The Original Monster Mash - Bobby "Boris" Picket | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic The Original Monster Mash google+ AllMusic Review by Greg Adams "Monster Mash" is one of the all-time great holiday songs, resurfacing (and sometimes charting) every Halloween without fail. The Original Monster Mash is the accompanying Top 20 album from 1962, on which Pickett leads off with his big hit before plying his Boris Karloff shtick for another 15 songs. Pickett's other Top 100 monster hit, the Christmas novelty "Monsters' Holiday," is here as well, along with dated jokes about Fabian ("Rabian - The Fiendage Idol") and then-current dance crazes ("Transylvania Twist," "Skully Gully"). "Let's Fly Away" is a brief Stan Freberg send-up that replaces "John and Marsha" with Dracula and Vampira. The Crypt-Kickers were an all-star band that counted Leon Russell, producer Gary Paxton, and other famous folks among its members, and the album remains a fine Halloween party platter year and years later.

Unfortunately, the album was remixed for CD release in 1991, and the vocals are obscured in the mix so that the generic rock backing often prevails over the "spooky" dialogue and singing, which defeats the point for a novelty effort such as this. Track Listing Monster Mash - Bobby (Boris) Pickett & The Crypt-Kickers Monster Mash - Bobby (Boris) Pickett & The Crypt-Kickers Written by Bobby Pickett and Lenny Capizzi Released by Garpax Records, 1962; playing time, 3:01 Soared to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed there for two weeks, becoming a gold single. Returned to the charts in 1970, when it reached #91. Was re-released by Parrot Records in 1973, climbing to #10 and selling more records--2 million--than it did the first time around.

contributed by Annie Sattler, October 28, 1995 I was working in the lab late one night When my eyes beheld an eerie sight For my monster from his slab began to rise And suddenly to my surprise He did the mash He did the monster mash The monster mash It was a graveyard smash He did the mash It caught on in a flash He did the mash He did the monster mash From my laboratory in the castle east To the master bedroom where the vampires feast The ghouls all came from their humble abodes To get a jolt from my electrodes They did the mash They did the monster mash The monster mash It was a graveyard smash They did the mash It caught on in a flash They did the mash They did the monster mash The zombies were having fun The party had just begun The guests included Wolf Man Dracula and his son The scene was rockin', all were digging the sounds Igor on chains, backed by his baying hounds The coffin-bangers were about to arrive With their vocal group, "The Crypt-Kicker Five" They played the mash They played the monster mash The monster mash It was a graveyard smash They played the mash It caught on in a flash They played the mash They played the monster mash Out from his

 coffin, Drac's voice did ring Seems he was troubled by just one thing He opened the lid and shook his fist And said, "Whatever happened to my Transylvania twist?" It's now the mash It's now the monster mash The monster mash And it's a graveyard smash It's now the mash It's caught on in a flash It's now the mash It's now the monster mash Now everything's cool, Drac's a part of the band And my monster mash is the hit of the land For you, the living, this mash was meant too When you get to my door, tell them Boris sent you Then you can mash Then you can monster mash The monster mash And do my graveyard smash Then you can mash You'll catch on in a flash Then you can mash Then you can monster mash From The Wacky Top 40 by Bruce Nash and Allan Zullo (Holbrook, Mass : Bob Adams Publishers, 1993): A childhood fascination with horror movies and Boris Karloff led to this weird graveyard smash.

While Bobby Pickett was growing up in Somerville, Massachusetts, he used to go to all the movies he wanted because his father was the manager of a local theater. "I would sit there and watch horror films two or three times a day," recalled Pickett. "I was fascinated with the horror genre and I loved Boris Karloff." Pickett eventually perfected a dead-on imitation of his favorite horror film star. "I would enter these talent contests in local bars and clubs and do this schtick about Boris Karloff," he recalled. "It lasted about four minutes and I'd always win." In the late 1950s, Pickett, bitten by the acting bug, moved to Hollywood and landed some bit parts on TV and in film. Pickett sang with friends in a group called the Cordials. They specialized in doo-wop music and performed at local clubs. One of the songs they sang was the Diamonds' "Little Darlin'." It featured a monologue which Pickett did in his Karloff impersonation: "My darlin,' I need you to hold in mine your little hand/I know too soon that all is grand." Recalled Pickett, "The kids in the audience would crack up.

