Revisit Vincent Price’s cover of ‘The Monster Mash’
It’s not Halloween without ‘The Monster Mash‘. The classic novelty track has been a stalwart of spooky season playlists for 50 years and is still going strong. This year, if you’ve been to some kind of Halloween party, you’ve almost certainly heard the ‘Monster Mash’.
‘Monster Mash’ was a number one hit for Bobby Pickett in the fall of 1962. An immediate graveyard smash, the song was conceived out of Pickett’s impression of Boris Karloff, which he would occasionally perform while working as a club singer. Pickett’s take on Karloff was so convincing that he added the extended his stage name to Bobby ‘Boris’ Karloff, and many assumed that it was Karloff himself singing the song.
Karloff was, of course, best known as the originator of Frankenstein’s Monster on film in the 1931 film Frankenstein. While Karloff never recorded his own version of ‘Monster Mash’, one of his fellow horror icons did: Vincent Price.
Price recorded his version of the track in 1977, a decade and a half after the original track. Price’s version of the song features more modern synthesisers than the garage rock instrumentation of the original. He also doesn’t attempt to replicate Pickett’s Bela Lugosi impression on the “What ever happened to my Transylvanian Twist?” line. Price was obviously comfortable enough in his own horror bona fides to sing the entire song in his own voice.
Price wasn’t alone in his desire to get on the ‘Monster Mash’ bandwagon. Everyone from the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band to The Misfits and Brian Wilson have covered the song over the years, each bringing a slightly different energy to the spooky cut. Most people tend to go back to the original recording, but if you want to spice up your Halloween playlist this year, try putting on Price’s version.
Check out Vincent Price’s cover of ‘Monster Mash’ down below.
