Halloween 2026, Pt. 3--The Haunted Victrola! "Spooky Spooks," "Murder," "Mummy Mine," more!

 

The Haunted Victrola is wound and ready to roll.  These are Halloween 78s which I put up in 2020, only to have them lost to Workupload--I re-ripped all but five of these, and for those I revived rips from 2019.  Or whatever I just typed.  (This stuff gets complicated...)

Things start in 1904 with Come Take a Trip in My Airship, with a vocal by J.W. Myers, in spite of the fact that the singer, as written, is female.  Gender-blind vocals were a common practice in the early days of sound recording.  Sung to her airship "sailor":

Come take a trip in my airship, Come take a sail 'mong the stars, Come have a ride around Venus, Come have a spin around Mars.  No one to watch when we're kissing, No one to see while we spoon, Come take a trip in my airship, And we'll sit in the Man in the Moon.

Then, the medley Mystery! followed by a marvelous Ferde Grofe arrangement for Paul Whiteman--The Hoodoo Man, 1924.  Three more gems, then a Byron Gay number--Vamp Me (And I'll Vamp You)--with lovely, Whiteman-esque, contrasting-sections charts.  Dolly Connolly (Mrs. Percy Wenrich) is next with 1912's That Hypnotizing Man, and she's followed by another Byron Gay classic, The Vamp (1919), with a vocal duet by Jack and Irving Kaufman.  The Oriental Woodwind Orchestra, Prince's Band, and Ted Fio Rito follow, and then we meet up with Little Nell, a take-off on 19th-century stage melodramas, with its last line--"Tomorrow night, we'll play East Lynne"--referring to a popular 1861 novel and play.  

The jazzy, polymetric Delirium has the sound of Red Nichols' Five Pennies, and it's followed by the most recent entry in our slaylist: 1943's The Merry Ghost of Chatham Square.  Five more titles, with most chosen for their high weirdness: Animal Fair, Spooky Spooks, Murder (Byron Gay, again!), Eccentric Rag, and Which Hazel.  The Byron Gay number describes the ruinous effect of jazz on a "good old tune": 

With villainous glee, They go on a spree, Then they ruin with their bluin', One good melody.  Ohh-ohh, just hear that banjo, Ohh-ohh, And that piano, It's murder, it's murder, It's wrong, wrong, wrong, What they do to a wonderful song (with a hoot and a toot), etc.

DOWNLOAD: Halloween 2026--Pt. 3...Haunted Victrola.zip

Come Take a Trip in My Airship--J.W. Meyers, Orch. Accompaniment, 1904

Mystery!--Medley--Paul Biese and His Novelty Orch., 1919

The Hoodoo Man--Paul Whiteman and His Orch., 1924

Mummy Mine--Medley--Earl Fuller's Rector Novelty Orch., 1919

Jabberwocky--Joseph Samuels' Jazz Band, 1921

Greenwich Witch--Frank Westphal and His Orch., 1922

Witches' Dance (Hexentanz)--Leopold Godowsky, approx. December 1920

Vamp Me (And I'll Vamp You) (Byron Gay)--Rega Dance Orch., 1922

Dolly Connolly--That Hypnotizing Man, 1912

The Vamp (Byron Gay)--Waldorf-Astoria Singing Orch., 1919

Egyptian Dancer (The Ghawazel)--Oriental Woodwind Orch., 1921

The Ghost of the Violin--Prince's Band, 1913

Hypnotized--Ted Fio Rito and His Orch., V: Muzzy Marcellino, 1936

Little Nell--Eliot Everett and Orch. (Joe Haymes), 1932

Delirium--Carl Fenton's Orchestra, 1927

The Merry Ghost From Chatham Square--Henri Rene Musette Orchestra, w. Vocal, 1943

Animal Fair--Carl Fenton's Orch., w. Vocal Chorusm 1924

Spooky Spooks (Claypoole)--Prince's Band, 1916

Murder (Byron Gay)--Plantation Jazz Orch., 1920

Eccentric Rag--Oriole Orchestra, 1924

Greenwich Witch--Zez Confrey, Piano Solo, 1922

Which Hazel--Al Herman, 1921

Lee

Halloween 2026, Pt. 2: Monster Mash (Peter Pan, 1977)!