Lenny Capizzi [one of the members of the Cordials] told me, 'That's a great voice for a novelty record.'" But Pickett didn't think much of the idea at the time. He quit the group shortly thereafter because the other members were always late for rehearsals. "But then my agent died of a heart attack and I thought, 'Gee, my acting career isn't doing so well.' So I called Lenny and said, 'Let's test out that idea you had.' "We got together and he sat at the piano and started playing four chords-- G, E minor, C, and D. I said, 'Okay, let's call it "The Monster Twist". But Lenny said, 'No, the Twist is out and the Mashed Potato is in. It's 'The Monster Mashed Potato." "Then I wrote, 'I was working in the lab late one night and my eyes beheld an eerie sight. . .' And in less than two hours we had the whole thing written." They took the song to producer Gary Paxton, whom they had met a few months earlier.

"When I was with the Cordials, we used to go to Will Rogers State Beach every Sunday afternoon and sing doo-wop a capella," said Pickett. "Within ten minutes, a hundred people would encircle us and listen to our music. One day, this cute red headed girl walked up and said, 'My old man is Gary Paxton. He sang "Alley Oop" and he produces now. He'd love you guys. Call him." "Gary loved our song and decided to call it 'The Mean Monster Mashed Potato.' But after talking it over, we decided that just 'Monster Mash" was fine. Then Gary told me, 'From now on, you're Bobby 'Boris' Pickett.' "Every major record label that Gary visited turned 'Monster Mash' down. They said it would never get on the radio and that it was stupid. Gary told me, 'Don't worry.

This is a number one record and I'm going to put it out on my own label.' "He pressed 1,000 records on his label, Garpax, put them in the back of his old Excalibur and drove up and down California, dropping off records at every radio station along the way. And by the time he returned to Los Angeles, the song was on its way to becoming a hit." NOTEWORTHY NOTES Although Pickett had never been in a recording studio before, he did the song in one take. The musician who had booked time in the studio right before Pickett's session was Herb Alpert, who was also recording his first song that day. The sound of the coffin opening was made by pulling a rusty nail out of a 2-by-4 with the claw of a hammer. The bubbling sounds came from blowing through a straw in a glass of water. The sound of the chains was made by dropping chains onto plywood planks on the studio floor. PLATTER PATTER Elvis Presley thought "Monster Mash" was one of the dumbest songs ever recorded. "I was a real Elvis fan," said Bobby Pickett.

"One day after the song had become a hit, I bumped into this girl who used to hang around Elvis' house in Los Angeles. So I asked her, 'How's the King?' "'Well, he hates your record, Bobby,' she said. When I asked why, she told me, 'He thinks it's the stupidest thing he's ever heard.' "So I said, 'Well, whoever liked him anyway?' I don't think he knew who Boris Karloff was, to tell you the truth." Although Karloff was alive when the record was released, Pickett never met him. "I heard that he was in a record store and was buying my album, which had 'Monster Mash' on it, and a friend on mine was there and said, 'Oh, Mr. Karloff, I know the young man who did the song and he's a real big fan of yours.' And Karloff said, 'I love his record.' So I was thrilled. FOLLOWS UPS AND DOWNS Bobby Pickett followed up his smash hit with a song that, he says, "I didn't like and I didn't want to do." It was called "Monster's Holiday" and reached #30.

Among other songs that he later recorded were "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette," "Star Drek" (he was Captain Jerk), "King Kong, Your Song," and "Monster Rap." ROCK ON Bobby Pickett, who lives near New York City, still acts in small theater productions, does commercials and performs at a few singing gigs. "I never thought in a million years that this record would be the national anthem of Halloween, but it is," he said. "Every Halloween I feel like Guy Lombardo because I get these phone calls and the song gets a tremendous amount of exposure. As a friend once said, 'If you never, ever do another thing the rest of your life, you are a man of history.' I'd like to believe that's true." Back to the list of demented lyrics "Bobby "Boris" Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers" -Monster Mash - YouTube "Bobby "Boris" Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers" -Monster Mash Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading...

