Frank-Tin-Stein presents... Halloween 2023, Part 1!

 

Three years after christening this cookie tin "Frank-Tin-Stein," I'm realizing, more than ever, what desperate word play that was.  But desperate word play is a sacred (or profane?) Halloween tradition.  And, at least in theory, the worse the pun, the better.  Not sure that works in this case, but Frank-Tin-Stein it is.  I built that crypt, so I'll have to live in it.  (Er, maybe "live" is not the right word.)

So, awful puns by the gravesite, let's proceed with the in-augggh-ural "I Decided at the Last Minute, With workupload Having Disposed of Most of My Rips, to Resurrect My Favorite Halloween Novelties, Plus Some 'New' Stuff" post, which I've shortened to "Halloween 2023, Part 1."

The moldies include David Rose's terrific Satan and the Polar Bear (1957), Mantovani's outstanding 1956 rendition of Morton Gould's 1938 Deserted Ballroom, Lawrence Welk's 1965 recording of Theme From the Addams Family (very snappy), and... Does it give me gruesome gratification to present Halloween classics by three "MOR" conductors?  I can't lie.  Well, actually, I can.  Who among us has always told the truth?

And, the Monotone's zany Zombi from 1958, plus Beatrice Kay's 1947 classic, Hooray, Horray, I'm Goin' Away, which must have been heard by a young Jerry Samuels (aka Napoleon XIV).

Then, a "new" offering from 1963, which was superbly imaginatively titled: Halloween, it's called.  On both sides, no less.  And no "Part 1" and "Part 2," even, though the A side is credited to the Friendly Ghosts (did the Casper people know about this?) and the B side blamed on the Lively Ghouls.  If only these two guys had put as much thought into the main title.  Anyway, these two sides (which I spliced together) are certainly cryptic--to the point of inspiring the listener to wonder what the point was (or, indeed, if the two culprits had a ghost of a point).  Bells sounding, a lot of moaning, and much screaming, then more screaming, and, to top it off... even more screaming/howling/screeching.  Enough inspiration for, say, 30 seconds, but they managed to push it past nine minutes.  The only thing crazier than someone listening to the entire combined track has to be the hour or better which I devoted to getting the sound (almost) up to par.  All the while, I asked myself, "Why am I doing this?"  I don't recall reaching an answer.

Really, Halloween isn't so much a poverty row Halloween sound effects disc as an obsessive study in reverb/echo.  "Wow, we can make stuff sound weird if we crank this knob to ten"--Friendly Ghosts, aka Lively Ghouls.  The effect isn't so much like two guys providing dungeon-style sound effects, plus short snippets from other recordings, but more like two guys thinking these things.  With their thoughts somehow captured on magnetic tape.  We just may be listening to a bold paranormal experiment.  I can picture Bellaire Records after listening to these sides: "You were supposed to provide us with a record."  "We did."  "Oh, okay.  If you say so.  I guess we'll, um, put this out."

Halloween makes Revolution 9 sound like a Top 40 ditty.  Anyway, feel free to use it for Halloween spook audio.  It'll have your guests asking, "Is that your plumbing, or...?"

Frank-Tin-Stein wants to know why he's always referred to by his creator's surname.  I dunno.  Because it's a by now ancient pop culture tradition.  And, really, thinking bout it, Frank-Tin-Stein isn't quite as awful as Frank N. Stein or Frank and Stein.  At least it breaks new ground.  Speaking of cemeteries, I have grave-loads more ripped and almost ready to go, but will I make the DEADline?  I'd better, or I'll suffer eternal darn-nation.  (Countless repeat-plays of Halloween.)

As the angry villagers said to the Frankenstein monster, "You've been warmed!"  Stay tombed to this charnel.

DOWNLOAD: Frank-Tin-Stein Presents...

Satan and the Polar Bear--David Rose and His Orchestra, 1957 (from the MGM LP, "Hi Fiddles")

The Deserted Ballroom--Mantovani and His Orchestra, 1956 (from the London LP, "Musical Modes")

Zombi--The Monotones, 1957 (Argo 5301)

Saturday Evening Ghost--Frankie Stein and His Ghouls (from the Peter Pan EP, "Monster Mash")

Hooray, Hooray, I'm Goin' Away--Beatrice Kay With Mitchell Ayres Orch., 1947.

Halloween--The Friendly Ghost/Lively Ghouls, 1963.

Lee

Halloween 2016 is back!!!

Greetings!  It's almost Halloween, and I've been too ill to post any scary stuff for the holiday (unless you find barbershop frightening), but... looks like my 2016 posts are still up and running!  I really went to town last year--I'd forgotten how much.  I must have felt a heck of a lot better than I have this year.

So, here are the 2016 post links.  Ignore the Box.com message about the preview not loading--just hit the download button.  All is fine--I've test-downloaded all of these successfully.

And there's the fact I have very few "new" Halloween tracks on hand, so I'd just be recycling this year, anyway.  Halloween isn't like Christmas.  If it were, there'd be thousands more Halloween records!  Even as liberal as I am with my definition of a "Halloween track" (I've tossed in flying saucers, Little Nell, and even dinosaurs one year), the things just get harder to unearth.

http://musicyouwont.blogspot.com/2016/10/happy-halloween.html

http://musicyouwont.blogspot.com/2016/10/males-from-crypt-present-halloween.html

http://musicyouwont.blogspot.com/2014/09/halloween-in-space-suite-lee-hartsfeld.html

http://musicyouwont.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-frankenstein-brothers-present.html

http://musicyouwont.blogspot.com/2016/10/voo-doo-magic-1952-jimmy-cook-and-orch.html

http://musicyouwont.blogspot.com/2016/10/halloween-part-3-buwa-ha-haaaaa.html

And... a fun post from 2014 featuring 1964 Sunset House catalog ads.  I wonder if anyone is still selling the "Spook Hand" that sticks out of the toilet seat?  (Not making this up....)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!



Lee

Shivery shellac for Halloween at MY(P)WHAE! (1909-1954), Part One

 

Above: Your hosts for "Shivery Shellac"--two Frankies and a demonic-looking pumpkin head, with the first Frankie's brains evidently not yet in place (yuck!).  I didn't notice that until I snapped the shot.  The first Frankie must have posed for the tumbler before he was fully assembled.

"What's the pink lid on your monster cup?"  "Oh, those are his brains."  "Gross."

I was going to bow out of Halloween posting this year, seeing as how I have little to no new material (Halloween sides are much harder to come by than Xmas stuff), but a couple days ago I was listening to last year's "Haunted Victrola" posts, and I wasn't happy with the rips.  For some reason, over the past few years I had taken to eliminating the low end (such as it is) on my acoustical 78 rips, and that naturally leaves things sounding tinny (which is fine if you want a gramophone-type sound, but...).  This present series of rips is hopefully much better, with more bodies.  Er, I mean, with more body.  To the sound, that is.  More body, more gloom.  I mean, boom.  Plus, I think my rips--of big band-era tracks, especially--have better-chosen response curves, my having had (by now) a few years or more practicing with my VinylStudio.  My VS program has a good number of preset curves, but I find myself doing a lot of modifying (and even working from scratch, at times--no pun intended).  It's gotten easier over the many months.

