Sounds of Darkness

Wade Denning (who passed away near Halloween in 2007) was a big-band composer and arranger in the 40’s and 50’s. For 20 years, he was an arranger for “Ted Mack’s Family Hour” … during that time, he also composed over 550 advertising jingles. In the 60’s and 70’s, he composed music for children with Kay Lande (including a terrific Halloween album). One such recording is this compilation of some classic and some original scary short stories.

We’ve got some of the usual suspects … The Headless Horseman (I remember being pretty scared of this version when I was a kid), The Tell-Tale Heart (which suffers a bit by being shortened … reducing the “slowly-building tension” that Poe was so good at), and The Railroad Signal Man by Dickens. There are also some Wade Denning originals … the Ghost Ship in particular isn’t bad. Composer and folk-story-teller Oscar Brand contributed the script for two tracks.

On the tracks where the narrator is telling a story, the sound effects are a nice addition and are suitably spooky. On a couple of tracks, it isn’t so much “story telling” as it is “first person” horror which, to me, isn’t as effective. Still, this fits in nicely with the Troll Records ghost story albums from the 70’s … not a 100% classic, but certainly worth a few listens.

The artwork on the back cover is terrific, too.

Wade Denning – Famous Ghost Stories! With Scary Sounds