Sounds of Darkness

(Novelty)

No doubt you’ve heard Hans Conried’s voice before. He ably voiced Captain Hook in Disney’s Peter Pan. You’ve also heard him on the old Dudley Do-Right or Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons. And you’ve also probably seen Alice Pearce … she was Gladys, Samantha’s neighbor on Bewitched. The two of them, along with “The Creatures and the Frank N. Stein Orchestra”, created this … probably my 4th favorite novelty Halloween album (behind Sheldon Allman’s “Sing Along with Dracula”, Bobby Boris Pickett’s “Monster Mash”, and Spike Jones’ “Spooktacular”).

This is pretty kid-friendly stuff. Lots of silly sound effects and silly voices. A couple of tracks are quite familiar (“The Thing” and “Purple People Eater”), but some of the original compositions like “Mostly Ghostly” and “The Invisible Man” are really great. It is refreshing to hear a few silly Halloween-ish songs sung by a woman this time around, and Pearce is terrific. She’s got a big-time Broadway voice. And Conried is terrific … nobody delivers a line like “I’ve got two arms to hold her tight, but her three make it an uneven fight” with as much panache as he. The lyrics are old-school clever and witty.

If you are fond of Spike Jones’ “Spooktacular in Screaming Sound”, then you are sure to enjoy this album, too. Love songs (“Not of This Earth”), dance tracks (“The Dracula Trot”, with a nice trombone solo), horror and sci-fi … it’s a good listen.

Hans Conried and Alice Pearce - Monster Rally