Great Halloween Music

ID: 15734
Date: 2006-10-22 09:02:51

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Text: ----==== HALLOWEEN SPECIALS ====----

VARIOUS ARTISTS These Ghoulish Things

Ace CDCHD 1070 $16.98

Ace takes a stab (or maybe several stabs - the more the merrier) at the Halloween

music market with this 28 track CD of horrifying music - nearly half of them new

to CD and including several previously unissued radio station plugs from 1963 by

Bobby "Boris" Pickett. Includes "Screamin' Ball (At Dracula Hall)"

by The Duponts, "Ghost Train" by Virgil Holmes, "I'm The Wolfman"

by Round Robin, "Coolest Little Monster" by John Zacherle plus sides by

The Jayhawks, Allan Sherman, The Fiends, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, The Monotones

and others.

VARIOUS ARTISTS Monster Bop

Buffalo Bop 55013 $18.98

30 tracks, 69 minutes, essential

This concept has been done several times before but never to this extent. There

are 30 "monster" tunes here - enough to raise the short hairs on a corpse.

What better way to start than Jackie Morningstar's "Rockin' In The

Graveyard,” a super cool lyrics, pile-driver beat and savage guitar. Almost as great

is "The Cat" by Rod Willis. One approach to monster tunes is the "roll

call" of monsters like on Jack & Jim's "Midnight Monsters Hop,”

Jimmy Dee's "The Monster Hop,” the Daylighters' "Mad House Jump"

and many others. Another approach is the "top billing" method as heard

on Joe Johnson's "The Gila Monster,” Joe Wallace's "Leopard Man,”

Carl Bonafede's "Werewolf,” Round Robin's "I'm The Wolf Man"

and more Frankenstein tunes than you can shake a flaming torch at. (AE)

VARIOUS ARTISTS Horror Hop

Buffalo Bop 55014 $18.98

31 tracks, 73 minutes, recommended

Another hot volume of novelties, mostly rockabilly & rockin' country, showing

the influence of those bad 50s horror movies & even more, on those 50s/ 60s

horror novelties (how many of these would have been done if "Monster Mash"

& "Stranded In the Jungle" weren't hits?). There's a bunch

of bona fide classics including Kip Taylor's "Jungle Hop" & The

Revels's "Midnight Stroll" & lot more in between, even some by

name artists, Bobby Bare - "Vampira", Ben Colder -"Shudders &

Screams" plus tons more including Tommy King - "Bo Diddley In The Jungle",

Billy Taylor - "Wombie Zombie", Jack Hammer -"Black Widow Spider

Woman" & Tarantula Ghoul's bizarre "Graveyard Rock." (GM)

VARIOUS ARTISTS Doo Wop Halloween Is A Scream

Wanda 1001 $17.98

26 R&B vocal group tunes with a horror/ Halloween theme including "Trick

Or Treat" by The Four Flops, "Headless Ghost" by The Nightmares,

"Dead” by The Poets, "In The Ground For Good" by The Newports, "Mummy's

Ball" and other tales to send a shiver down your spine.

VARIOUS ARTISTS Happy Horror Halloween

Wanda 1002 $17.98

27 rock 'n' roll, R&B and vocal group songs with a horror/ Halloween

theme. Includes "Count Drunkula" by The Starlits, "Transylvania"

by Zacherly (unreleased demo), "Movin' Outta This Haunted House" by

Bill "Butterbean" Flippo, "Frankenstein Rock" by Eddie THomas

plus sides by The Monsters, Lee Lilly, The Upperclassmen, Jim Burgett and more.

VARIOUS ARTISTS Bomp In The Night

Wanda 1003 $17.98

30 Ghoulish Tracks Creeping in at 73 Minutes, recommended

As with many of these Halloween compilations, this is a mixed Trick or Treat bag,

but fortuitously one that is heavier on the candy bars and toys over the lame pennies

or toothbrushes (note, if you are someone who gives out pennies or toothbrushes,

know that you are a bummer). The first 4 songs pretty much suck like Dracula on

a street urchins' jugular, no surprise with the all-star loser line up of Bruce

& The Heartbreaks, Steve "The Gem" Dworkin & The Gems and Bert

Convey! Around track five you start getting to the real meat of the matter. In my

opinion the genres of music that accompany the macabre, spooky and fiendish best

tend to be Doo Wop, Surf and Rock 'N' Roll and you get casketful of all

spanning about 40 years. This has one of my all-time favorite Halloween singers

Gene Moss with his fantastic Beatles send up "I Want To Bite Your Hand"

and the equally entertaining "Ghoul Days" treatment (sort of) of the Chuck

Berry classic. Of the frightful R&B and Doo Wop gems, you get "Zombie Lou"

by The Johnson Brothers, "Miss Frankenstein" by George Jackson, "Spooky

Movies" by Ron Barrett, "Hello Mr Grave Digger" by The Creators,

"Shiverin and Shakin" by Edwin and Alvin" and "Zombie Stomp"

by Danny Ware to name a few winners. Of the retching Rockers there are Jack And

Jim's "Midnight Monsters Hop," Jekyll & Hyde Doing "Dracula

Drag," Tony and The Monstrosities doing "Igor's Party," The Eastsiders'

"The Mummy's Monkey" and "Mockingbird Heights" by Henry

J. Fregosi & The Transylvanians one of the better of the more recent bands on

this. The good Doo Wop numbers on this outnumber the best of any other style, but

one of my all time favorite Halloween tracks on here isn't Doo Wop, if anything

it's Country. "The Mummy's Bracelet by Lee Ross is almost worth the

price of the CD alone. It's a fantastic tale of young lovers and a vengeful

mummy, chock full of twangy guitar and subtle effects, this track is truly one of

a kind. All in all, this is great fun and one of the better Halloween compilations

out there. (JM)

JOHN ZACHERLEY Spook Along With Zacherley

Collector's Choice 229 $13.98

11 tracks, highly recommended

Fantastic re-issue of the classic 1960 album from the "Cool Ghoul" Zacherley.

This includes reproduction of all the original album art plus great new liner notes

by horror expert and "Chiller Theatre" host Kevin Clement. For those not

familiar with Zach, he was the horror host with the most of the Shock Theatre horror

TV show starting in 1957 and has been a legend in the genre ever since. To capitalize

on his massive cult status they put together this record in 1960. This project could

have easily been an exploitive cashing in, but Zacherley and a crew of seasoned

session pros put together an excellent album with instantly classic monster anthems

like "Coolest Little Monster" and "Come With Me To Transylvania."

Mostly this is done in more of a lounge music mode with a little rock 'n 'roll

thrown in and it is a real treat (or trick?) to listen to all the way through; this

is an excellent choice for your upcoming Halloween party. (JM)

Roots & Rhythm

P.O. Box 837

El Cerrito, CA 94530, USA

Toll Free Order Line (in USA): 888-ROOTS-66

Enquiry Line: 510-526-8373

Fax: 510-526-9001

E-Mail: roots@toast.net

Web Site: www.rootsandrhythm.com