1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:01,920 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I 2 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:11,160 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, 3 00:00:11,200 --> 00:00:13,600 Speaker 1: a show that hits you with a jolt of history 4 00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:18,000 Speaker 1: every day of the week. I'm Gay Bluesier, and today 5 00:00:18,280 --> 00:00:22,680 Speaker 1: we're talking about the sixties pop sensation Monster Mash, a 6 00:00:22,800 --> 00:00:26,759 Speaker 1: ghoulishly campy song that, thankfully for dorks like me, just 7 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:41,159 Speaker 1: won't die. The day was October two. Monster Mash by 8 00:00:41,240 --> 00:00:45,000 Speaker 1: Bobby Boris Pickett and the crypt Kickers top the Billboard 9 00:00:45,080 --> 00:00:47,879 Speaker 1: Hot one hundred chart for the second week in a row. 10 00:00:48,920 --> 00:00:52,160 Speaker 1: The monster themed novelty song had been released two months 11 00:00:52,159 --> 00:00:56,600 Speaker 1: earlier on producer Gary Paxton's personal record label, gar Packs. 12 00:00:57,360 --> 00:01:00,520 Speaker 1: Hundreds of copies were sent out to radio station throughout 13 00:01:00,560 --> 00:01:03,480 Speaker 1: southern California, and it quickly became one of the top 14 00:01:03,520 --> 00:01:08,400 Speaker 1: requested songs in the region. That response convinced London Records 15 00:01:08,440 --> 00:01:11,480 Speaker 1: to strike a deal with gar Packs, allowing the label 16 00:01:11,560 --> 00:01:16,200 Speaker 1: to distribute Monster Mash worldwide. A few weeks later, with 17 00:01:16,280 --> 00:01:20,399 Speaker 1: Halloween fast approaching, the campy song reached number one on 18 00:01:20,480 --> 00:01:25,520 Speaker 1: the Singles chart and stayed there until early November. Monster 19 00:01:25,640 --> 00:01:28,399 Speaker 1: Mash was the hit of the land, but across the pond, 20 00:01:28,560 --> 00:01:32,240 Speaker 1: the BBC was having none of it. Despite being released 21 00:01:32,240 --> 00:01:35,880 Speaker 1: on a British label, the song was deemed too morbid 22 00:01:36,040 --> 00:01:39,880 Speaker 1: for English airwaves and was banned from play for several years. 23 00:01:40,640 --> 00:01:43,920 Speaker 1: The BBC did eventually change their tune, though, in light 24 00:01:43,959 --> 00:01:48,639 Speaker 1: of the songs enduring popularity. If you've somehow never heard 25 00:01:48,720 --> 00:01:51,800 Speaker 1: Monster Mash before, it tells the story of a group 26 00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:56,200 Speaker 1: of monsters who attend an impromptu party at Dr Frankenstein's castle. 27 00:01:56,840 --> 00:01:59,560 Speaker 1: It sung from the perspective of the good Doctor, who 28 00:01:59,640 --> 00:02:02,960 Speaker 1: happened to sound a lot like Boris Karloff, and recounts 29 00:02:02,960 --> 00:02:05,680 Speaker 1: how his famous monster came to life one night and 30 00:02:05,720 --> 00:02:10,360 Speaker 1: immediately sparked a dance craze, the titular Monster Mash. News 31 00:02:10,440 --> 00:02:14,000 Speaker 1: of the dance spreads quickly, and soon other monsters like 32 00:02:14,080 --> 00:02:17,280 Speaker 1: the Wolfman and Dracula arrive at the lab to try 33 00:02:17,280 --> 00:02:21,600 Speaker 1: it out for themselves. Of course, describing a novelty song 34 00:02:21,760 --> 00:02:24,880 Speaker 1: is kind of like explaining a joke. Nobody really wants 35 00:02:24,880 --> 00:02:27,080 Speaker 1: you to do it. It's much more fun to just 36 00:02:27,200 --> 00:02:29,480 Speaker 1: put it out there and let it speak for itself. 37 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:32,360 Speaker 1: So with that in mind, here's a taste of the 38 00:02:32,400 --> 00:02:37,440 Speaker 1: original Monster Mash looking in the love late one light. 