Tomb--er, tomorrow, I hope to have another group of Halloween 78s ripped'n'ready, because no group of revised October 31st rips are complete without The Ghost of the Violin or Spooky Spooks (if I'm able to clear the way to my crate of 12-inchers).  And, ironically, one 78 that seems to be hiding out on me: The Sneak.  I guess it takes its title seriously.

Of the twenty-two tracks in our slaylist, some titles are full-Halloween: Greenwich Witch (two versions, including Zez Confrey's own outstanding piano solo), Witches' Dance, The Hoodoo Man, The Merry Ghost from Chatham Square, for example.  Other titles suggest Halloween, even if they're not full-Halloween:  I refer to The Vamp, Which Hazel, Love Him So Much (I Could Scream), and a few more.  And there are yet others which might be called a session on the rack--a stretch, in other words.  These include Murder, Animal Fair (great, surreal sound effects), Danger, and Magic Eyes.  To this blogger, these are all Halloween titles, even if not, in every instance, full-Halloween.  And I believe I made up that term, though I haven't Googled it to be sure.  "Full-Halloween" doesn't have the sound of a commonly used phrase.  "Shall we go full-Halloween this year?"  I don't think people say that when discussing costumes or decorations.  But, then, I don't know.

All ripped and restored by me from 78s in my collection.  Not ripped in the 1970s/1980s gore-movie sense, of course.  Speaking of which, I have one of those 50-movies-on-twelve-DVD sets which includes 1981's The House by the Cemetery, an Italian flick set in the U.S. which is very creatively done and well photographed but 1) pointlessly gory, 2) badly and/or incoherently plotted, 3) on top of all that, choppily edited, 4) poorly dubbed, and 5) pretty stupid, however genuinely spooky some of the scenes.  There are movie fans who love that type of disconnected and illogical Italian horror, and (at least on line) they treat it like great art, but I'll take Ed Wood, Jr. and Larry Buchanan.  And I won't even pretend their stuff has any artistic significance.  But, back to topic--enjoy today's shivery shellac!  Have a boo-delicious time!  Stay tombed for (possibly) more shivery shellac.

DOWNLOAD: Shivery Shellac, Part 1 (1909-1954)

Murder--Plantation Jazz Orch, V: Unknown, 1920
Greenwich Witch (Confrey)--Frank Westphal and His Orch., 1922
Animal Fair--Carl Fenton's Orch., V: Billy Jones, Ernest Hare, 1924
Witches' Dance (Hexentanz)--Leopold Godowsky, 1921-1922
Eccentric Rag (J. Russell Robinson)--Oriole Orchestra, 1924
Jabberwocky--Joseph Samuels' Jazz Band, 1921
Dance of the Demon (Eduard Holst)--Victor Arden-Phil Ohman, 1922
Greenwich Witch (Confrey)--Zez Confrey, Piano Solo (1922)
Chopin's Funeral March--Prince's Band, 1909
Vamping Rose (Violinsky-Schuster)--All Star Trio and Their Orch., 1921
Which Hazel--Al Herman, 1921
The Hoodoo Man (Arr: Grofe)--Paul Whiteman and His Orch., 1924
Danger--Isham Jones Orchestra, 1925
The Vamp--Joseph C. Smith's Orch., V: Harry Macdonough, Billy Murray
Magic Eyes--Oriole Orchestra, 1923
The Merry Ghost From Chatham Square--Henri Rene Musette Orch. With Vocal, 1943
It's Witchery--Charlie Spivak and His Orch., V: Tommy Mercer, 1947
Inner Sanctum--Charlie Spivak and His Orch., V: Irene Daye, 1948
The Thing (Grean)--The Sundowners Band, 1951
The Haunted Ballroom (Geoffrey Toye)--The Kingsway Symphony Orch., c. by Camarata
Love Him So Much (I Could Scream)--Peggy Lloyd With Nick and His Gang, 1954
The Thing (Grean)--Cliff Holland With the Les Morgan Orch. (c. 1951)

Lee

Rosie commands you to hear "Christmas at Halloween" (Lee Hartsfeld, 2008)

Today, my 2008 Christmas at Halloween suite.  Above is the original art I Photoshopped for it, with a young Rosie (right) looking highly Rosie.

This suite has been getting around cyberspace (without my input!), showing up, for example, here: Radio Relaxo Requests: C   (See under, "CAH" and "Christmas at Halloween.") No composer credit, I notice.  I'm not sure what "Radio Relaxo" is.  Oh, wait--"Affordable & Professional Radio Station live assist and automation software."  Ah, that explains it.

In 2013, selections from my suite were played on KDVS, 90.3 FM.  Cool.  I did not know that.

It's also at  kickasstorrents--again, minus composer credit.  I guess, to end up at kickasstorrents, my suite must kick ass.  Or at least it did in 2009, the year it was uploaded. (Whoa! Downloaded 10 times! Rock and roll!)

And you can buy it for .71 euros (78 cents!) at Music Bazaar.  (Is that all my music is worth??)  Genre: "Traditional pop music."  And Music Bazaar swiped my Rosie-with-pumpkin blog art, to boot.  However, they give my name!

OR you can opt to download my Christmas at Halloween suite here:   Christmas at Halloween                     

  CHRISTMAS AT HALLOWEEN (Lee Hartsfeld, 2008)

Misteltoes and Cobwebs
Santa's on His Way
Noisy Night
The Brittle Mummy Boy
The Little Train of Bethlehem
We Three Things Abhorrent Are
Call Dumb All the Faithful
Check the Halls
Door to the Weird
Desist Ye Scary Gentlemen
The First Noel
The Second Noel
The Third Noel
The Fourth Noel

By the way, not having the 2008 "Christmas at Halloween" image handy on disc or hard drive (or at this blog anymore), I searched for it on line, finding it at a blog(?) called Weeswaakzaam, which I believe translates to "Be vigilant."  The post in question is titled, "Als je Halloween afwijst, dan ook Kerst."  Or, "If you reject Halloween, then Christmas."  I tend to agree.  I can't see not being cool with both holidays.

I told Rosie that her likeness is up at a Dutch blog, but she has no idea what that means...


Lee

Halloween 2024, Part 1: Stanley Holloway, Paul Frees, Elsa Lanchester, David Rose, Gene Moss, The Merriettes

 

A number of technical glitches when preparing this slaylist--evil forces working to ruin my Halloween-blogging plans, no doubt  But I chanted some magic words over my ceramic Frankenstein-monster-and-pumpkin planter (? shown above), and I seem to have expelled the demons (or anti-demons?) at play.  But not before having my first MAGIX "project" (of 20-plus tracks) vanish on me.  Crud.  

