Although these days we think of Bobby " Boris " Pickett as a one - hit wonder , had you referred to him as one while he was awake , he would have corrected you . " Since I had two hits and a hit album , I exclude myself from that club , " Pickett fired back at aWashington Postreader when asked if he ’d ever been to a " one - come to admiration company . "
The brain behind " Monster Mash , " which he wrote when he was just 24 , Pickett would spend much of his medicine career at betting odds with the Halloween line ’s popularity . Even after recording a handful of chart - exceed follow - up singles , raking in22 acting creditsand a characteristic motion picture penning credit ( which , grant , was for a low part of 1995’sMonster Mash : The Movie ) , he ’d still be immortalise as the " Guy Lombardo of Halloween . "
It was an unlikely career trajectory for Pickett , whose real passion had always been play . Pickett grew up in Somerville , Massachusetts , and as a young boy , he spent much of his prison term seeing horror movies at the local theater his father managed . After graduating from high school , he serve three yr in Korea in the U.S. Army Signal Corps . Upon his return , Pickett in conclusion made the westbound trek to Hollywood , where he perform in a circle called The Cordials and would , from meter to fourth dimension , break into caricature of renowned motion picture actors . His impersonation ofFrankensteinactor Boris Karloff wasreportedlya major dispatch with audiences — and a turn point for Pickett ’s career .
That audience response set up the events that would run to " Monster Mash " in motion during the summer of 1962 . Cheesy monster motion picture were all the rage , and bandmate Lenny Capizzi encouraged Pickett to utilize his Karloff voice to mock them in a new novelty strain . Capizzi join him in the studio apartment and together the two adjudicate to air up yet another red - blistering fad : The Mashed Potato dance move ( see : Dee Dee Sharp ’s chart - topping hit " Mashed Potato Time " from the debut record album " It ’s Mashed Potato Time " ) .
The aeonian novelty melodic phrase took no prison term at all to make . " The song wrote itself in a half 60 minutes and it took less than a half hour to record it , " Pickett toldThe Washington Post . The attendant album — plainly titledThe Original Monster Mash — contained 15 tracks in total and was released through the unawares - live recording label Garpax , name after itsproducer and instrumentalist , Gary S. Paxton .
Though valiant in his crusade , Paxton was turn down by every major label he brought the tracks to . Pickett toldJan Alan Hendersonthat after this discouraging turn of events , Paxton drove around pass out written matter of " Monster Mash " to radio disk jockey in Ventura and Fresno counties . That ’s when things really started to wrick around . " By the time Gary come back to Southern California , his speech sound had been lighting up like a Christmas tree diagram , " Pickett said .
London Records , which had originally burgeon forth down Paxton ’s guerrilla marketing efforts , eventually help parcel out the record album when " Monster Mash " became a omnipresent force play on popular radio . By October 30,The Original Monster Mashhad climbed the chart to become the bit one hit record book in the U.S. , where itsold 1 million copies . A happy Halloween treat , indeed .
The rest period of Pickett ’s music career would n’t be quite as fruitful . While spry on his foot to leverage his ethnic relevancy with the " Monster Mash " follow - ups " Monster ’s vacation " and its Bel - side , " Monster Motion"—not to mention a twosome of appearances onAmerican Bandstand — he remained largely off the storage-battery grid . He seem in a slew of television commercials including ads for Lipton Tea , Schlitz beer , and " all the cigaret commercial ( which had n’t been ban yet ) , " harmonize to Pickett . He also consider humble acting roles in television shows , includingThe Beverly Hillbillies(as a police lieutenant ) in 1967,Bonanzain 1969 , and in a little - seen film calledDeathmaster — about a vampire who tempt in a devout chase of hippies — in 1972 . He popped up on the medicine scene again in 1975 with aStar Trekparody call " Star Drek " and , 10 years later , released yet another spin on his first appearance classic promise " Monster Rap . " Neither song would quantify up to Pickett ’s much - hum - about launching hit .
All was not lost , though . Just like the Halloween monsters Pickett lampoon in his songs , " Monster Mash " never truly died . Year after year , that goofy Boris Karloff feeling has come back to haunt the world with a young vigor . nigh a decade after its release , the songinexplicably crept up the chartsto the Top 10 ( in August , no less ) . Three age later , in May 1973,it charted again . More lately , Pastereportedthat , in 2008 , it climb as high as No . 60 on the British chart . To escort , the strain has been listened to over a aggregate 5 million times on Spotify .
" Let ’s just say that it has bear the tear for 43 year , " Pickett toldThe Washington Postwhen asked whether the royal house from his single would be enough even if he never worked another day in his sprightliness . It was n’t until 1989 , under the direction of his longtime managerStuart Hersh , that Pickett finally licensed the song for film and television set exercise .
As for the secret to the tune ’s longevity ? The jury ’s still out . " What fascinates me about ' Monster Mash ' is the fact that this phonograph recording , make to cash in on not one but two then - current fads , managed to transcend them both to stand on its own as a classic of sorts , even as those two fads evaporate into the mists of ethnic obscurity , " Grammy - winning producer Steve Greenberg wrote in aBillboardtributeto the Halloween score .
Bobby Pickett ( left ) and Stuart Hersh ( proper ) / Photo courtesy of Stuart Hersh
Hersh disagree . He tellsmental_flossthat he believes the only thing dated about " Monster Mash " is the Mashed Potato fad that inhale it .
" There ’s nothing in the Sung dynasty itself that ’s see ; funny is funny , " Hersh tell . " In my opinion , the song was so precious — it was n’t like [ Senator Bobby ’s ] novelty book , ' Wild affair , ' which has been forgotten . It was utilizing Boris Karloff and lusus naturae . The length of service of teras movies and actors like Karloff have helped affirm it . "
Hersh adds that " everyone growing up " goes back to those original movie reference point , detect " Monster Mash , " and , in turn , keep the strike alive .
Which is not to say that the earworm has been met with universal praise . Pickettonce saidthat Dick Clark did n’t particularly delight his music . " As much as he was amiable and friendly , [ he ] was not a big fan of the record . He believe it was kind of silly I think,“Pickett said . On several occasion — including during live operation — Pickett also made mention of his most high-pitched - visibility nemesis : Elvis Presley . According to Pickett , The King call " Monster Mash " " the dumbest matter he ’d ever learn . "
Apart from its ubiquity in soda culture ( see : Parks and Recreation , Hotel Transylvania 2,Silver Linings Playbook , reliable Blood , The Office , etc . ) , " Monster Mash " find out new life in the 2000s aspolitical protest . In 2004 , Pickett spoke out against President George W. Bush ’s environmental policies , renaming the caterpillar track " Monster Slash . " He give the lyric poem a good retooling , too : " They did the timberland slash / ( He did the slash)/ It was viciously brash . " His 2005 rendering , " Climate Mash , " was an effort to battle global warming ; it was download almost 500,000 times during Halloween 2005 alone , concord toThe Guardian .
Pickett never stop over execute . His last performanceon recordwas in November 2006 , five months before he die of leukemia . But as long as that graveyard smash have swordplay around Halloween , Pickett ’s memory will go on .