 

This fairly collectable 1977 LP has an awesome George Peed (1913-2002) cover, five "fake-hit" Halloween novelties, five non-Halloween novelties, and mostly fake stereo (with a few true-stereo tracks).  Hard to imagine novelties like Feet Up, Pat 'Em on the Po Po, Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini, Big Bad John, and Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor as having anything to do with Halloween, but they are interesting as sound-alikes.  And, of course, Monster Mash, Dinner With Drac, and Witch Doctor are true Halloween fare, even in "fake"-hit versions.

No artists credited on the jacket or label, so we'll just have to attribute everything to "Unknown."


DOWNLOAD: Halloween 2026--Pt. 2...Monster Mash.zip

Monster Mash

Purple People Eater

Feet up, Pat 'Em on the Po-Po

Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini

Little Blue Man

Witch Doctor

Dinner With Drac

Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor

Mama Look A Boo-Boo

Big Bad John

Monster Mash (Peter Pan 8126, 1977)

Lee

Halloween 2026, Pt. 1: Twenty-six "leftover" horrors! Break-ins, space novelties, more!

 

To the best of my knowledge, none of these tracks has seen the light of blog for ten years or more--thus, they are "leftover" Halloween numbers, pulled out of the cracks of the crypt and returned to the sunlight, in which they hopefully won't dissolve (what did I just type??).  These are not lesser selections, by any means--just material I haven't touched in a decade or so.  Lots of good stuff in the mix...

Things start with Dickie Goodman's Suspense, as featured on the flip side of 1966's Batman and His Grandmother, but originally issued in 1957 as the flip of The Banana Boat Story, and originally titled The Mystery (In Slow Motion).  Its music is cribbed from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet.  Then, two Halloween-style titles (Revenge and Beware) which turn out to be contrived but clever enough love songs.  These are followed by Sharkey Todd's The Horror Show and The Cool Ghoul, both 1959.  Great titles, great productions, but darned if (even after 20 or 30 years) I can make out all the lyrics.  These, in turn, are followed by the 1958 jazz instrumental Ghostin' (Strollin' Spooks).

Then, the all-time great (and sublimely silly) Halloween space-themed novelty, Jeff Barry's The Face From Outer Space (1960).  Later in the slaylist, Barry is answered by Floyd Robinson's The Man in the Moon Is a Lady, which is quite a feat, given that the latter appeared earlier, in 1959.  Next, early Joe South (1958, sounding like Carl Perkins) with a mega-campy title mashup, complete with a sped-up monster voice which must have been a hoary cliche even when fresh.  Danny Hutton follows things up with 1965's Monster Shindig, on the Hanna-Barbera Records label, a side in the style of bubble-gum music to come.  Then, Rolf Harris with his take on The Thing, a side which Google's search engine insists was never made.

Possibly the most gloriously (and artfully) dumb selection in the list: Buchanan and Goodman's The Flying Saucer Goes West, which ends with "General Elvis Presley" saving the day.  The West being the Old West, you see.  (Back when Elvis was a star...)  Then, a 1969 Buddah Records break-in with snippets from tracks released on Buddah Records (to sidestep licensing issues).  And, from 1956, the Baker Sisters with the cute Little Monster, followed by the Moonbillies crooning Fall of the Planet Earth, our first of two selections dealing with the nuclear destruction of our home world.  Durwood Haddock reasons that he's losing his reason in Funny Farm, one of our two men-in-white selections, and Harry King and His Orch. do an expert job on the 1956 instrumental, Rocket Ride.  Then, Julius Rosa with our second men-in-white adventure: Torero, from 1958.  Annette Funicello croons That Crazy Place From (sic) Outer Space, whose lyrics describe a "crazy place IN outer space," and Eddie Hill "and Group" sing Billy Sherrill's saga of two monkeys and the end of the world.  

(Jumpin') Gene Simmons' 1964 Haunted House is a single which has sat in my collection for a couple of decades prior to my lowering a needle into its grooves--I believe that, unlike the other novelties in this list, it's a famous number.  The aforementioned The Man in the Moon Is a Lady isn't quite as inane as it sounds, though it's memorably foolish in the manner of the best Halloween novelties, and Flyin' Saucers Rock 'N Roll is a standard aliens-come-to-our-planet-to-rock-and-roll Sun Records classic from 1957.  Space Race to the Moon describes the pointlessness of landing on our moon, with a plea that the satellite remain free from any ownership claims, only to assert that the United States deserves to get there first.  The Girl Around the Corner is a 1957 voodoo classic by Lee Andrews and the Hearts, and Bill Buchanan gives us two spoken Halloween numbers in The Night Before Halloween and Beware (no relation to the earlier Beware).  

