Spike Jones – In Stereo - A Spooktacular in Screaming Sound (1959)
NOVELTY
This might be my favorite Halloween novelty album. It’s got terrific impersonations of Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Alfred Hitchcock, and Peter Lorre. There are some very clever jokes in here, some terrific send-ups of musical standards (“I Only Have Eyes for You”, “Tammy”), and plenty of...

Dinosaur1972

Richard Bone – The Spectral Ships (1998)
AMBIENT MUSIC

I came across some of the music from this album late one Sunday night while listening to Music From the Hearts of Space on NPR. I knew, immediately, I had to have the album.

“The Spectral Ships” features 9 tracks, and each is a musical impression of a legendary ghost ship or an unexplained nautical phenomenon. The music is calm,...

Dinosaur1972

Mort Garson – Black Mass - Lucifer (1971)
WEIRDNESS

For some reason, I have distinct memories of my classmates talking about “Black Mass Lucifer” when I was probably a 2nd or 3rd grader. I don’t recall why – it could be that they thought playing it at night would be spooky, or perhaps they were talking about the noises during the “Incubus” track. I don’t recall hearing the music back then … I just remember...

Dinosaur1972

Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett – The Original Monster Mash (1962)
NOVELTY



The Halloween novelty album that started it all? Not quite … while “Monster Mash” is by far the most popular Halloween novelty song of all time, there were several albums in the same … er … vein that came out sooner – and were (IMHO) better. Still, you can’t deny the effect this album had on both novelty and Halloween music....

Dinosaur1972

Boris Karloff - Tales of the Frightened, Volumes 1 & 2 (1963)
GHOST STORIES




“The ominous voice, the rising suggestion of imminent doom, the haunting caress of terror, the suggestive hush of horror unfolding are all here in a veritable garden of evil.” So claims the cover of “Tales of the Frightened”, a 1963 album of Boris Karloff reading seven eerie...

Dinosaur1972