Halloween Playlist?

[froggy]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYIh2C2Lvrk[/ame]

 

[Madeline]

How to dance to "Monster Mash", for those who don't remember, or never knew....

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtPQnT7JnBk"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtPQnT7JnBk[/ame]

Actually, it is a take off on the Mashed Potatoes, and this is how THAT is done. Wow, am I dating myself, LMAO!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQBKpV9emKc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQBKpV9emKc[/ame]

Robert George Pickett, the lead creator of the song, grew up in a movie theater in Massachusetts where his father was the manager. Unsurprisingly, he became infatuated with the films shown and developed a lifelong desire to star on the sliver screen. This childhood experience also gave him a chance to practice celebrity impressions, and his best impression was of Boris Karloff.

Upon turning 21, he immediately moved to Hollywood to live his dreams of stardom. While his acting career never really took off, he did get involved with rock music and started playing with a doo-wop group called the Cordials. During performances, he would often bust out his Karloff impression, much to the pleasure of audience members.

One day in 1962, band member Lenny Capizzi encouraged Pickett to do more with his impression than a silly skit during performances. The two men then started working on a humorous dance song based around the narration of a Boris Karloff character. Originally, they thought of working with the twist, but that dance craze was out of fashion, so instead they opted to make the song work with the Mashed Potato. They titled the track the “Monster Mash” and recorded it under the band name “The Crypt Kickers.”

To enhance the setting of the tune, the band added in a number of sound effects, such as rattling chains and a creaking coffin. Because the recorded the track themselves, they had to do these effects themselves and the coffin noise was made by pulling a rusty nail from a board, the bubbling cauldron was created by bubbling water through a straw and the chains were just chains dropped on the floor.

Aside from the main Boris Karloff impression, Pickett enhanced the song’s imaginary star power by adding his impression of Bela Lugosi’s Dracula when he asks, “Whatever happened to my Transylvania Twist?”

While the boys knew their record was a hit, the record labels disagreed. Every label they shipped the song to rejected it. So the record producer, Gary S. Paxton, printed one thousand copies and then delivered them to every radio station he could find. The stations loved it and within eight weeks, the song was at the top of the Billboard charts, peaking on October 20. These days, it still receives a quite a bit of airplay every Halloween.

mental_floss Blog It Was a Graveyard Smash: The Story of The Monster Mash

 

[Valerie]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnqjkJTMaA&ob=av3e[/ame]

 

[Madeline]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vjg5yvnn73s"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vjg5yvnn73s[/ame]

 

[Valerie]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MRu8N2K0NY[/ame]

 

[Madeline]

You have some terrific tunes to suggest, Valerie!

 

[Valerie]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz1W_omigwg&feature=player_embedded[/ame]

 

[Madeline]

That was mean! LOL.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKbPUzhWeeI"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKbPUzhWeeI[/ame]

 

[Valerie]

That was mean! LOL.

Sorry..made me laugh.

 

[Harry Dresden]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2AksWZHmF0[/ame]

 

[Meister]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0thH3qnHTbI[/ame]

 

[Madeline]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qggxTtnKTMo"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qggxTtnKTMo[/ame]

 

[Crow]

Only the most vile, evil and demented sounding song ever of course.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZvQsFc7U4Q[/ame]

Seriously, that vocalist must be an ogre or some other sort of horrible monster. LOVE IT.

 

[editec]

Johann Sebasian Bach's Toccato and Fugue in D Minor (played on a cathedral organ naturally)

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipzR9bhei_o[/ame]

And for setting the mood of magic, I find this Holst'sOpus 32 -Venus rather charming

It starts out so innocent and sweet and slowly turns ever so slightly sinister.

And face it. Isn't that how we so often are seduced by evil?

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaNuYvj-jcc[/ame]

But if you want to hear what raucous evil incarnant sounds like?

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCEDfZgDPS8[/ame]

And finally, a theme most of us know (somewhat at least)from various horror films?

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEllLECo4OM&feature=related[/ame]

 

[Madeline]

How could I forget "Night On Bald Mountain"? Thankies for the other suggestions, editec....I had not heard of those composers before, except for Bach.

 

[editec]

How could I forget "Night On Bald Mountain"? Thankies for the other suggestions, editec....I had not heard of those composers before, except for Bach.

You never heard Holst's the Planets?

I'll bet you've heard much of it coming at you in the form of background music in various movies and had no idea what you were listening to.

Actually there's a lot of late 19th and early 20th century (often called nationalist) composers worth listening to.

Sebalious, Stravinsky, Dvorcek, Samuel Barber come to mind instantly.

Sam Barber wrote what I think might be the best sarenade describing true grief I've ever heard... Adagio for Strings, op.11.

This was the music I asked (and failed to get) for my mother's viewing.

You might know it as that painfully haunting music behind the movie PLATOON

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV3SHBFyDZM&feature=related[/ame]

I'm leaking right now as I listen to it.

Bad way to start my Monday.

One of those painful emotions that feels good though, if you know what I mean.

 

[Madeline]

OMG, I do love Dvorcek.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yctfXIqugXc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yctfXIqugXc[/ame]


Dun be a sad guy this am, editec. The sun is shining, the election is almost over, you're healthy.

Life dun get much better, eh?

Do you know an American composer named Aaron Copland?

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzf0rvQa4Mc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzf0rvQa4Mc[/ame]