Elsa Lanchester for Halloween?  If only for her portrayal of the Frankenstein monster's bride, yes.  But we'll hear two 1957 numbers from her act at Hollywood's Turnabout Theatre, shortly after the closing of that establishment.  Forman Brown's Never Go Walking Out Without Your Hat Pin may or may not be a period song adapted by the songwriter--it certainly sounds "period."  It's all about a hat pin as a defense against unrequested sexual attention--and there's also the implication that the pin can function as a reminder to young lower-class British women of the virtue of protecting their "you know what."  At the close, we discover that, had her mother remembered to carry a hat pin, the singer wouldn't have been born.  Yikes.  Those reserved Brits sure have a talent for bold, frank (not to mention dark) humor.  The Ratcatchers Daughter (which I incorrectly tagged as The Ratchcatchers Song--sorry!) is described as a "London Street Song," and a rough one, too.  Even though the fidelity is adequate for both numbers, I suggest headphone listening--if you want to make out all the lyrics, that is.  The numbers are introduced in a dry, ready-to-burst-out-laughing fashion by Elsa's husband, Charles Laughton (whose sole directing job, 1955's Night of the Hunter, is a perfect Halloween flick.  Which is probably why it's not on TCM's October schedule).

Sterling Holloway's Sweeney Todd the Barber is more typical music-hall material, though with the same level of dark humor.  Recorded in 1957, far as I can determine, though released in the U.S. (on Columbia Masterworks) in 1958.  And the Village Stompers' Haunted House Blues is a spooky-in-title-only number, but still fun.  Of course, I was hoping for something more traditionally Halloween.  A few screams, or at least a low-pitched "Buwa-ha-haaaa!"

The Dramatic Cue and Mood Music "suite" was edited by me from the above Elektra LP.  I assembled a number of season-appropriate cues into a single file, and it flows amazingly well (I was expecting lesser results).  The LP has seen better plays, but VinylStudio's declicker filter did an amazing job, as usual.

Two Funeral March of a Marionette (aka Alfred Hitchcock Presents) offerings: An excellent and just-right 1956 pipe organ performance by Ray Bohr, and a fine, swinging 1959 interpretation by Ralph Marterie and the Marlboro Men.  (What Halloween is complete without Ralph and the Marlboro Men?)  And, courtesy of the famous voice actor Paul Frees (Solomon Hersh Frees), we have "Boris Karloff" crooning the Bacharach-David The Look of Love, and "Bela Lugosi" with Games People Play.  And some moody--if marginally-Halloween--1961 titles on Enoch Light's Command label (Grand Award Record Co.): Strange Interlude and Witching Hour.  I was hoping the latter would have a more foreboding sound, but it's effective enough, and the highly precise Command-style stereo is fun.  

In addition, my favorite Douglas Byng track of all: 1963's I'm a Mummy.  A brilliant cabaret performer, known for appearing in drag, and of course at a time when it was very not safe to come out of the closet.  A situation to which we never want to return.  Douglas was a comic genius, which is all that matters.

Gene Moss, the voice of Smokey Bear from 1992–2002, provides two song parodies as "Dracula": I Want to Bite Your Hand and Frankenstein (Clementine), both from the 1964 RCA LP, Dracula's Greatest Hits.  And I confess to a love for Mantovani's music--including this dreamy 1969 arrangement of Robert Colbert's famous Quentin's Theme (from the 1960s Gothic soap, Dark Shadows).  Just part of my high regard for expertly arranged and performed mood/background/"EZ" fare.  The collectable value of most mood music, of course, is slim to none.

My rip of David Rose's Forbidden Planet comes from the 1957 MGM Music From Motion Pictures LP (speaking of superior mood music), but I cheated by swiping the Discogs image of the picture sleeve that came with the single.  Rose was hired to compose that film's soundtrack, but his music was ditched for the very cool (I think so; not everyone does) electronic background.  So, is this the actual title music Rose composed?  Or an original recording thereof?  I do not know.  But it's excellent stuff.

Look Out for the Batman, courtesy of (who else?) Synthetic Plastics Co., is a mess of a knockoff rushed to market during the 1966 Adam West/Batman craze, but I love it to death.  I even love the recorded-in-another-room quality of the drums.  And Batman is a permanent part of my Halloween memory, if only because I went to school as Batman that year--complete with cape and mask.  Even at 9, I recognized the set as non-brand, but it was cool, anyway.

DOWNLOAD: Halloween 2024, Part 1

SLAYLIST

Sweeney Todd the Barber--Stanley Holloway, 1957

Dramatic Cue and Mood Music-suite, 1964

Quentin's Theme--Mantovani, 1969

I Want to Bite Your Hand--Dracula (Gene Moss), 1964

Alfred Hitchcock Presents--Ralph Marterie and the Marlboro Men, 1959

Frankenstein (Clementine)--Dracula (Gene Moss), 1964

Blue Ghost--Tommy Roe, Jordanaires, 1962

Trick or Treat (Ferde Grofe)--Andre Kostelanetz and His Orch., 1976

Ghost Town--Don Cherry With Ray Conniff Orch. and Chorus, 1956

March of the Marionettes--Ray Bohr, pipe organ, 1956

Haunted House Blues--The Village Stompers, 1964

I'm a Mummy--Douglas Byng, piano: Alan Leigh, 1963

Strange Interlude--Lew Davies and His Orch., 1961

The Witching Hour--Same, 1961

Never Go Walking Out Without Your Hat Pin--Elsa Lanchester, intro: Charles Laughton, 1957

The Ratcatcher's Daughter--Same

Forbidden Planet (Rose)--David Rose and His Orchestra, 1957?

The Look of Love--Paul Frees as Boris Karloff, 1970.

Games People Play--Paul Frees as Bela Lugosi, 1970.

Look Out for the Batman--The Merriettes, 1966

Lee

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Turn the lights down low, huddle closely together on this chilly Halloween night, and quiver with terror as you listen to these MY(P)WHAE classics!  Or giggle with amusement (whichever works).  These are the Halloween tracks that never die at this blog.  Maybe that's because I keep featuring them.  Yeah, that would explain it.

David Rose's wonderful Satan and the Polar Bear (Satan and the polar bear??), from 1954, is a thousand times more effective, to my ears, than the cliched dreck that functions as scary background music nowadays.  There, I said it.  It anticipates the manic, in-your-face spook-music tradition of our time, but, as originals often manage to be, it's way better than the stuff it inspired.

The two Addams Family renditions are adorable, with the vivid stereo of the De Vol version a treat for the ears.  (I think I ripped it off of my old Dual 1000-series turntable.)  And, after umpteen plays, Sinner's Train remains an astonishingly well crafted, well performed, and well recorded track--and it's from the guy (Art Mooney) who gave us the 1947 smash hit version of I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover!  That may be the scariest thing about it....