39 00:02:37,800 --> 00:02:41,640 Speaker 1: When my eyes be hid an ey shit saw my 40 00:02:41,680 --> 00:02:46,679 Speaker 1: monster from his lap began to rise, and suddenly, to 41 00:02:46,919 --> 00:02:54,880 Speaker 1: my surprise, he did the monster. It was a graveyards man. 42 00:02:56,560 --> 00:03:02,920 Speaker 1: It caught all in a flag. As you might imagine, 43 00:03:03,080 --> 00:03:06,280 Speaker 1: it took a very specific set of circumstances for a 44 00:03:06,320 --> 00:03:09,280 Speaker 1: song like Monster Mash to become the hottest track in 45 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:12,960 Speaker 1: the country. The first factor and its success was the 46 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:16,240 Speaker 1: movie monster revival going on in America in the early 47 00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:21,359 Speaker 1: nineteen sixties. Universal Studios had recently dusted off its classic 48 00:03:21,440 --> 00:03:25,040 Speaker 1: monster movies from the nineteen thirties and forties and repackaged 49 00:03:25,080 --> 00:03:31,360 Speaker 1: them for TV syndication. That exposure introduced characters like Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula, 50 00:03:31,560 --> 00:03:34,519 Speaker 1: the Mummy, and the Wolfman to a whole new generation, 51 00:03:34,880 --> 00:03:37,600 Speaker 1: kicking off a monster craze that would last the rest 52 00:03:37,640 --> 00:03:41,760 Speaker 1: of the decade. Dozens of companies capitalized on that trend, 53 00:03:42,040 --> 00:03:45,920 Speaker 1: cranking out a host of monster branded products, including model kits, 54 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:50,080 Speaker 1: trading cards, posters, and lunch boxes. In that light, it 55 00:03:50,200 --> 00:03:53,760 Speaker 1: seems almost inevitable that the monsters would lurch their way 56 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:57,640 Speaker 1: into the music business as well. Another trend that played 57 00:03:57,640 --> 00:04:01,120 Speaker 1: directly into the song's success was the series of twist 58 00:04:01,160 --> 00:04:04,160 Speaker 1: inspired dance crazes that hooked the country in the early 59 00:04:04,240 --> 00:04:07,720 Speaker 1: nineteen sixties. In the spring of sixty two, the hot 60 00:04:07,720 --> 00:04:11,040 Speaker 1: new novelty dance of the week was called the Mashed Potato, 61 00:04:11,480 --> 00:04:13,880 Speaker 1: and the song that went along with it was Mashed 62 00:04:13,880 --> 00:04:46,599 Speaker 1: Potato Tie by D. D. Sharp. Take a list. You 63 00:04:46,680 --> 00:04:49,800 Speaker 1: may have guessed that the Mash and Monster Mash was 64 00:04:49,880 --> 00:04:52,719 Speaker 1: taken from D. D. Sharp song, But did you notice 65 00:04:52,760 --> 00:04:57,000 Speaker 1: that the chords, melody, and lyrical structure were too. That's 66 00:04:57,040 --> 00:05:01,960 Speaker 1: because songwriter Bobby Pickett intentionally it out to parody Mashed Potato. 67 00:05:02,040 --> 00:05:05,719 Speaker 1: Time in nineteen sixty two, Pickett was an aspiring actor 68 00:05:05,800 --> 00:05:07,960 Speaker 1: who made a living in the evenings by singing as 69 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:11,280 Speaker 1: the frontman in a local duop band called the Cordials. 70 00:05:11,880 --> 00:05:15,200 Speaker 1: He was also a lifelong Monster movie fan, and one 71 00:05:15,320 --> 00:05:18,400 Speaker 1: night during a gig, he did an impression of Frankenstein's 72 00:05:18,400 --> 00:05:21,839 Speaker 1: star Boris Karloff during one of their songs. The gag 73 00:05:21,880 --> 00:05:24,960 Speaker 1: went over so well with the crowd that Pickett's bandmate, 74 00:05:25,160 --> 00:05:28,480 Speaker 1: Leonard Capezi, suggested they write a song about monsters to 75 00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:32,760 Speaker 1: showcase his impression, and so that summer the duo sat 76 00:05:32,800 --> 00:05:36,279 Speaker 1: down and wrote Monster Mash using the current trendy song 77 00:05:36,440 --> 00:05:40,040 Speaker 1: Mashed Potato Time as their template. It only took an 78 00:05:40,080 --> 00:05:42,480 Speaker 1: hour or so to write the song, and recording it 79 00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:45,480 Speaker 1: didn't take much longer. They were helped in that endeavor 80 00:05:45,520 --> 00:05:50,440 Speaker 1: by producer Gary Paxton and studio musicians Johnny McCrae, Mel Taylor, 81 00:05:50,560 --> 00:05:53,839 Speaker 1: and Ricky Page, who were credited as the crypt Kickers. 