening was imitated by a rusty nail being pulled out of a board. In 1974, Buck Buck re-invented the song with the title “Monsters’ Holiday” and released it as a Christmas-themed follow-up, peaking at number 30 in December 1962. It was re-released several times and appeared on the U.S. Billboard charts on two occasions after the original release: August 1970 and May 1973. The BBC had banned the record from airplay in 1962 on the grounds that the song was \”too morbid\”.
In the United Kingdom in 1973, it peaked at number three in early October. In November 2008, the song re-entered the British charts again on November 2, 2008 at number six, giving it the title ‘It’s a Holiday’ That song was penned by renowned novelty composer Paul Harrison and was released in 1974 as a novelty tune. It has not charted on the Hot 100 since then. The 1970 reissue on the Parrot label was certified as a Gold record on August 28, 1973. To celebrate the 1973 release, Bobby and the Crypt-Kickers toured around the St. Louis area around the Halloween holiday. On this tour, the Cryptickers were composed of Brian Ray, Brian Ray,. drummer Brian Englund, keyboardist Don Chambers, singer Jean Chambers, and others. The song is a variation on the Mashed Potato, in which the footwork was the same but Frankenstein-style monster gestures were made with the arms and hands. The mad scientist throws a party for other monsters, among them classic 1940s horror film icons such as the Wolfman, Igor, Count Dracula and his son. The story closes with the mad scientist inviting \”you, the living\” to the party at his castle.
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This page is based on the article Monster Mash published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 09, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