Cross-dressing British comic Douglas Byng's 1963 re-recording of I'm a Mummy is a masterpiece--not of horror, but of sophisticated wit.  Sophisticated wit doesn't happen very often at Halloween, so be grateful.  King Kong and It's About Time are two TV themes of the sixties, and the latter--a comedy about astronauts who end up back in the Stone Age--was a big hit with me and my brother when it first aired.  (Not enough to keep it on, unfortunately.)  They're Coming to Tow Me Away is a wonderful BP ad that aired during the winter of 1997.  It almost, but not quite, makes up for the BP ads to come.

John Logan's Dinner with Drac is a cheap knock-off of the 1958 John Zacherle hit, and just about as unfunny.  The late 1950s, by the way, seems to have been the period when the monsters of Universal Studios emerged as Halloween icons, and no doubt TV reruns of Dracula, Frankenstein, etc. were the reason.  Hence, horror host Zacherle scoring a hit record (and John Logan copying it, and pretty well).

Relatively recent history.  And you was there!

Lookout Mountain, with its lyrics about voodoo and corpses rising from the swampland,  remains one of the weirdest records of its type (whatever that may be).  Is this a cover of an original, I wonder?  Also, did the husband, in fact, rise from the swampland and find the hopeless lovers on Lookout Mountain?  And if they knew he was coming to Lookout Mountain, why didn't they arrange to be somewhere else?

The lyrics don't stand up to logical analysis.

The H Man is a one-sided 1958 "Theatre Lobby Spot" 78 with two bands, both identical.  I combined the best audio from both for this rip.  The narration is beyond hilarious.  The synthesizer effects in the background, on the other hand, are awesome.

Torero is Julius La Rosa's cover of an Italian novelty mega-hit by Renato Carosone, and though not nearly as quirky, it's well sung and accompanied with spirit, and it's a great addition to the Men in White genre.

Just click on the slaylist titles...

SLAYLISTS

HALLOWEEN CLASSICS, Part 1

Satan and the Polar Bear (Rose)--David Rose and His Orchestra, 1954
The Addams Family (Mizzy)--Frank De Vol, 1965
Sinner's Train--Art Mooney, His Orchestra and Chorus, 1956
I'm a Mummy--Douglas Byng, 1963
King Kong--Wade Denning and the Port Washingtons, 1966
It's About Time--Wade Denning and the Port Washingtons
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane--Music By De Vol, 1962
Elemtary, My Dear Watson (Indelli)--William Indelli and His Orch., 1960
Lookout Mountain--Chuck Miller
Sittin' By Sittin' Bull (Driftwood)--Eddy Arnold, 1959
Haunted House Polka--The Cavaliers, date unknown
The H Man (Theater Lobby Spot, 1958)
They're Coming to Tow Me Away (1997 BP commercial)
Sweeney Todd the Barber--Stanley Holloway, 1956
Journey Into Space--Frank Weir and His Saxophone, w. His Chorus and Orch., 1955
The Horror Show--Sharkey Todd and His Monsters, 1959

HALLOWEEN CLASSICS, Part 2

Hooray, Hooray, I'm Goin' Away (S. Skylar)--Beatrice Kay, w. Mitchell Ayres O., 1947
I Love Him So Much (I Could Scream)--Peggy Lloyd w. Nick and His Gang, 1950
Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte--Lawrence Welk
Mr. Ghost Goes to Town--Five Jones Boys (1936)
Addams Family--Lawrence Welk and His Orch., 1965
Torero--Julius La Rosa, 1958
The Merry Ghost from Chatham Square--Henry Rene Musette Orch., w. vocal, 1942
Dinner with Drac--John Logan (Promenade 34)
The Cool Gool--Sharkey Todd and His Monsters, 1959
I Died All Over You--Bud Messner and His Sky Line Boys, v: Bill Franklin, 1950
Robot Man--Jamie Horton (Gayla Peevey), 1960
Little Monster--The Baker Sisters w. Hugo Peretti O.
Hypnotized--Ted Fio Rito and His Orch, v: Fuzzy Marcellino, 1936
It's Witchery (Tobias)--Charles Spivak and His Orch., v: Tommy Mercer, 1947
Big Bad Wolf (Bartel)--Don Cherry w. Ray Conniff Orch., 1958

Good-byyyyyyyyye!!!

Lee

Halloween in Space Suite (Lee Hartsfeld, 2013) returns!

For the art, I used my favorite Charlton Comics cover of all time (Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds, #13, 1959, Bill Molno), slightly modified by me.  Since this is not a political blog, I didn't use am image of the Speaker of the House ("Orange Face").

Anyway, with Halloween nearly here, I thought we'd take a return trip to my Halloween in Space Suite, which was mostly recorded "live" on my marvelous Casio WK-3800, albeit multi-tracked (which I refer to as live-live-live-live, etc.).  By "live," I mean I'm playing in real time--no MIDI, no step time, no tempo adjusting.  I took the hard route--no MIDI cheating for me, except for a portion of the section called "Meteors" with two !!'s.

I like the vintage-synth sounds I got on View from the Space Station, which required a number of tones (and notes) for that c.-1959 library music sound.  And who among us hasn't labored to produce a c.-1959 library music sound?

I'm pleased by how smooth, ordered, and premeditated the sections sound, because they didn't happen that way, except for "Peacocks," which came together in 30 minutes or so after I scrapped my original idea for it.  The chord in "Memories"--i.e., the chord form (C#, F#, B, F, Bb, Eb)--is straight out of Erik Satie, c. 1894. (Two perfect fourth chords, a tritone apart, played as one.)  Yet, by 2013 standards, it sounds jazzy.  Everything in music is context, I guess.

I think my suite nicely shows off the terrific tones to be found on the Casio WK-3800.  In synth circles, the name "Casio" is synonymous with "junk" (or with even stronger four-letter designations), but the 3800 begs to differ.

Hope you enjoy.  More Halloween coming up, and this year's theme is dinosaurs.  Are.  Whatever.  Remember, though, that I can't put up any of my usual Halloween "slaylists," for which you can thank the copyright cops, those lovable lugs who can't handle the notion of us common rabble trading the very music our patronage made possible in the first place.  We are consumers, not owners, even if the stuff we want to post was old hat by the time our parents were courting.  Know your place?  I hope so.

To space....

Halloween in Space Suite

Danger, Thrills, and Monsters
Space Spooks
View from the Space Station
Meteors!!
Memories of Earth
Peacocks in Space

Composed and played in 2013 by Lee Hartsfeld on his Casio WK-3800, with assistance from Sonar X2 Essential and Magix Audio Cleaning Lab MX.

Lee

Males from the Crypt present: Halloween Instrumentals, Part Two!!

