In my continuing quest for Halloween playlist material, the process of which begins in July because I’m insane, I discovered this lovely, wonderfully stupid novelty record from 1964. Normally I’m not into the '50s/‘60s Halloween party music scene because it tends to dominate other Halloween playlists and it all sounds like generic surf-rock and The Monster Mash after a while. But man, this thing has won me over -- and entirely because of how dumb it is. The design is delightfully simple: Dracula's a singer and his favorite things to sing about are monsters and being a vampire. Essentially, "Dracula's Greatest Hits" is a compilation of original monstrous creations and top radio hits containing hilariously altered vampire-centric lyrics, both complemented by a Dracula-voiced singer.
While the whole thing is ridiculous, the standouts from this thing are the two song parodies, "I Want to Bite Your Hand" and “Drac the Knife,” both of which the album art goes out of its way to clarify with their original titles...just in case the concept of vampire parody party music is too complicated for you to keep up with.
The whole album is on Youtube (because of course it is—everything is on Youtube), but there are used copies on eBay if this is something you need in your vinyl collection. And if you ever wanted to hear Dracula bellow "COWABUNGAAAA!," you're in luck.
The whole album is on Youtube (because of course it is—everything is on Youtube), but there are used copies on eBay if this is something you need in your vinyl collection. And if you ever wanted to hear Dracula bellow "COWABUNGAAAA!," you're in luck.
Full tracklist:
- I Want to Bite Your Hand
- Drac the Knife
- King Kong Stomp
- Monster Hootenanny
- Ghoul Days
- Frankenstein
- The New Frankenstein & Johnny Song
- Monster Goose Rhymes
- Surf Monster
- Monster Bossa Nova
- Carry Me Back to Transylvania
- Little Black Bag
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| Image borrowed from Zombo's Closet. |