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Uploaded on Apr 7, 2009 Bobby "Boris ' Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers - Monster Mash I was working in the lab late one night When my eyes beheld an eerie sight For my monster from his slab began to rise And suddenly to my surprise He did the mash He did the monster mash The monster mash It was a graveyard smash He did the mash It caught on in a flash He did the mash He did the monster mash From my laboratory in the castle east To the master bedroom where the vampires feast The ghouls all came from their humble abodes To get a jolt from my electrodes They did the mash They did the monster mash The monster mash It was a graveyard smash They did the mash It caught on in a flash They did the mash They did the monster mash The zombies were having fun The party had just begun The guests included Wolf Man Dracula and his son The scene was rockin', all were digging the sounds Igor on chains, backed by his baying hounds The Coffin-Bangers were about to arrive With their vocal group, "The Crypt-Kicker Five" They played the mash They played the monster mash The monster mash It was a graveyard smash They played the mash It caught on in a flash They played

 the mash They played the monster mash Out from his coffin, Drac's voice did ring Seems he was troubled by just one thing He opened the lid and shook his fist And said, "Whatever happened to my Transylvania twist?" It's now the mash It's now the monster mash The monster mash And it's a graveyard smash It's now the mash It's caught on in a flash It's now the mash It's now the monster mash Now everything's cool, Drac's a part of the band And my monster mash is the hit of the land For you, the living, this mash was meant too When you get to my door, tell them Boris sent you Then you can mash Then you can monster mash The monster mash And do my graveyard smash Then you can mash You'll catch on in a flash Then you can mash Then you can monster mash Category The Original Monster Mash by Bobby "Boris" Pickett & The Crypt-Kickers on Apple Music There's No Topping To The Originals!

by musicmaker! Great songs, especially Monster Mash. I rememeber when I was like Five, or so, I would listen to this song in the car. Also, sometimes, they would play it at my school's annual Halloween Parade. I was looking for the song on itunes and all I found were all of these stupid re-recordings from K-tel. So I'm glad I finally found this version of the song or I would of ended up buying one of those re-recorded versions. And I was very suprised when I found out that this was the LP version of Monster Mash and thought to myself that it must be good. And I was right. So if you're trying to find a version of Monster Mash to buy... DEFINENTLY GET THIS ONE!! MUAHAHAHAHA!!! by krackerjack077 What a fun record!!! I used to play this during the summer when I worked at a music store...I'd always get, "but, it isn't Halloween!". It doesn't matter! So, I guess what I'm saying to you is...GET THIS! "Me & My Mummy" is such a cool song, "Monster Mash" included.

Think outside of the box for a change. lol It was the monster mash! by jschape What fun! I used to LOVE THIS SONG when I was little and it is still pretty good! Top Albums and Songs by Bobby "Boris" Pickett & The Crypt-Kickers 1. 'Monster Mash' Singer Bobby 'Boris' Pickett Dies at 69 | Fox News 'Monster Mash' Singer Bobby 'Boris' Pickett Dies at 69 Published April 26, 2007 Facebook 0 Twitter 0 Email Print NEW YORK – He does the "Monster Mash" no more. Bobby "Boris" Pickett , whose dead-on Boris Karloff impression propelled the Halloween anthem to the top of the charts in 1962, making him one of pop music's most enduring one-hit wonders, has died of leukemia. He was 69. Pickett, dubbed "The Guy Lombardo of Halloween," died Wednesday night at the West Los Angeles Veterans Hospital, said his longtime manager, Stuart Hersh. His daughter, Nancy, and his sister, Lynda, were at Pickett's bedside.

"Monster Mash" hit the Billboard chart three times: when it debuted in 1962, reaching No. 1 the week before Halloween; again in August 1970, and for a third time in May 1973. The resurrections were appropriate for a song where Pickett gravely intoned the forever-stuck-in-your-head chorus: "He did the monster mash. ... It was a graveyard smash." The novelty hit's fans included Bob Dylan , who played the single on his XM Satellite Radio program last October. "Our next artist is considered a one-hit wonder, but his one hit comes back year after year," Dylan noted. The hit single ensured Pickett's place in the pantheon of pop music obscurities, said syndicated radio host Dr. Demento, whose long-running program celebrates offbeat tunes. "It's certainly the biggest Halloween song of all time," said Demento.

The DJ, who interviewed Pickett last year, said he maintained a sense of humor about his singular success: "As he loved to say at oldies shows, `And now I'm going to do a medley of my hit."' Pickett's impression of Karloff (who despite his name was an Englishman, born William Henry Pratt) was forged in Somerville, Mass., where the boy watched horror films in a theater managed by his father. Pickett used the impersonation in a nightclub act and when performing with his band the Cordials. A bandmate convinced Pickett they needed to do a song to showcase the Karloff voice, and "Monster Mash" was born — "written in about a half-hour," said Dr. Demento. The recording, done in a couple of hours, featured a then-unknown piano player named Leon Russell and a backing band christened The Crypt-Kickers. It was rejected by four major labels before Gary Paxton, lead singer on the Hollywood Argyles' novelty hit "Alley Oop," released "Monster Mash" on his own label. The instant smash became a sort-of Christmas carol for the pumpkin and ghoul set.

