Why Did Bobby "Boris" Pickett's "Monster Mash" chart again in late May of 1973?

Garpax (the original label) was distributed by London Records. When Garpax folded, London's Parrot label purchased the master.

 

Google news archive has newspaper stories from 73 starting in August. Most mention how he was driving taxis and playing night clubs and ski resorts until he "teamed with talented poet-lyricist "Mike" Mikesell to form MPII Ventures. Shortly thereafter, to their proud amazement, "Monster Mash" burst onto the scene again and zoomed to the top."

 

I remember buying the Parrot single in 1973, but I can't remember the reason for the resurrgence...? And I do remember hearing it when it first came out, but I wasn't able to buy it back then.

Another novelty record that experienced a second coming that I never got to buy the first time around was "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haa!" by Napoleon XIV, re-released on the same Warner Bros. label but with a new number (and also lacking an "a", going from "...Ha-Haaa!" to "...Ha-Haa!").

Perhaps it WAS Dr. Demento who'd contributed to their newfound popularity...?

Fred Clemens

 

The song "Shaving Cream" was issued around the same time and was a hit single. Novelty records were big. Remember "The Streak"? The Mr. Jaws record came out around then too.

 

Well it serves you right if you didn't write your name on it three times. Actually the handwriting on Side 2 isn't mine, but this record has been in my possession since 1962 (7th grade), and survived many parties.

 

Wow, those labels bring me back! I was 6 and my older sister took me on one of her infrequent record hunts for Monster Mash(another I recall was Last Kiss). We found it at a local drugstore(remember those days?) brought it back to her place and played it over and over on her husbands fine German stereo. Both sides over and over. I remember it came with a picture sleeve. Cheap paper sleeve with black on white drawings of a graveyard or something. It didn't last long and the record soon sat in the dreaded metal record rack.

PS I think the Dr Demento angle makes the most sense. He WAS responsible for Shaving Cream being reissued on Vanguard and becoming a hit.

 

Demento was Los Angeles-only until 1974. Not that he couldn't have still sparked nationwide interest in the song, but it's a bit less likely.

 

Wasn't GARPAX a label started by Gary Paxton to issue singles on, in the hopes a big label would buy the song outright?

 

This is true, however he had a large reputation that preceded his national syndication. I know I bought Demento's Delights on WB before that. And WISHED I could hear him on my radio.

 

My hunch is that it had some relation to the massive popularity of The Edgar Winter Group's "Frankenstein," which had debuted on the charts just 8 weeks earlier. As I recall, a DJ in Milwaukee had played Monster Mash as an oldie around the time that Frankenstein had just been released and the phone lines lit up with requests. His station charted it and others followed suit.

It was also the age of Count Chocula and Frankenberry, among many other monster-oriented things in pop culture.

 

This is the best theory yet.

 

In the UK,you mean.--Didn't that happen fairly often??

 

Correct.Reissued with "Warmth Of The Sun" on the flip,when the Endless Summer LP came out.Got to #60-something in the US.

 

I've seen LOTS of Garpax copies,but never one with the lettering that bold...

 

Correct.Grand Funk's(post-RR) "Loco-Motion" was a big hit in '74.The OP was refering to Little Eva's original,which was reissued and was a big hit in England in '73.So big,it was reissued here on Bell--made it as far as stock copies-I have one.

 

The words of Bobby 'Boris' Picket to us in 2006:

"Hi" to my fans. Thanks. In answer to your subject ?. The Cryptkickers were Gary S. Paxton, Vicki Paige and Johnny McRae, all singing background vocals. The name was taken from the lyric "..the Cryptkicker Five."

 

Hmmm. I wonder why Joel Whitburn claims Leon Russell (and also Rickie Page & Johnny MacCrae) was part of the Crypt-Kickers? Then again in the same Top Pop Singles book he wrote Sublime was from San Francisco.

 

From Page 58 of the May 12, 1973 edition of Billboard:

"Two Milwaukee stations, WZUU-AM and WOKY-AM are credited with breaking it and making it a regional release. London has now moved nationally and our research department is picking up good sales around the country."

Source:
http://books.google.com/books?id=PAkEAAAAMBAJ&q="monster+mash"#v=snippet&q="monster mash"&f=false

 

I like the speculation in the next lines: "So maybe with Watergate and other scandals in the headlines, today's impressionable young music listeners find humor in the music. What else do they have to laugh about?"

What a rich time for music. Upcoming singles of the week profiled included George Harrison - Give Me Love, Paul Simon - Kodachrome, Van Morrison - Warm Love, Three Dog Night - Shambala (I never knew this was "occult themed") and Diana Ross - Touch Me in the Morning.

Upcoming albums included Al Green - Call Me & David Bowie - Aladdin Sane. Surprisingly they picked the following as the best cuts from Call Me: "Stand Up", "I'm So Lonely I Could Cry" and "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)"... missing two future gold singles: #3 hit "You Ought to Be with Me" and #10 hit title track.

 

I also have a copy of the original Garpax LP. Along with some Chubby Checker LPs, these are my oldest pop/rock records.

 

Leon Russell played keyboard, but was not a 'Crypt-Kicker', background vocalist, Mel Taylor may have played drums and Darlene Love was not present although Bobby Pickett did not rule her out as a possible background vocalist at later recordings.

 

There it goes...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa1i375FuGw

 

I've wondered about this over the years...."Monster Mash" was #1 on the day I was born (10/20/62), but I never heard it until it was played on WLS/WCFL Chicago in the Summer of '73.

The harmonic confluence with Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein" is an angle I hadn't considered; it makes good sense!

 

I bought the 1973 reissue when it came out, a few years later found a nice copy of the 1962 Garpax LP which has more songs than the Parrot reissue.

1962 Garpax LP

• MONSTER MASH
• RABIAN - THE FIENDAGE IDOL
• BLOOD BANK BLUES
• GRAVEYARD SHIFT
• SKULLY GULLY
• WOLFBANE
• MONSTER MINUET
• TRANSYLVANIA TWIST
• MONSTER'S HOLIDAY
• SINISTER STOMP
• ME & MY MUMMY
• MONSTER MOTION
• MONSTER MASH PARTY
• IRRESISTIBLE IGOR
• BELLAS BASH
• LET'S FLY AWAY

1973 Parrot reissue



SIDE ONE
1. MONSTER MASH
2. GRAVEYARD SHIFT
3. BLOOD BANK BLUES
4. RABIAN -THE FIENDAGE IDOL
5. MONSTER HOLIDAY
6. MONSTER MINUET

SIDE TWO
1. TRANSYLVANIA TWIST
2. SINISTER STOMP
3. ME & MY MUMMY
4. MONSTER MASH PARTY
5. BELLA'S BASH
6. LET'S FLY AWAY