How Halloween Rocked Out Decades Ago

Just in time for Halloween, “It was the mash, it was the monster mash.” And it all happened 55 years ago to the month.

Remember Tammy Faye Bakker? No, she wasn’t the model for “Monster Mash.” That would be too easy. But a supporting character in the Tammy Faye scandal was the key character of Monster Mash, a No. 1 hit exactly 55 years ago and is one of the very few hit records from that era that gets FM play to this day. Radio’s Dr. Demento said, “Monster Mash” was the biggest novelty hit of the 1960s and the greatest Halloween hit of all time.”

It begins with sound effects, the rattling of chains and a gurgling pot of some unknown liquid, then the vocal, sounding just like horror movie monster actor, Boris Karloff. Except it wasn’t.

Dance records were huge at the time, “The Twist” “The Pony” “Hully Gully” “The Watusi” and “The Mashed Potatoes,” the basis of every mash dance on the charts. The time was summer 1962. “It took off like a flash…” Wishful thinking. In actuality, it almost didn’t take off at all. AM radio was king and none of the ruling rocking radio L.A. stations wanted to spin it. Only Long Beach’s own KLFM, a little-listened to FM out of the second story of a Lakewood Village bungalow near Norse Way gave it an airing. Since mainly jazz, folk and classical music buffs listened to FM at the time, it didn’t get much traction. In ‘62, rock and roll fans just didn’t listen to FM to hear their sounds. Years later, KLFM became KNAC, the world-wide home of heavy metal music.

The lead singer of “Monster Mash” was Bobby Pickett, who became Bobby “Boris” Pickett as his most noteworthy talent was the ability to imitate Boris Karloff’s unique monster rap.

Dr. Demento said, “Bobby Pickett’s parents owned a movie theatre and he grew up with movies, including Boris Karloff’s of course. He was singing with a group and when they covered “Little Darlin” he started doing the recitation in the Boris voice and, when it got a good reaction, he and Lenny Capizzi wrote a song for the voice.”

Monster Mash’s co-writer and producer, Gary Paxton already had one No. 1 hit under his belt, “Alley Oop” by the Hollywood Argyles. There was no such band, instead it was a make-believe group of session musicians who recorded that goofy novelty while consuming bottles of wine at a recording studio at Hollywood Blvd. and Argyle Street in Hollywood, thus the Hollywood Argyles.

It was that sort of process that got session musicians to the top of the charts in those days.

The “Alley Oop” session was put together by two legends in the Hollywood indie rock and roll scene of those days, Gary Paxton and Kim Fowley. Here’s where Tammy Faye comes in.

In the late 1970s, Paxton was the music director of the Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker televangelist empire and, after the sex scandal involving Jim Bakker and Jessica Hahn was exposed, Paxton was alleged to have had an ongoing affair with Tammy Faye before the news broke, something he never denied. Good thing there are no sex scandals in show biz anymore, right?

Paxton arrived in Hollywood in 1960 where he met a teenaged Kim Fowley who was hanging with the writer of “Alley Oop.” The trio recorded the novelty about the comic strip character. When “Alley Oop” hit No. 1, the newspaper syndicate that owned the cartoon character sued, so they had to split the royalties.

Paxton had previously produced Pickett on an unsuccessful release and noted his Karloff take-off. When it was time to record this Halloween-oriented dance tune, he chose Pickett. Released as Bobby “Boris” Pickett And The Crypt-Kickers, Paxton took promo copies of “Monster Mash” around to L.A.’s rock and roll radio powerhouses, KRLA and KFWB. Both refused to air it, though various DJs liked the record. “One program director told me that’s even stupider than ‘Alley Oop’,” said Paxton.

Paxton took it on the road to create a buzz for the record. “I drove to Fresno with 4,000 copies. I picked out seven or eight record stores, talked to the girl who stocked records, gave them 10 copies a piece. Then we went to Oakland, San Jose, did the same thing. We took the record to radio stations, told them it was in all the record stores and, when they called, they found out that all the stores had the record, so they played it.”

By early September, “Monster Mash” had reached No. 2 on KFWB, KRLA and at Wallich’s Music City, which had a popular Lakewood outlet. Even better, it went to No. 1 nationally and became a hit, every October since, just in time for Halloween.

Sadly, when Paxton passed away in Branson, MO on July 16, 2016, no Southern California news outlet found room to acknowledge his historic successes.

steve@beachcomber.news