Just in time for Halloween and in Glow In the Dark vinyl too, the original album by Bobby (Boris) Pickett & the Crypt Kickers. With tracks such as ‘Blood Bank Blues’, ‘Skully Gully’, ‘Transylvania Twist’, ‘Irresistible Igor’, there are 15 tracks cashing in on the twin 60’s crazes – Monster movies and dance crazes such as the Twist, the Mashed Potato, the Locomotion etc.
Bobby Pickett was in various New England bands, including The Cordials, before leaving and going to Hollywood to make his name – he didn’t succeed. Instead, he played a number of comedy shows doing a ‘bit’ that included various horror actors voices. Meeting Gary Paxton and writing the ‘Monster Mash’ with Leonard Capizzi, the single was released in October 1962, going to #1 in the US for two weeks including Halloween. It sold over 1 million copies and has since been re-issued a number of times, selling millions of copies along the way.
The album was recorded in response to “the millions of new Bobby Pickett fans who clamored for more of his weird, whimsical humor”.
Surprisingly, the music is pretty good. Various top session players including Leon Russell played on it and most of the songs, in similar vein to ‘Monster Mash’, are very listenable to.
