|
|
MONSTER MUSIC ALBUM GALLERY
Send in your Monster album images to our gallery--we'll post 'em here! Write to:
HOWL
|
Monster Mania...
...swept America in the late fifties and early sixties like a wave of bubonic plague. The first symptoms were
TV broadcasts of classic Monster movies from the Thirties and Forties--Dracula, Frankenstein, the
Wolfman, Mummies--all were resurrected to satisfy the voracious hunger of that ever-hungering new medium of TELEVISION.
Late shows like Shock Theatre prospered by repackaging the old Horror films, spawning hordes of odd "hosts" like
Zacherley, the greatest of them all (who also happens to make an appearance on our very own Monster U.
"Touchdown!" album). Any grimness and scares were tempered by station-breaks that took a goofier,
zanier slant on Things Monster. It all might have been a little silly, but the Monster Kids didn't complain!
All along, Monster Music albums sprouted up and sold gargantuan numbers of records. Bobby "Boris" Pickett's
1962 "Monster Mash" smash hit, the best known of all monster hymnals, still gets ample airplay today, even
though "Boris" himself has recently departed to the Great Matinee in the Sky.
Spike Jones and others followed with their own zany Monster Music offerings in the late fifties through
much of the sixties; many albums gave no credit to their creators, but kids didn't care--they ate 'em up
like cannibals at a cookout. "Frankie Stein" and his Ghouls released no less than five Monster albums, each
replete with all the wonky laffs that fear-folks had come to expect from the crazed new musical genre.
"Mad Monster Party", the goofoid stop-motion masterpiece (that writer Harvey Kurtzman tried to distance himself from
for years afterwards), 
sported its own barrage of memorably creaturistic tunage, so much that spooky soundtrack's been recently re-released
on CD for a new generation of Monster fans.
Cartoonists like Jack Davis rode the crest--and album covers--of many products, with an influence that is still felt
today; witness the Monster U. items on this very website!
Magazines like Forry Ackerman's "Famous Monsters of
Filmland", that bible of Monsterdom, reinforced the mania. At some point between kid stuff and pimples and girls, there was ample time for monsters
to roam the countryside once again.
Today there are precious few Monster song albums in the spirit of the Old Days (we refer you to our fine Monster U.
CDs), because most modern
selections keep to the Haunted House sound effect variety, which may be good for Trick-or-Treaters at
Halloween, but clearly an easier out than compiling a dozen or so Original Monster Hits of Redoubtedly Sterling Quality.
It may have all been a fad, but a fad with considerable staying power and a timeless appeal. Even today, many grown-up kids
make forays away from their gals--now wives--and dip deeply back into the hallowed wells of Monsterdom.
To quote a lyric from the song "Monster Mania" on the first Monster U. album: "...and then the girls drive you back again--to
Monster Mania"!
Nope--them monsters just ain't-a goin' ta die!
|