82 00:05:54,560 --> 00:05:58,480 Speaker 1: Some sources credit renowned songwriter Leon Russell on piano, but 83 00:05:58,560 --> 00:06:01,279 Speaker 1: others say he arrived at the studio late and only 84 00:06:01,320 --> 00:06:05,080 Speaker 1: played on the records B side Monster Mash Party. In 85 00:06:05,160 --> 00:06:08,560 Speaker 1: any case, the lengthiest part of the recording process was 86 00:06:08,640 --> 00:06:11,880 Speaker 1: creating the many spooky sound effects featured on the track. 87 00:06:12,520 --> 00:06:17,039 Speaker 1: Because digital audio didn't exist in two all the sounds 88 00:06:17,080 --> 00:06:19,640 Speaker 1: had to be created the old fashioned way, right there 89 00:06:19,680 --> 00:06:23,520 Speaker 1: in the studio. Gary Paxton took on the job, using 90 00:06:23,560 --> 00:06:27,280 Speaker 1: household objects to approximate the atmospheric sounds of a creepy 91 00:06:27,279 --> 00:06:31,240 Speaker 1: old castle. For instance, the eerie creak of a coffin 92 00:06:31,320 --> 00:06:33,799 Speaker 1: lid at the start of the song, that's a claw 93 00:06:33,839 --> 00:06:37,800 Speaker 1: hammer pulling a rusty nail out of a lump of wood. Likewise, 94 00:06:37,839 --> 00:06:41,279 Speaker 1: the gurgling sound of brewing potions is actually the producer 95 00:06:41,360 --> 00:06:43,920 Speaker 1: blowing bubbles through a straw and a glass of water. 96 00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:48,359 Speaker 1: And as for the sounds of clinking chains, well those 97 00:06:48,400 --> 00:06:51,240 Speaker 1: really are just chains being dropped on the floor. That 98 00:06:51,279 --> 00:06:54,599 Speaker 1: one was kind of a freebee. The resulting song was 99 00:06:54,640 --> 00:06:57,760 Speaker 1: a bit of a monster itself, a do wop parity 100 00:06:57,839 --> 00:07:02,080 Speaker 1: about dancing monsters that sung by a Boris Karloff impersonator 101 00:07:02,320 --> 00:07:06,120 Speaker 1: and loaded with haunted house sound effects. It doesn't seem 102 00:07:06,200 --> 00:07:08,359 Speaker 1: like the recipe for a hit song, but in the 103 00:07:08,360 --> 00:07:11,360 Speaker 1: fall of nineteen sixty two, that's exactly what it was, 104 00:07:11,720 --> 00:07:15,440 Speaker 1: and Pickett and Capezi knew that. They recognize that the 105 00:07:15,480 --> 00:07:19,040 Speaker 1: two dominant elements of that strange moment in pop culture 106 00:07:19,360 --> 00:07:23,360 Speaker 1: were classic monsters and dance fads. Either one of those 107 00:07:23,400 --> 00:07:25,920 Speaker 1: would have been a ripe target for parody on its own, 108 00:07:26,120 --> 00:07:29,760 Speaker 1: but by frankensteining them together, the writers captured the true 109 00:07:29,800 --> 00:07:33,720 Speaker 1: spirit of the era, in all its gleeful, campy glory. 110 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:38,200 Speaker 1: That makes monster mash a decidedly gentle form of parody. 