DOWNLOAD: Halloween 2026--Pt. 1.zip

SLAYLIST:

Suspense--Dickie Goodman, 1966

Revenge--Gary Mann With Joe Leahy Orch., 1956

Beware--Toni Arden With Hugo Winterhalter and His Orch., 1955

The Horror Show--Sharkey Todd and His Monsters, 1959

The Cool Ghoul--Same

Ghostin' (Strollin' Spooks)--Bobby Gimby, 1958

The Face From Outer Space--Jeff Barry, 1960

The Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor--Joe South, 1958

Monster Shindig--Danny Hutton, 1965

The Thing--Rolf Harris, 1965

The Flying Saucer Goes West--Buchanan and Goodman, 1958

Moonflight--Vic Venus, 1969

Little Monster--The Baker Sisters, Orch. by Hugo Peretti, 1956

Fall of the Planet Earth--The Moonbillies, 1960

Funny Farm--Durwood Haddock, 1962

Rocket Ride--Harry King and His Orch., 1956

Torero--Julius LaRosa With Nick Perito and His Orch. and Chorus, 1958

That Crazy Place From Outer Space--Annette Funicello, 1958

Monkey Business--Eddie Hill and Group, 1959

Haunted House--Gene Simmons, 1964

The Man in the Moon Is a Lady--Floyd Robinson, 1959

Flyin' Saucers Rock 'N Roll--Billy Riley, 1957

Space Race to the Moon--Alva Starr, 1967

The Girl Around the Corner--Lee Andrews and the Hearts, 1957

The Night Before Halloween--Bill Buchanan, 1962

Beware--Same

Lee

The return of Halloween 2024, Part 2!! The H Man, The Mummy, Spellbound, Saturday Evening Ghost, more!

 

Today/this evening/tonight, we go back two years to my second Halloween 2024 collection (which is why I call it "Halloween 2024, Pt. 2"--seems logical enough). Almost ready: Twenty-plus "leftover" Halloween tracks, including break-ins, instrumentals, and other crazy novelty numbers.  Stay tombed...

We start this repeat post with a marvelous 1945 recording of Miklos Rozsa's Spellbound theme, which Camden credits to Harold Coates, though it's really conducted by the Ukrainian-born Alfred Goodman.  The theme was famous for its use of the Theremin, and I think I hear a brief appearance of same on this recording, though my ears may be mistaken.  

Until I figured out that "Harold Coates" was Al Goodman, my Google searches kept taking me back to Memorable Music From The Movies (shown above, with Jim Flora art).  There was, in fact, a real Harold Coates, so I don't know if RCA's Camden label goofed, or if RCA was mad at Al, or what.  The correct ID appears at a Miklos Rozsa page.  However, no mystery in regard to Harry Lubin's One Step Beyond track, Weird, which is definitely by Lubin and very recognizably from that very show (One Step Beyond), where it was constantly used.

In fact, both Weird and the OSB title music were reworked into the second-season Outer Limits title music--unfortunately.  Lubin's OL music hardly compared to Dominic Frontiere's amazing first-season offerings, but he did an uncharacteristically terrific job on the famous Demon With a Glass Hand ep, plus the score for my favorite second-year OL, The Duplicate Man. I wish Harry had worked at that level more often.  At any rate, Lubin will always be known for the rather lame 1959-1961 OSB, a show hosted and directed by John Newland, allegedly featuring true (yeah, right) tales of the paranormal.  Because I only knew Newland for OSB, I always figured the man was something less than a masterful horror director, and so I was stunned to discover he'd directed what might be the scariest episode of the Boris Karloff-hosted Thriller series, "Pigeons From Hell," along with some other genuinely excellent entries.  He also directed the famous 1962 Bus Stop episode, "I Kiss Your Shadow," which Stephen King calls "the single most frightening story ever done on TV."  At the moment, that ep is still up on YouTube, and it is quite creepy (hence, perfect for Halloween).  But not quite the equal of Thriller eps like "Pigeons," "The Hungry Glass," or "The Cheaters."

And, courtesy of SPC's (Synthetic Plastics Co.) Promenade label, two budget knockoffs by John Logan: 1958's Dinner With Drac and The Witch Doctor.  From SPC, also, is 1965's Saturday Evening Ghost, performed by Frankie Stein and His Ghouls.  I can't believe I didn't hang on to my copy of the original LP version (which preceded this 1977 {?} Peter Pan EP release).