In a 1996 interview with People magazine, Pickett said he never grew tired of it: "When I hear it, I hear a cash register ringing." While Pickett never re-created its success, his "Monster's Holiday," a Christmas follow-up, reached No. 30 in December 1962. And "Graduation Day" hit No. 80 in June 1963. He continued performing through his final gig in November. He remained in demand for Halloween performances, including a memorable 1973 show where his bus broke down outside Frankenstein, Mo. Beside his daughter and sister, Pickett is survived by two grandchildren. Advertisement YouTube Undo Close "BOBBY "BORIS" PICKETT- "..." The YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated due to multiple third-party notifications of copyright infringement. Sorry about that.

50 Years of 'Monster Mash': The Story Behind the Halloween Hit | Billboard 50 Years of 'Monster Mash': The Story Behind the Halloween Hit | October 31, 2012 8:45 AM EDT 0 0 0 Steve Greenberg ( @steviegpro) is the founder of S-Curve Records and a Grammy winning record producer who had an integral role in developing the careers of Hanson, Joss Stone and the Jonas Brothers, among many others.Here, he reflects on the 50-year-old perennial Halloween hit "Monster Mash." Fifty years since its initial release, Bobby "Boris" Pickett 's "Monster Mash" has long since entered the pantheon of holiday evergreens, the Halloween equivalent of "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer" or "Frosty The Snowman." This is in itself an impressive feat. The song's chart history is equally notable: After spending the last two weeks of October, 1962 -- just in time for Halloween -- at number one on the Billboard chart, the song re-charted in 1973 and hit the Top 10 once again -- except this time, it was in early August!

As weird and inexplicable as that factoid is, however, it is not what inspires me to write about "Monster Mash." 'Monster Mash' at 50 • Read Steve's Original Blog Post What fascinates me about "Monster Mash" is the fact that this record, created to cash in on not one but two then-current fads, managed to transcend them both to stand on its own as a classic of sorts, even as those two fads evaporated into the mists of cultural obscurity. There's no doubt that "Monster Mash" was the product of a very specific cultural moment and that upon its release the audience understood precisely what it was parodying. The two fads it drew on were the spate of Twist-inspired early 60's dance craze records, in this case specifically "Mashed Potato Time" by Dee Dee Sharp; and the contemporaneous movie monster craze, ignited by the re-packaging for television of the Universal Studios monster movie catalogue.

Let's first deal with the movie monster craze: Universal brought its classic monster films of the 1930's and 40's-Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy, the Wolf Man and their various offspring and spouses-to television syndication in 1957 under the title "Shock Theatre." The films were an immediate hit with a new generation that had never seen them in theatres. By 1958, a magazine dedicated to the genre, Famous Monsters of Filmland, dealing exclusively with this genre, hit the newsstands hit and was a surprising success. Intended as a single-issue magazine featuring pictures and articles about old movie monsters, it instead sold out its initial run, became a popular monthly that published for years, and spawned numerous imitators. That same year, John "The Cool Ghoul" Zacherle, who was at the time the on-air host of the Philadelphia broadcasts of Shock Theatre, cut the record "Dinner With Drac," a kind of proto-"Monster Mash," and saw it reach No. 6 on Billboard. Zacherle was a friend of American Bandstand host Dick Clark, whose own show was broadcast live from Philadelphia during that period.

Clark introduced Zacherle to Dave Appell, a producer/arranger associated with the local Cameo/Parkway record label, a company which, by Clark's own admission, had a "warm relationship" with Bandstand and its host. Cameo/Parkway recorded and released "Dinner With Drac," Zacherle performed it on Bandstand, and the single shot up the chart. Shortly thereafter, Zacherle went on to host Shock Theatre in New York and over the years became a camp horror icon. Top 10 Halloween Songs | Stars in Halloween Costumes By 1961, nearly every TV market in the country had its own spinoff of Shock Theatre: New York's WPIX began airing Chiller Theatre in 1961, with Zacherle himself soon joining as host.