From the crypt they crept: Left) Frankie, looking as green as ever; (right) some grave-looking dude in a less hairy state than we last saw him; and (middle) the toothy Brit Braincase III, who has had enough of people calling him "Yorick."  "Call me Bonehead, call me whatever you like, but the 'Yorick' stuff stopped being funny after the first couple hundred times," he says.

Together, they are Males from the Crypt.  No one knows what their act consists of.  "Neither do we, actually," reports the trio's leader (right).

It's always a problem when you get a line-up and snazzy name, but you forgot to form an act.  (Awkward Segue Alert): But now we'll be hearing from twelve artists who, um... who certainly had their acts together, yes sir.  And, lucky for us, they had recording contracts.

Here's the link: Halloween Instrumentals, Part 2, and line-up:

(All ripped from shellac and vinyl in my collection)

Devil's March (von Suppe)--Arthur Pryor's Band, 1910.
Swamp Fire (Mooney)--Andre Kostelanetz Conducts, 1938.
Heinzelmannchens Wachtparade (Kurt Noack)--Polydor Brass Band Orch., prob. 1928.
Dance of the Potted Puppet (Morant)--Ambrose and His Orch., 1947.
The Haunted Ballroom (Toye)--Kingsway Symphony Orch., c. Camarata, 1947,
The Ghost of the Violin--Two-Step--Prince's Band, 1913.
Polka from "The Age of Gold" (Shostakovich)--RCA Symphony Orch., c. Fred Fradkin
Grand Canyon Suite (Grofe)--Cloudburst--Paul Whiteman Concert Orch., 1932.
March of the Gnomes (Rebikoff)--RCA Victor Orch., c. Ardon Cornwell
Theme from Man of a Thousand Faces--Wayne King Orch., 1958.
Snake Hips (Spencer Williams)--The Original Memphis Five, 1923.
Spellbound (Rozsa)--Lewis Davies and His Orch., 1961

Devil's March has a great Halloween-sounding title, even if the music itself is less spooky than the theme to Hogan's Heroes.  Catchy side, though!  Swamp Fire is more like it--sinister, though in a swingy way.  (Swingy way?)  Kurt Noack's cheerful 1912 hit, Brownies' Guard Parade, is still being performed--on YouTube, at least--and it's a lot of fun, even if it suggests Halloween less than, say, Devil's March.  And, as I listen to it, I hear that I failed to edit out all the clicks--something for me to obsess over.  Anyway, fabulous Polydor/Deutsche Grammophon label fidelity for 1928, which I'm guessing was the recording year.

Ghost of the Violin is a repeat from last year's "Haunted Gramophone" posts, but this is a new, better rip, while The Haunted Ballroom (sorry for the rough spots in an otherwise great pressing) is taking its first bow.  Very charming number, though only about as Halloween in sound as, say, Brownie's Grand Parade.  (Is a pattern emerging here?)

Really, the only scary-sounding number in this set is Miklos Rozsa's Spellbound, and it's only eerie in patches.  I guess we can consider this post music for a cheery Halloween....

Lee

The Haunted Victrola, 2020

My Halloween shellac post from last year, for anyone who may have missed it.  I was listening to my rips, and I was impressed (in a humble way, of course), and I thought I'd give this a second, um, life.  (Can I say that during Halloween?)

Carl Fenton's Spike Jones-esque recordings of Animal Fair and Go 'Long, Mule aren't Halloween offerings of the traditional type, but their treatments are so over-the-top nuts, I think they belong here.  Er, in this playlist, I mean.  Edward MacDowell's wonderful 1884 piano piece Witches' Dance (Hexentanz) starts the hearse rolling, and Leopold Godowsky could sure play the piano.  From a Brunswick 78 made in either 1921 or 1922.  Eduard (no relation to Gustav, afaik) Holst's Dance of the Demon is also superbly performed, though it took two guys to manage it--Victor Arden and Phil Ohman, piano partners who became bandleaders.  For some reason, I gave the Polydor label Brownies' Parade a probable recording date of 1928 the last time I posted it, and I must have had a reason, though I can't remember it now.   Maybe clues from a vintage publication that's no longer on line.  It's driving me mad, trying to remember.  Or, to borrow from a Spike Jones record, it's driving me sane.  Cool electrical-era sound quality.  Chopin's Funeral March, played by Prince's Band in 1909, is by Chopin.  I know this, because the label actually lists "Chopin" under Chopin's Funeral March.  It's from his 1839 Piano Sonata No. 2, and imagine how rich his descendants would be if  there were royalties coming on the march.  Murder is a very clever Byron (The Vamp) Gay number about the way jazz bands were murdering "wonderful" songs--totally destroying them, but in an irresistible way.  Sophisticated concept, excellent melody--why is poor Byron forgotten by song buffs?  Big Movie Show in the Sky has lyrics by an anything-but-forgotten lyricist--Johnny Mercer.  Not his best work, and there's something that really creeps me out about the song and this performance.  Which only means that it works all the more as a Halloween track.  Ironic, no?

Halloween is a rite of reversal.  Good is bad, bad is good.  Kids chow down on stuff that's bad for them--sugary stuff packed in rip-off "snack" sizes.  Using a holiday as an excuse to charge more--that's totally American!  It drives me sane, just thinking about it.

Which Hazel is a clever, if slightly oversold (by Al Herman) comic number composed by Abner Silver (real name, Silberman), with lyrics that include, "The guy who wrote Witch Hazel is in a padded cell," and here's that theme, 45 years before Napoleon XIV hit the charts.  That line also places the song in the song-which-refers-to-itself category, the kind of self-reference which normally happens in songs about dances (Charleston, Locomotion, Monster Mash, The Creep, etc.).  Strange--and very Halloween.  And how to describe John Tilley's The Loch Ness Monster, from 1934?  Or John Tilley, for that matter?  I hear a strong Monty Python edge to/in this satirical piece, recorded in England--I suppose it's the cheery but cynical tone, the sophisticated references, and the mild misogyny--that, and more.  The evidence is all there--the Loch Ness monster claim was known all along to be a hoax (and a tourist lure) by thinking people, and note how Tilley makes fun of the Nessie believers' habit of searching for clues--any clues--of past Nessie sightings.  And the Nessie nonsense continues to this day.  The complicated but cool Abominable Science! makes a great case for 1933's King Kong as the main inspiration for the Nessie legend we know.  If that sounds unlikely on the surface (no pun intended), it won't after you've read what the authors have to say.

Delirium is a sophisticated instrumental by Red Nichols pianist Arthur Schutt, and speaking of delirium, I originally labeled the track Derilium.  Which sounds like a substance H.G. Wells would have made up to get his characters to Mars.  The magnificent novelty Ah-Ha! (Sidney Clare-James V. Monaco) shows up three times in our list, though I didn't have time to rip the best version of all--the 1925 Grofe arrangement for Paul Whiteman,  But it's very possible that's up someplace at the blog.  We close with 1916's Spooky Spooks (great sound effects), and Zez Confrey's Greenwich Witch, played by Confrey himself, and brilliantly.