111 00:07:38,320 --> 00:07:42,440 Speaker 1: It celebrates the things that lampoons, rather than sneering at them. 112 00:07:42,480 --> 00:07:45,720 Speaker 1: The songwriters didn't think people were stupid for liking cheesy 113 00:07:45,760 --> 00:07:49,320 Speaker 1: monsters or silly dances. They thought those were a blast 114 00:07:49,560 --> 00:07:53,920 Speaker 1: and that they'd be even more fun mashed together. That said, 115 00:07:54,240 --> 00:07:58,160 Speaker 1: Monster Mash isn't a totally toothless parody either, and the 116 00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:01,640 Speaker 1: song's fourth verse is proof. For most of the track, 117 00:08:01,800 --> 00:08:05,600 Speaker 1: Pickett narrates the story as Dr Frankenstein, but then for 118 00:08:05,680 --> 00:08:09,040 Speaker 1: one line he switches characters and adopts the voice of 119 00:08:09,080 --> 00:08:13,320 Speaker 1: Bella Lugosi's Dracula to deliver some cutting, yet still playful 120 00:08:13,400 --> 00:08:17,760 Speaker 1: commentary about the fleeting nature of dance crazies. Here's the 121 00:08:17,760 --> 00:08:22,400 Speaker 1: cliff out from his coffin wrecked voice, did ring shamed? 122 00:08:22,440 --> 00:08:27,160 Speaker 1: He was trouble bar just wing opened the lid and 123 00:08:27,240 --> 00:08:38,160 Speaker 1: shook his fish and said it just like the Transylvania 124 00:08:38,200 --> 00:08:41,560 Speaker 1: twist before it. The Monster Mash eventually fell out of 125 00:08:41,559 --> 00:08:45,880 Speaker 1: fashion too, but unlike most other novelty songs, it actually 126 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:48,480 Speaker 1: rose from the dead. More than a decade after its 127 00:08:48,520 --> 00:08:52,920 Speaker 1: debut in vent three, the song returned to the Billboard 128 00:08:52,960 --> 00:08:56,439 Speaker 1: top ten, and not even at Halloween time either. It 129 00:08:56,559 --> 00:09:00,280 Speaker 1: recharted in early August. By that point, the b BC 130 00:09:00,559 --> 00:09:03,360 Speaker 1: had warmed up to Monster Mash, and the song climbed 131 00:09:03,360 --> 00:09:06,320 Speaker 1: to number three that year on the UK charts as well. 132 00:09:07,240 --> 00:09:10,320 Speaker 1: A one time revival would have been impressive enough, but 133 00:09:10,480 --> 00:09:13,680 Speaker 1: Monster Mash managed to live on from one Halloween to 134 00:09:13,760 --> 00:09:17,679 Speaker 1: the next. In doing so, the song has outlasted both 135 00:09:17,760 --> 00:09:20,200 Speaker 1: of the fads that inspired it, to the point that 136 00:09:20,320 --> 00:09:23,960 Speaker 1: most people no longer realize it's a parody at all. Clearly, 137 00:09:24,040 --> 00:09:27,240 Speaker 1: the track stands on its own merits. It's sold well 138 00:09:27,280 --> 00:09:30,559 Speaker 1: over four million copies to date and plays in heavy 139 00:09:30,640 --> 00:09:34,520 Speaker 1: rotation on radio stations and at Halloween house parties each year. 140 00:09:35,240 --> 00:09:38,240 Speaker 1: It's more or less become the anthem of the holiday. 141 00:09:38,800 --> 00:09:43,160 Speaker 1: Though Dracula is right, the Transylvania twist is pretty great too. 142 00:09:45,240 --> 00:09:48,360 Speaker 1: I'm Gabe Lucier and hopefully you now know a little 143 00:09:48,360 --> 00:09:52,200 Speaker 1: more about history today than you did yesterday. If you 144 00:09:52,280 --> 00:09:55,960 Speaker 1: enjoyed today's episode, consider following us on Twitter, Facebook, and 145 00:09:56,040 --> 00:10:00,200 Speaker 1: Instagram at t d i HC Show. You can also 146 00:10:00,320 --> 00:10:02,920 Speaker 1: rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, or you 147 00:10:02,960 --> 00:10:05,800 Speaker 1: can send your questions and comments straight to me by 148 00:10:05,840 --> 00:10:09,720 Speaker 1: writing to this Day at I heeart media dot com. 149 00:10:09,760 --> 00:10:12,439 Speaker 1: Thanks as always to Chandler Mays for producing the show, 150 00:10:12,600 --> 00:10:15,199 Speaker 1: and thank you for listening. I'll see you back here 151 00:10:15,200 --> 00:10:28,800 Speaker 1: again tomorrow for another Monstrous Day in History class. For 152 00:10:28,880 --> 00:10:31,000 Speaker 1: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart 153 00:10:31,080 --> 00:10:33,600 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 154 00:10:33,600 --> 00:10:34,280 Speaker 1: favorite shows.