Later that year, the Aurora Plastics Corporation, which manufactured kits for building model airplanes and cars (the kind you glued together with "model airplane glue," of which the Ramones would sing a decade and a half later), released its first movie monster model kit, under license from Universal Pictures.t The Aurora Frankenstein was THE Christmas toy hit of 1961 for young boys; 1962 saw Aurora follow up their success by releasing Dracula and Wolf Man models. To feed young boys' hunger for all things horror, trading cards, posters, lunch boxes and more began to appear, all featuring famous movie monsters. It is in this context that Bobby Pickett, an aspiring Hollywood actor, hit upon the idea of "Monster Mash." While waiting for his break as an actor, Pickett made his living singing in clubs with a group called the Cordials, and as part of his act he would do impressions of movie actors. With monster movies riding a wave of popularity, Pickett began to do imitations of their stars in his act.

One night, he impersonated "Frankenstein" star Boris Karloff during his group's performance of the Diamonds' song "Little Darlin'" and the audience reaction inspired him to try and write an original song about movie monsters using the Karloff voice. In writing the song during the summer of 1962, Pickett and fellow Cordial Leonard Capizzi decided to capitalize on yet another fad sweeping America at that precise moment: The Mashed Potatoes dance craze and the record that inspired it, "Mashed Potato Time" by Dee Dee Sharp. Coincidentally, "Mashed Potato Time" was released by the same Cameo/Parkway record label that had released "Dinner With Drac" four years earlier. More importantly, it was also the same label that had released the record that ignited the whole 60's dance-craze explosion in the first place, "The Twist," by Chubby Checker. A cover of an R&B b-side by Hank Ballard, Chubby Checker's recording of "The Twist" came into being when Dick Clark heard from the host of a TV dance-party show in Baltimore that Ballard's record was getting a good reaction from his TV audience.

The audience was also doing an unusual dance to the song, derived from the African-American plantation "wringin' and twistin'", which itself originated with West African pelvic dance motions. Clark liked the record, but deciding that Ballard did not have enough mainstream appeal to make his version of the song a big pop success (Ballard was largely known for his "raunchy" R&B singles). Clark got his friends at Cameo/Parkway to make a sound-alike version featuring the young, fresh-faced former chicken-plucker Chubby Checker (nee Ernest Evans). Produced by Dave Appell (yes, the producer of "Dinner With Drac"), "The Twist" was a massive No. 1 record upon its release in the autumn of 1960 and the dance itself was an instant teen sensation. The Twist was also the object of condemnation from certain establishment types who found the dance-which, unlike all other previous popular dances, you danced alone-lewd and corrupting.

Kids found it liberating, though-and fun-and in this regard it can be seen as the opening salvo of what we've come to know as "The 60's." As Eldridge Cleaver would later write in "Soul On Ice": "The Twist was a guided missile, launched from the ghetto into the very heart of suburbia." When The Twist first hit No. 1, it was merely a big hit record. Less than 15 months after Checker's initial chart-topping run, a strange thing happened: The record re-emerged as a full-on cultural phenomenon. In January 1962, "The Twist" hit No. 1 on the Billboard chart again-this time, driven by the fact of the dance becoming popular with adults, led initially by the fashionable jet-setters who congregated at New York's Peppermint Lounge. Times were changing rapidly; condemnation of the dance was suddenly history and everyone could join in the fun. The Twist was an even bigger hit the second time around, as it spread to every corner of the popular culture.

At this point, a full-fledged dance-craze gold rush was on, with the Peppermint Lounge's house band, Joey Dee and the Starlighters, immediately following Checker to No. 1 on Billboard with their "Peppermint Twist." Immediately thereafter, the floodgates opened: "Sam Cooke's Twistin' the Night Away," King Curtis" "Soul Twist," the Isley Brothers' "Twist and Shout," Gary U.S. Bonds' 1-2 punch of "Dear Lady Twist" and "Twist, Twist Senora" and Checker's own slew of follow-ups (notably "Let's Twist Again") all rocketed to the upper reaches of the charts. It was an incredible onslaught, all the more remarkable considering that the Twist didn't spawn anything like this type of cultural response during its first visit to No. 1. The Twist was suddenly everywhere, featured on TV shows (everything from Ozzie and Harriet to The Flintstones), in all sorts of advertisements, in glossy magazines, on the network news, etc. A quickie movie, "Twist Around The Clock," even made it to cinemas, starring Chubby Checker himself.