To the treats!  All ripped from shellac housed in my cluttered Media Room.  And it's interesting that the new Blogger retains the HTML versions of older posts in their original form--which is to say, not in the extremely annoying rectangular clump that shows up for the new posts.  Since the new Blogger is forcing us to do more HTML work, I suppose it just had to make the task harder on the eyes.  I don't recommend that children trick-or-treat this year (the notion that it can be done safely is too bizarre to even contemplate), but otherwise I'd be recommending that kids considering going as New Blogger.  "Here!  Take all the candy!!!!"  (Door slams, porch lights go off.)




DOWNLOAD: The Haunted Victrola is Back!









Witches' Dance (Hexentanz) (MacDowell)--Leopold Godowsky, Piano (1921 or 1922)
Dance of the Demon (Eduard Holst)--Victor Arden-Phil Ohman, Piano Duet (1922)
Animal Fair--Carl Fenton's Orch. w. vocal chorus, 1924
Go 'Long, Mule--Same
Chopin's Funeral March--Prince's Band, 1909
Brownies' Parade (K. Noack)--Polydor Brass Band Orch., c. Joseph Snaga, c. 1928?
Me-ow--One-step (Mel B. Kaufmann)--Joseph C. Smith's Orch., 1918
Magic Eyes (Brown-Fiorito)--Oriole Orchestra, 1923
Murder (Byron Gay)--Plantation Jazz Orchestra, 1920
Mystery!--Medley--Paul Biese and His Novelty Orch., 1919
Jabberwocky--Joseph Samuels' Jazz Band, 1921
Ah-Ha!--Freddie "Schnickelfritz" Fisher and His Orch. w. vocal chorus, 1940
Which Hazel (Abner Silver)--Al Herman, 1921
Eccentric Rag (J. Russell Robinson)--Oriole Orchestra, 1924
Big Movie Show in the Sky (Dolan-Mercer)--Blue Barron and His Orch., v: Bobby Beers and the Choir, 1949
Ah-Ha!--Hollywood Dance Orch., v: John Ryan, 1925
Ah-Ha!--Oriole Orchestra, v: Mark Fisher, 1925
Midnight Fire Alarm (Lincoln)--Prince's Orchestra, 1920
The Loch Ness Monster (Tilley)--John Tilley, 1934
Delirium (Schutt)--Carl Fenton's Orch., 1927
Spooky Spooks (Claypoole)--Prince's Band, 1916
Greenwich Witch (Confrey)--Zez Confrey, Piano Solo, 1922



Lee

Halloween LeeWorks for 2020!

 

A late bonus post for Halloween--nineteen of my own spooky compositions, most written between 2009 and 2011.  At the time, I had a Casio CTK-551, which sounded better than you would think, especially with all the MAGIX effects I added.  I have some more recent pieces I wanted to add, but finding the CD-Rs would take hours, so...

I don't remember when I wrote my Halloween Fugue, or what it was originally called.  It dates back to 1989 or so, though the recording is from 2011.  Pieces like Poker Night in Dracula's Castle are experiments with extreme applications of echo delay, accomplished with multiple saves.  Throughout this set, there's a lot of track overlapping and speed manipulation and other fun.  Most of these are me "live" at the keyboard, with all multi-tracking accomplished in a primitive fashion (often with me unable to hear the part I was dubbing over), and the really virtuosic-sounding numbers were accomplished with my old Noteworthy Composer program, using step-time sequencing.  I think I got nice results on these with such low-budget means.  Or by them; whatever the right preposition happens to be.

I did some editing on these, paring things down.  Many have gone through multiple versions over the years, so, for some titles, these can be considered the latest editions.

My Toccatica was my attempt to redo Bach's famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor in an Exotica vein--and it almost works.  Anyway, that explains the title, at least.  My Hauntovani Waltzes were written... who knows when?  Actually, I had a single waltz I'd written (back in 2000 or so) in a Hauntovani mode, and, for this track, I pulled two waltzes out of storage to make a trio.  Not sure if the other two had names.  Funeral Disco is my Disco version of Gounod's Funeral March of a Marionette, and The Haunted Choir Room features a ghostly choir made up of... me.  I was multi-tracking in my primitive MAGIX-to-MAGIX fashion, trying to do some four-part harmony.  It didn't come out that well, but with the effects piled on, I made an excellent ghost choir.  So... enjoy!

I'll just let New Blogger double-space my playlist this time...

DOWNLOAD: LeeWorks Halloween 2020

ALL COMPOSITIONS WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY LEE HARTSFELD

Halloween Fugue (c. 1989)

Poker Night in Dracula's Castle

Junk Mail at the Deserted Manor

(You Don't Want To) Get on Board the Ghost Train

Morbid Moments

Toccatina

Food Fight in Space

Dracula's Doorbell

Halloween March

Funeral Disco (Gounod, Adapted Lee H.)

Piano in Outer Space

Galaxies in Collision

Missile in the Moon

The Dead Sitcom Zone

Slaytude in A minor

The Haunted Radio

The Haunted Piano

Haunted Choir Room

Three Hauntovani Waltzes

Lee

The Haunted Victrola is back!! Shivery shellac offerings from 1909-1949!

It occurred to me that all my of my Halloween shellac postings were pre-Vinyl Studio, which means none of them had the proper response curves.  So, working like a demon, I pulled twenty-two 78s from the racks and pyres--er, stacks and piles--and ripped them for you.  And isn't "ripped" the perfect verb for the holiday (sober or no)?  Anyway, here are 22 previously ghosted--er, posted--tracks, all zipped up in a handy slaylist.  And I wish these were streaming tracks, because then I could use the pun "screaming." Oh, well.

A couple "new" offerings--Carl Fenton's Spike Jones-esque recordings of Animal Fair and Go 'Long, Mule, neither of which are classic Halloween titles, but their treatments are so delightfully crazy, they had to be included.  Edward MacDowell's wonderful 1884 piano piece Witches' Dance (Hexentanz) starts the hearse rolling, and Leopold Godowsky could sure play the piano.  From a Brunswick 78 made in either 1921 or 1922.  Eduard Holst's (no relation to Gustav, far as I know) Dance of the Demon is also superbly performed, though it took two guys to manage it--Victor Arden and Phil Ohman, piano partners who became bandleaders.  For some reason, I gave the Polydor label Brownies' Parade a probable recording date of 1928 the last time I posted it, and I must have had a reason, though I can't remember it now.   Maybe clues from a vintage publication that's no longer on line.  It's driving me mad, trying to remember.  (Buwa-ha-haaaaa!!!!)  Cool electrical-era sound quality, anyway.  Chopin's Funeral March, played by Prince's Band in 1909, is by Chopin.  I know this, because the label actually lists "Chopin" under Chopin's Funeral March.  In case we thought Beethoven wrote it, maybe.  Stunningly effective piece, and, if you didn't know it was Chopin, well, now you do.  Murder is a very clever Byron (The Vamp) Gay number about the way jazz bands were murdering "wonderful" songs--totally destroying them, but in an irresistible way.  Sophisticated concept, excellent melody--why is poor Byron forgotten by song scholars?  Big Movie Show in the Sky has lyrics by an anything-but-forgotten lyricist--Johnny Mercer.  Not his best work, and there's something that really creeps me out about the song and this performance.  Which only means that it works as a Halloween track.  Normally, these would be bad things....

