What is the best-selling Halloween song of all time?
Now we are well and truly in the midst of Halloween season, it’s only natural that our playlists take on that slightly darker feel as the October nights draw in.
If you’re a fan of the spooky spirits, the musical offerings are many and massive. You could take the cheesier route of the classic floor-fillers like ‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson, or go for the scarier but more refined rock tastes, such as ‘Witchy Woman’ by the Eagles or even ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper’ by Blue Öyster Cult. No matter the mood or the calibre, the spooky spirits have always got you covered.
But nevertheless, this doesn’t necessarily always account for bona fide chart success – these songs may be favourites for this time of year, but ultimately they don’t always have as long a shelf life. Their days are somewhat numbered until the clock strikes the first second of November 1st, and then the sleigh bells start riding into town. In this sense, it’s pretty difficult to create a surefire Halloween classic, but it means that when an artist has managed something that awakens from the dead even after years and years, it becomes all the more scarily impressive.
For that reason, although the inevitable eye rolls are inbound, we have to give credit to ‘Monster Mash’ by Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett for not only spearheading a school disco classic, reeled out every year without fail for the past six decades, but also taking the title of the best-selling Halloween song of all time. According to the Billboard Hot 100, the song made its mark by creeping to number one for a week starting on October 20th, 1962 – but in many ways, its ghost has never left.
How did ‘Monster Mash’ become the biggest Halloween hit?
Essentially, as much as ‘Monster Mash’ has become a staple of Halloween soundtracks, it was born out of the idea of taking the piss. Pickett was a wannabe actor who occasionally picked up the odd gig and musical job on the side. But at one such performance, by some stroke of luck, he decided to reel out a routine of impersonating the horror actor Boris Karloff, who most famously played Frankenstein’s monster. From there, the rest was history.
The impression was such a hit with the audience that Pickett was encouraged to make it into a song, thus giving rise to the famous voice that has become synonymous with the dulcet tones of the ‘Monster Mash’. In turn, even though the song had all the makings of a short-lived one-hit wonder, given it only topped the charts for a single week, its legacy endured far beyond the grave. Legend has it that even as recently as 2023, the song was still making in excess of $1million in royalties per year – not bad for one punt at the spooky season.
It just goes to show how one seemingly insignificant shot at the top can have lasting and transcendent repercussions down the ages. No trick-or-treater these days is going to be familiar with the name Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett, but give them a blast of the ‘Monster Mash’ and they definitely will be. For his spine-tingling work in the lab late one night and redefining the meaning of Halloween forevermore, Pickett deserves all the spooky praise from somewhere in the ether.