And it wasn't long before the dance began to mutate, giving way to seemingly endless variations: the Hully Gully, the Monkey, the Watusi, and, notably, for our purposes, the Mashed Potatoes. The first verse of Dee Dee Sharp's "Mashed Potato Time" opens with the line "The Mashed Potatoes started a long time ago/With a guy named Sloppy Joe." But this is not actually true. As far as anyone can tell, the dance was originated in the late 50's by James Brown, who danced it as part of his live stage shows. Brown even released a song called "Do the Mashed Potatoes" in early 1960. Credited to Nat Kendrick & the Swans (due to a contractual dispute), Brown's instrumental recording was a Top 10 R&B hit, but barely dented the pop chart in an America that was still several months pre-Twist and hardly ready, stalling at No. 84.

With dance-craze fever in high gear in 1962, the folks at Cameo/Parkway, looking for their next hit, resurrected Brown's original dance, tweaking the moves so that it would more closely resemble the Twist. Musically, the song owed a lot to the Marvelettes' "Please Mr. Postman," which had hit No. 1 late in 1961, just before "The Twist" began its second stay at the chart summit. "Please Mr. Postman" was, in fact, Motown's attempt to produce a record you could Twist to, as was the Marvelettes' follow-up single, "Twistin' Postman." "Mashed Potato Time" was so similar in melody to "Please Mr. Postman" that Cameo/Parkway lyricist Kal Mann was ultimately forced to share writing credit with the five creators of "Postman." Making the connection even more explicit, Dee Dee Sharp sang in "Mashed Potato Time" of how kids "discovered it's the most, man/The day they did it to 'Please Mr.

Postman.'" Leaving no musical base uncovered, Sharp went on to instruct her audience that you could dance the Mashed Potatoes to the Tokens' No. 1 hit "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and that "They even do it to 'Dear Lady Twist.'" It wouldn't be long, though, before other records began to name-check the Mashed Potato. Sharp's "Mashed Potato Time" was released in March, 1962, hot on the heels of her hit duet with Chubby Checker, "Slow Twistin'." It shot to No. 2 on the Billboard pop chart and went all the way to No. 1 on the R&B chart. James Brown quickly responded to this usurping of hs creation by releasing "Mashed Potatoes U.S.A," this time under his own name, but saw limited success. Chris Montez' " Let's Dance," The Contours' "Do You Love Me," Chris Kenner's "Land of A Thousand Dances," Connie Francis' "V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N" and Sam Cooke's "Having A Party" subsequently had greater success than Brown in jumping on the Mashed Potato bandwagon..

(Sam Cooke is an interesting figure in the context of this story: An astute student of pop culture, he not only singled out the Mashed Potatoes and "Soul Twist" in "Having A Party", but his song "Twistin' the Night Away" documented the scene at the Peppermint Lounge in early '62. Cooke even managed to work "a cat named Frankenstein" into his 1963 hit "Another Saturday Night.") By the time Bobby Pickett decided to make a record about movie monsters in the summer of 1962, not only had "Mashed Potato Time" saturated the airwaves, but so had its Top 10 follow up "Gravy (For My Mashed Potatoes)," co-written by Kal Mann and Dave Appell. The record Pickett came up with, "Monster Mash," is a parody of both Dee Dee Sharp hits, although since her pair are pretty much interchangeable, you're free to imagine he's parodying either one.

The chords, melody, piano part (supposedly played by Leon Russell, although some sources say he was late for the session and only played on the record's b-side, "Monster Mash Party") and lyrical structure in "Monster Mash" are clearly taken from "Mashed Potato Time" and the "wah-ooo" female background vocals are a direct lift of the exact same vocal part that can be found in both Sharp Records. The magic of "Monster Mash," what makes it entertaining, is that Bobby Pickett's record parodies "Mashed Potato Time" by turning it into a song about the movie monsters craze. The monsters in question have all gotten together to party at Dr. Frankenstein's place and learn a new dance called the Monster Mash.