Rod McKuen's 1959 The Mummy features Bob McFadden and Dor (Rod), and is derived from a folk tale I know from childhood, which was featured in the same year's The Thing at the Foot of the Bed.  My book copy is packed away at the moment, so I can't quote from the text, though it employs the same story formula, only minus any mummies.

More instrumentals: Theme from "The Man With a Thousand Faces"--from Chopin's Prelude in E minor (Op. 28 No. 5); Morton Gould's Deserted Ballroom, performed by Morton at the piano; Chopin, again, with his famous Funeral March, performed my Mark Andrews; Josette's Music Box, familiar to any Dark Shadows fan; Graveyard Blues; John Barry's The Black Hole--End Title;  Lawrence Welk and George Cates' terrific adaptation of a famous Grieg number; Frank De Vol with The Addams Family theme; and Ferrante and Teicher with a prepared-piano rendition of Man From Mars, which I suspect they wrote (though I'm not sure).  Not sure where the LP is at this moment.  And there are Three Hauntovani Waltzes, composed and played by some guy named Lee Hartsfeld.

And, one of all-time favorite finds: The two-band, 78 rpm Theatre Lobby Spot for The H Man (the title for the 1959 release of this 1958 Inoshiro Honda classic).  "One of the most unusual and exciting films of its kind!" "Faceless, formless horror of destruction!" "Terrifyingly real, as the world in which it lives!" "See an exotic dancer trapped and destroyed!" "See.. The H Man."

And... three sides shared with me years back by my dear e-friend, the late Pete Grendysa, one of the leading R&B-history experts: Steve Gibson and the Red Caps doing their version of Charles Grean's The Thing (note that Grean recorded our version of Josette's Music Box); The Four Tunes' Ballad of James Dean; and Mr. Ghost Goes to Town, sung by the 5 Jones Boys.  The Four Preps' The Sphinx Won't Tell and the Liverpool Five's The Snake are maybe titles you're not likely to hear elsewhere, but with all the recordings available on YouTube these days, who knows?

DOWNLOAD: Halloween 2024, Pt. 2

SLAYLIST

Spellbound (Rozsa)--Harold Coates (Al Goodman) and His Orch.; 1945

Weird (Harry Lubin, From "One Step Beyond")--Harry Lubin; 1960

Dinner With Drac--John Logan (Promenade; 1958)

Theme From "Man of a Thousand Faces"--Wayne King Orch.; 1958

Deserted Ballroom (Gould)--Morton Gould, piano; 1940

Funeral March (Chopin)--Mark Andrews, Pipe organ solo; 1928

Josette's Music Box (From "Dark Shadows")--The Charles Randolph Grean Sounde; 1970

Saturday Evening Ghost--Frankie Stein and His Ghouls; 1965

My Friend the Ghost--Jill Whitney; 1954

The H Man--Theatre Lobby Spot (Columbia Pictures; 1959)

Graveyard Blues--Earl Fuller's Rector Novelty Orch., 1918

Witch Doctor--John Logan (Promenade; 1958)

Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte--Al Martino, Orch. c. by Pete King; 1964

The Thing (Grean)--Steve Gibson and the Red Caps; 1950

The Quest for Bridey Hammerschlaugen--Stan Freberg, with June Foray; 1956

Ballad of James Dean--The Four Tunes; 1956

Mr. Ghost Goes to Town--The 5 Jones Boys; 1936

The Sphinx Won't Tell--The Four Preps; 1962

The Snake--The Liverpool Five; 1965

The Black Hole--End Title (Barry)--Andre Kostelanetz; 1980

Mountain King--Lawrence Welk and His Orchestral; 1961

The Addams Family--Frank De Vol; 1965

The Mummy (Rod McKuen)--Bob McFadden and Dor (Rod McKuen), 1959

Man From Mars--Ferrante and Teicher, 1956

Three Hauntovani Waltzes (Lee Hartsfeld)--Your blogger;  2010

Lee

Memorable Mono Media, Part 4: Riverieras, Joe Turner, Bill Haley, Johnny Preston, The Originals, more!