Halloween is a rite of reversal.  Good is bad, bad is good.  Kids chow down on stuff that's bad for them--sugary stuff packed in rip-off "snack" sizes.  Using a holiday as an excuse to charge more--that's totally American!  I mean, un-American.

Which Hazel is a clever, if slightly oversold (by Al Herman) comic number composed by Abner Silver (real name, Silberman), with lyrics that include, "The guy who wrote Witch Hazel is in a padded cell," and here's that theme, 45 years before Napoleon XIV hit the charts.  It also places the song in a song-which-refers-to-itself category, a tradition which goes beyond the mere use of the title as part of the lyrics--this is the song referring to... itself.  Which is usually only okay if you're singing about a dance (Charleston, Locomotion, Monster Mash, etc.).  Strange--and very Halloween.  And how to describe John Tilley's The Loch Ness Monster, from 1934?  Or John Tilley?  There's a strong Monty Python edge to this satirical piece, recorded in England--I suppose it's the cheery but cynical tone, the sophisticated references, and the mild misogyny--that, and more.  The evidence is all there--the monster claim was known all along to be a hoax (and a tourist lure), and note how Tilley makes fun of the Nessie believers' habit of searching for clues--any clues--of pre-modern Nessie sightings.  And the Nessie nonsense continues to this day.  And will continue, until the cable networks get tired of promoting the same paranormal junk hour after hour.  (It's gotten to where the "documentary" makers are combining themes--was Nessie and Lizzie Borden one and the same?  Etc.)

Delirium is a sophisticated instrumental by Red Nichols pianist Arthur Schutt, and speaking of delirium, I originally labeled the track Derilium.  Which sounds like a substance H.G. Wells would have made up to get his characters to Mars.  The magnificent novelty Ah-Ha! (Sidney Clare-James V. Monaco) shows up three times in our list, though I didn't have time to rip the best version of all--the 1925 Grofe arrangement for Paul Whiteman,  But it's very possible that's up someplace at the blog.  We close with 1916's Spooky Spooks (great sound effects), and Zez Confrey's Greenwich Witch, played by Confrey himself, and brilliantly.

To the treats!  All ripped from shellac housed in the cluttered Media Room....






DOWNLOAD: The Haunted Victrola is Back!









Witches' Dance (Hexentanz) (MacDowell)--Leopold Godowsky, Piano (1921 or 1922)
Dance of the Demon (Eduard Holst)--Victor Arden-Phil Ohman, Piano Duet (1922)
Animal Fair--Carl Fenton's Orch. w. vocal chorus, 1924
Go 'Long, Mule--Same
Chopin's Funeral March--Prince's Band, 1909
Brownies' Parade (K. Noack)--Polydor Brass Band Orch., c. Joseph Snaga, c. 1928?
Me-ow--One-step (Mel B. Kaufmann)--Joseph C. Smith's Orch., 1918
Magic Eyes (Brown-Fiorito)--Oriole Orchestra, 1923
Murder (Byron Gay)--Plantation Jazz Orchestra, 1920
Mystery!--Medley--Paul Biese and His Novelty Orch., 1919
Jabberwocky--Joseph Samuels' Jazz Band, 1921
Ah-Ha!--Freddie "Schnickelfritz" Fisher and His Orch. w. vocal chorus, 1940
Which Hazel (Abner Silver)--Al Herman, 1921
Eccentric Rag (J. Russell Robinson)--Oriole Orchestra, 1924
Big Movie Show in the Sky (Dolan-Mercer)--Blue Barron and His Orch., v: Bobby Beers and the Choir, 1949
Ah-Ha!--Hollywood Dance Orch., v: John Ryan, 1925
Ah-Ha!--Oriole Orchestra, v: Mark Fisher, 1925
Midnight Fire Alarm (Lincoln)--Prince's Orchestra, 1920
The Loch Ness Monster (Tilley)--John Tilley, 1934
Delirium (Schutt)--Carl Fenton's Orch., 1927
Spooky Spooks (Claypoole)--Prince's Band, 1916
Greenwich Witch (Confrey)--Zez Confrey, Piano Solo, 1922



Lee

Happy Halloween!

Oh, wait--Halloween was yesterday.  Oh, well.  It's the SPIRIT that counts!  (Buwa-ha-haaa!)

This ad is from 1966.  I strongly suspect that the "7 amazing plant creatures" advertised above were, in fact, what we would now call Chia Pets.  Just a stab in the park--I mean, dark--but a good one, I think.  And I need to stop with the Halloween word play, because it is, by one day, no longer Halloween.

Did I mention this is no longer Halloween?

In other news, I love how beautifully the "Auto Levels" function works on my cheap NCH PhotoPad Pro(?) photo software--it really brings out the detail in cheaply printed comic pages and such.  In fact, tonight I used the "Auto Levels" function on (a scan of) the copyright page of an 1886 Wide Awake volume, and it brought out nearly every detail from its reverse.  Just sucked it through the page!  Of course, even a tech-challenged soul like me has to conclude that there's no such thing as "bringing out" the details in an image or sound file unless those details are actually present in the first place.  To wit, my software manages to make murky, poorly printed Charlton Comics pages look sharp and brightly colored--something they never were to begin with.  So is the software bringing out or restoring detail so much as imagining and imposing it?  And do I have any idea what I'm babbling about?

In my defense, I'm having a nasty vascular headache.  A measure recommended by my neurologist--namely, applying Lidocaine topically to the inside of my nose--has brought down the pain but left the dazed confusion in place.  At least the pain has been diminished.

Lee

Halloween in Space Suite (2013)

From 2013, my Halloween in Space Suite, consisting of "Dangers, Thrills, and Monsters;" "Space Spooks;" "View from the Space Station;" "Meteors!!" "Memories of Earth," and "Peacocks in Space." I did a little bit of MIDI entry and even less pitch and time expansion/compression, but otherwise everything is "live."  What you hear is what I played.  That's not a take on Flip Wilson's once-famous "What you see is what you get, baby!  WOOOO!"  Okay, yes, it is.