Pickett does most of the record in his Boris Karloff voice, except for one line, which is the record's most brilliant moment: At the end of the fourth verse, in the exact same spot where Dee Dee Sharp had exclaimed "They even do it to 'Dear Lady Twist,'" Picket suddenly stops imitating Karloff and takes on the persona of Bela Lugosi's Dracula, asking "Whatever happened to my Transylvania Twist?" What gives this line a certain poignancy (for the pop culture enthusiast, at least) is that Pickett was consciously commenting on the fact that the Twist had already become passé. By the time "Monster Mash" hit No. 1 in late October, all the aforementioned Twist records were gone from the charts, the kids were on to other dances like the Swim or the Loco-Motion, and Chubby Checker would never have another Top 10 record, after a 2-year run in which he'd had eight of them. A year later, the Twist-inspired dance-craze fever itself would disappear just as quickly as it came, replaced by Beatlemania and all that followed in its wake.

And though the Beatles did have early hits with their covers of "Twist and Shout" and "Please Mr. Postman," they soon led the culture in another direction entirely, leaving the dance craze era a quaint but fading memory. As for the movie monster craze, it too finally passed its expiration date, with parody at the end becoming its main form of expression: "The Munsters," which aired on television from 1964 through 1966; 1967's "Mad Monster Party" a Rankin-Bass production which featured animated monster puppets a la Davey and Goliath and the voice of Boris Karloff himself; Wolfman Jack's jive-talking mid-60's radio persona; and various Saturday morning cartoons produced by Hanna-Barbera, including "Frankenstein Jr." (1966), and the Gruesome family's arrival on the "The Flintstones" (1964). The classic monsters-Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Bram Stoker's Dracula, et. al.-would of course live on, but not many remember that there was a time when cultural references to Frankenstein reflexively meant the Boris Karloff version from Shock Theatre.

Horror films themselves would soon enter a new era, as Rosemary's Baby (1968), The Exorcist (1973) and all that followed would scare audiences without featuring Dracula or the Wolf Man. Before retiring at the end of the 60's and selling their company to Nabisco, the founders of Aurora had a few more flush years creating movie monsters under license from Universal Pictures. The Mummy model kit came out in 1963 to great success, followed by the Creature, the Hunchback of Notre Dame and Godzilla. Aurora released their final monster model kits in 1966, this time in collaboration with Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, which by this point was also running on fumes. And yet despite the demise of its twin inspirations, "Monster Mash" managed to live on, to embed itself in the culture as a thing unto itself. Halloween comes every year, after all, and there are no other classic Halloween songs, to the best of my knowledge, so I suppose it had no competition. And kids still do think it's funny.

As I write this the day before Halloween, "Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett sits at No. 25 on the iTunes pop singles chart. Click over to Spotify and you'll find over 50 versions of the song to choose from-one of them by John "The Cool Ghoul" Zacherle, even. I can't think of another example in pop culture of a parody so outliving and outshining its inspiration(s) that people no longer even remember it was ever intended as a parody. And that has got to bring a (fiendish) smile to the face of Bobby Pickett.

Bobby "Boris" Pickett - Monster Mash Lyrics Bobby "Boris" Pickett I was working in the lab late one night When my eyes beheld an eerie sight For my monster from his slab began to rise And suddenly to my surprise He did the mash He did the monster mash The monster mash It was a graveyard smash He did the mash It caught on in a flash He did the mash He did the monster mash From my laboratory in the castle east To the master bedroom where the vampires feast The ghouls all came from their humble abodes To get a jolt from my electrodes They did the mash They did the monster mash The monster mash It was a graveyard smash They did the mash It caught on in a flash They did the mash They did the monster mash The zombies were having fun The party had just begun The guests included Wolf Man Dracula and his son The scene was rockin', all were digging the sounds Igor on chains, backed by his baying hounds The coffin-bangers were about to arrive With their vocal group, "The Crypt-Kicker Five" They played the mash They played the monster mash The monster mash It was a graveyard smash They played the mash It caught on in a flash They played the mash They played the monster mash

 Out from his coffin, Drac's voice did ring Seems he was troubled by just one thing He opened the lid and shook his fist And said, "Whatever happened to my Transylvania twist?" It's now the mash It's now the monster mash The monster mash And it's a graveyard smash It's now the mash It's caught on in a flash It's now the mash It's now the monster mash Now everything's cool, Drac's a part of the band And my monster mash is the hit of the land For you, the living, this mash was meant too When you get to my door, tell them Boris sent you Then you can mash Then you can monster mash The monster mash And do my graveyard smash Then you can mash You'll catch on in a flash Then you can mash Then you can monster mash Copyright: Lyrics © Original Writer and Publisher

Question: Who were Bobby 'Boris' Pickett's backing group on his hit 'Monster Mash'?
Answer: Crypt-Kickers