#1 for weeks of October 20 and 27th, 1962.
It's nothing short of perfect timing that one of the few Halloween #1 hit songs is reviewed in October. Bobby Pickett is the epitome of one hit wonder as not only was this his only smash hit, but he was forever cast in that song's shadow. Most of his subsequent recordings were monster or Halloween themed. You may think by these comments that I don't like the song. Well, you'd be wrong.
Despite this song being purely a novelty number, it was originally intended as a parody of dance-specific music. However, seeing how some of Bobby's later singles were "Werewolf Watusi" and "Skully Gully", clearly he didn't mind this style of music, and perhaps the joke was on him.
The biggest draw to this song is Bobby Pickett's Boris Karloff impersonation which is where he gets the "Boris" nickname from. He even does a brief Bela Lugosi impersonation as the song progresses. It is because of Bobby's impersonations that the song not only got recorded in the first place, but probably became such a big hit.
Musically, the song is heavily rooted in doo-wop both musically and in terms of the backing vocals. Somehow though, despite the fact that this song is nothing but a novelty, and despite how for most of Bobby's career he would record similar less-successful songs, I can't help but appreciate "Monster Mash".
When you add up the sum of all the parts, you have a song which perfectly captures the Halloween mood lyrically. Plus, it's incredibly catchy and perhaps that's why everyone loves to play this song around Halloween. Sometimes we all need a bit of novelty songs in our diet, and so long as you don't play this on non-stop repeat, you'll probably always appreciate hearing it.
Final Verdict - A holiday classic which, despite its novelty factor is still an enjoyable listen to this very day. Just don't overplay it!
Coming Up Next - "He's A Rebel" by The Crystals.
Until Next Time - I'm Count. Rockula.
Count Rockula? lmao!!!!
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