I think my suite nicely shows off the terrific tones to be found on the Casio WK-3800, whether it's Halloween on Earth, or... HALLOWEEN IN SPAAAAAACE!!! (Space... space... space....)

Click here to hear:  Halloween in Space Suite, Complete

Danger, Thrills, and Monsters
Space Spooks
View from the Space Station
Meteors!!
Memories of Earth
Peacocks in Space

Composed and played by Lee Hartsfeld on his Casio WK-3800, with assistance from Sonar X2 Essential and Magix Audio Cleaning Lab MX.

Lee

Halloween 2023, Part 3: Monster-Size Monster tracks! Or, look out for "Lookout Mountain"!

 

I think we all prefer our monsters monster-sized.  So long as they obey.  And so long as they aren't mutant insects...

With Jeane Dixon, break-ins, and seasonal soundalikes out of the way, it's time (just barely) for more of my favorite pieces of tongue-in-cheek terror.  And, for some reason, it was only last nght that I found the recording dates for Haunted House Polka and He's Going to Eat Me Up (thanks, 45cat).  I'd searched for them in the past, but you know how that goes: Locating data is often a matter of using the exact correct phrase or phrase combination, or you're up a haunted creek without a crucifix.  I'm probably showing my age, but I can remember when Google searches were pretty straightforward.  You put in a search phrase, and up popped the object of your search.  That was, what?  1888 or so?

And, save for the creepy Lookout Mountain, the rest of the slaylist is classic October 31 absurdity: Haunted House Polka (1955), The Screemin' Meemies From Planet "X" (Merv's finest novelty, and he made a number of them), Close the Door (a lighthearted take on The Thing), Rip Van Winkle, Munster Creep, In the Hall of the Cha-Cha King (the least dread-invoking title, after Planet "X"), Which Witch Doctor, Funny Farm, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (nothing to do with Robert Louis Stevenson's brilliant novella).  My worn Jekyll copy sounded best with my 1 mil mono stylus, so that's the rip you'll hear.  Also, Spooky Movies, which seems to me a Halloween variation on the "I took my girl to the movies, hoping for romance, but she just wanted to moon over Troy Donahue/Guy Madison" genre, only with monsters the target of her ardor.  (No, not a love for big-screen pirates.)

Bob Hudson's 1966 I'm Normal, and The Napoleon XV Revue's 1975 He's Going to Eat Me Up are our two axe-cellent copycat answers to They're Coming to Take Me Away, though there are other thump-a, thump-a, thump-a, thump-a knockoffs lurking around.  Any number of them, actually, and I have--or used to have--a CD-R of same, though one would have to be strapped down (or in) to take them away in one session.  I mean, to take them in.  Note that the latter contains a phrase not suggested for family listening.

And this is just from my boo-point, but I seriously believe Merv Griffin made the best, most campy novelties of all time, and of course I've included his two moss-terpieces for the season: the above-mentioned Screamin' Meemies and House of Horrors, both penned/co-penned by Doris Roberts.  Another Merv novelty accomplice was the famous Charles Randolph Grean (Quentin's Theme), who produced Merv's RCA hits (during Merv's brief period of chart success) and, far as I know, all of his later special productions, including the immortal Have a Nice Trip (1968), co-written by Charles.

1961's Rip Van Winkle is not so much Halloween in theme but feel, with sound effects fit for the season, and a sufficiently supernatural theme.  And a Halloween without Steve Allen is, well, a Halloween without Steve Allen.  Allen's "rockin'" ghost rocks in the fashion of cool jazz, as we'd expect from Steverino, who was (hardly) one of rock and roll's early champions.

I cited Lookout Mountain as the single credibly creepy title in the mess--er, mix.  That's because there's no lightness in the handling, and, really, it would be a chillingly challenging task to add levity to a narrative about a vengeful ghost coming to kill his widow and her new man.  But, a couple questions, at least: Were the Voodoo (?) hexes love spells which backfired?  And, if they knew the ghost would find them on Lookout Mountain, wouldn't the simplest solution have been to not go there?

And we get a soul version of Buck Owens' It's a Monster's Holiday.  Had I been able to find Owens' own recording (I failed to exhume my copy of same), I'd have made coffin space for it, but...  Oh, and there's an incredible story (thanks, Charlie Christ!) behind The Incredible Shrinking Man, on which Ray Anthony is credited as "Ray Anothony."  This title music, not surprisingly, started as an acetate not related to the film to the tiniest degree.

And the theme from William Castle's The Night Walker (1964) by (who else?) Sammy Kaye, the fondly remembered (by me, anyway) King Kong cartoon theme, and SPC doing some PD-graverobbing (in this case, from Charles Gounod) with The Alfred Hitchcock TV Show (aka, Funeral March of a Marionette).

A demon's dozen today: Thirteen titles!  Well, actually, that was true last post, but I neck-glected to depart that fact.  But, today we have a double demon's-dozen today: 26 grisly groaners!!  So, be careful!  Times two.  

DOWNLOAD: Halloween 2023, Part 3

SLAYLIST

Lookout Mountain--Chuck Miller, 1956

Haunted House Polka--The Cavaliers, 1955

The Screamin' Meemies From Planet "X"--Merv Griffin, 1961

Spooky Movies--Roy Clark, 1963

Thirteen Men--Dinah Shore With Harry Zimmerman's Orch. and Cho., 1958

Close the Door--Jim Lowe With Norman Leyden Orch., 1955

Big Bad Wolf--Don Cherry With Ray Conniff and His Orch., 1958

The Sorcerer's Apprentice and Danse Macabre--Dick Jacobs and His Orch., 1958

Rip Van Winkle--The Devotions, 1961

Munster Creep--The Munsters, 1964

House of Horrors--Merv Griffin, Orch, conducted by Charles Grean, 1962

The Naughty Ghost--Jan August With Vocal Group, 1955

I'm Normal--The Emperor (Bob Hudson), 1966

The Rockin' Ghost--Archie Bleyer Orch. and Chorus, 1956

He's Going to Eat Me Up--Napoleon XV Revue, 1975

In the Hall of the Cha-Cha King--Belmonte and His Afro-American Music, 1955

Tennessee Hill-Billy Ghost-Red Foley With the Anita Kerr Singers, 1951

It's a Monster's Holiday--Chick Willis, 1975

Murder, He Says--Betty Hutton With Pete Rugolo and His Orch., 1951

Which Witch Doctor--The Vogues With Al Kavelin's Music, 1958

The Alfred Hitchcock TV Show--Unkown (Diplomat, 1962)

The Incredible Shrinking Man--Ray Anothony (Anthony) and His Orch., 1957

The Thing--Danny Kaye, Orch. and Cho. Dir. by Ken Darby, 1950

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde--The Emersons, 1959

The Night Walker--Sammy Kaye and His Orch., 1965

King Kong--Wade Denning and His Port Wawshingtons, 1966

Lee