 

Another helping of memorable mono media, starting with Johnny (Running Bear) Preston's 1960 cover of Leave My Kitten Alone--according to their own testimony, the model for the Beatles' recording of the song, though the Fab Four version didn't surface until the first Anthology release.  Next, the Southerners (whoever they were) with 1957's Say Yeah, which sounds for all the world like an early soul release, though Google identifies the group as a rockabilly band.  Could be.  Then, from Bill Haley, a novelty originally written and recorded by R&B singer Daniel Dorsey "Danny" Overbea, and further covered nicely by Les Brown and His Band of Renown--Forty Cups of Coffee.  Dick Hyman, who is loved by UK collectors, next gives us a nice bit of Ferrante and Teicher-style Exotica with the 1956 Junglero on MGM.  Lowkey but highly effective.

Continuing, we have a Band of Gold-style shuffle ballad scored by Ray Conniff for Eileen Rodgers, 1957.  Rudolph Toomb's Gum Drop was originally done by Otis Williams and the Charms, and the Mills Brothers do quite well with their R&B-inspired rendition of the same year (1955).  Your True Love, which follows, is a terrific rocker by Carl Perkins, slightly sped up so that Carl sounds younger (that was the intention, anyway).  Can't Wait is a superior 1958 rock and roll ballad by The Del Vikings, and Yea Yea (In the Mood) is a blatant steal from/of I'm in the Mood for Love, sung by a very young-sounding group of kids.  Meanwhile, The Four Voices' 1957 Bon Bon, written by Bob Merrill, is a somewhat silly but effective R&B-style I-vi-ii-V ballad, beautifully sung.  Then, 1956's Over and Over by the all-time great Moonglows, featured in the film Rock, Rock, Rock! but not a chart success.  The elaborately-arranged Seven Come Eleven has an overworked background chorus giving a solid and heavy beat to the proceedings, and True Love Is Hard to Find is one of the Rivieras' (not to be confused with the California Sun group) less elaborate numbers for Coed (here in a Lost Nite reissue).

Next, the Shirelles on Decca in 1958 with I Want You to Be My Boyfriend, a side on which the harmony falters a bit in the bridge but is otherwise up to the group's later recordings.  I'll Be Around features Don Cherry duplicating the sound of his own Band of Gold, and 1960's Little Lonely Girl features a familiar minor-mode descending bassline.  This single, to my surprise, is quite collectable (at least, at Discogs).

Tarrantela Rock is a terrible but fun rock and roll instrumental (its flip, Somebody Loves Me, is even more fun and terrible), and Steve Lawrence's cover of Joe Turner's The Chicken and the Hawk (Leiber and Stoller) is surprisingly effective.  Great 1961 doo-wop by The Devotions with I Love You for Sentimental Reasons, preceded by Hugo Winterhalter's very R&B-style cover of Ollie Jones and Luther Dixon's Midnight.  A bit odd to hear such an effective treatment by Winterhalter, who famously didn't think much of teen pop.  He certainly did well with it here.

DOWNLOAD: Memorable Mono Media, Pt. 4.zip

Leave My Kitten Alone--Johnny Preston, 1960

Say Yeah--The Southerners, 1957

Forty Cups of Coffee--Bill Haley and His Comets, 1957

Junglero--Dick Hyman Trio, 1956

I Wish I Didn't Have to Dream So Far--Eileen Rodgers w. Ray Conniff and His Orch., 1957

Gum Drop--Mills Brothers w. Sy Oliver, 1955

Your True Love--Carl Perkins, 1957

Can't Wait--The Del Vikings, Orch. c. by Carl Stevens, 1958

Yea Yea (I'm in the Mood)--The Rockin' Kids, 1958

Bon Bon--The Four Voices w. Ray Conniff and His Orch., 1957

Over and Over Again--The Moonglows, 1956

Seven Come Eleven--Tony Rand (Anthony D. Ranucci), 1957

True Love Is Hard to Find--The Rivieras, 1960

Midnight Cannonball--Joe Turner and His Blues Kings, 1955

I Want You to Be My Boyfriend--The Shirelles, 1958

I'll Be Around--Don Cherry w. Ray Conniff and His Orch., 1957

Little Lonely Girl--The Originals, Featuring Tony Allen, 1960

Tarrentela Rock--Frank Sandy and the King's Men, 1958

The Chicken and the Hawk--Steve Lawrence w. Chorus and Orch. dir. by Dick Jacobs, 1955

Midnight--Hugo Winterhalter's Orch. and Chorus, V: Johnny Oaks, 1958

(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons--The Devotions, 1961

Lee