Sounds of Darkness

I don’t recall where I found this little gem. It features pretty solid retellings of contemporary scary tales with musical accompaniment. It opens and closes with Edgar Allen Poe poems, and in between are urban legends you are probably already familiar with in some form or another.

Stories include variations on the kidney removal, the killer’s hook on the car, the downed telephone line in the cemetery, the ...

Famous Monsters of Filmland was a magazine whose original run lasted from 1958 until 1983. It started in response to renewed interest in the old horror films, thanks to syndicated television and plenty of late-night classic horror movie hosts. It featured articles about old and current films, and original artwork that is still considered some of the finest in the genre. In 1963, Famous Monsters of Filmland released this record, ...

It is easy to justify the reasons for ghost story albums read by the likes of Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, and Nelson Olmsted. The first two were arguably the most influential actors in the horror genre, and Olmsted narrated his own stories in the NBC radio series “Sleep No More”. But William Conrad? The Fatman of “Jake and the Fatman”? Seems like a stretch.

Turns out Conrad’s voice was featured in some 50’s ...

When I first started really digging Halloween music 11 or 12 years ago, this was one of the first ones I found. I have since listened to many, many spooky albums, but this one is unique. This is the only album I know of that combines sound clips from classic films with narration and music. It serves as a terrific introduction to the classic monster movies from Universal studios. If Boris Karloff ever hosted a ½-hour documentary ...

While my musical tastes for Halloween tend toward the oldies, this collection (now over 12 years old? Jeez, I’m aging fast) is a diversion from the oldies I’m used to. I’m not saying each of these tracks is a winner, and if you regularly listen to Halloween music you won’t find any surprises on this CD.

The standards, good and bad, are here, such as “The Time Warp”, “Dead Man’s Party”, and “Halloween” by the ...