Wade Denning

Artist: Wade Denning

LP: Famous Ghost Stories! With Scary Sounds

Song: "The Specter"
[ listen ]

Here's some scary fun from Wade Denning in 1975. According to the website put together by one of Wade's grandkids, Wade composed numerous jingles for Maxwell House coffee and Kinney Shoes in addition to producing albums filled with famous frightful ghost stories. What an interesting fellow! I chose "The Specter," written by Guy De Maupassant and adapted by Mr. Denning, primarily because I just love those French accents. Happy Halloween!

Hot Blood

Artist: Hot Blood

LP: Disco Dracula

Song: "Terror on the Dance Floor"
[ listen ]

Happy Halloween! This song would be a lot more fun if there hadn't actually been terror on the dance floor in an Orlando nightclub five months ago. But that was just a regular fucked up lunatic macho homophobe human being with easy access to guns. Thank god he wasn't a vampire.

[ Disco Dracula Men's Halloween Costume ]

The Dramatics

Artist: The Dramatics

LP: A Dramatic Experience

Song: "The Devil Is Dope" 
[ listen ]

This is the only song I can think of where the singers realize at the start that they've suddenly arrived in Hell. You can read more about The Dramatics here and go here to find information on Ellis Chappell, the artist responsible for all the cool and creepy images—including the obligatory chicken-with-the-head-of-a-dog routine—on this terrific 1973 Volt Records release. Happy Halloween! 

[ The Dramatics ]

Count Floyd

Artist: Count Floyd

LP: Count Floyd

Song: "The Gory Story of Duane and Debbie"

[ listen ]

Here's a frightful treat from Count Floyd, aka. Floyd Robertson, aka. Joe Flaherty. Flaherty played Robertson playing Floyd as the howling vampire host of the "Monster Chiller Horror Theater" on SCTV, a Canadian comedy sketch program that ran in the late 1970s. SCTV launched the careers of other popular comedians too—like John Candy, Martin Short, Eugene Levy, and Catherine O'Hara, who's credited with snapping the photo of the count's backing group, The Wally Hung Experience, for the back of this 1982 4-song EP. To read more about Count Floyd and SCTV, click here and here. Happy Halloween!

The Creed Taylor Orchestra

Artist: The Creed Taylor Orchestra

LP: Shock Music In Hi-Fi
Song: "Haunted House"
[ listen ]

Here's a little something special just for today. Creed Taylor (pictured below, left, at age 29 when this record was made in 1958) later founded Impulse! Records and CTI Records and was pretty influential in the American jazz scene. He's especially known for bringing major bossa nova talent from Brazil to record in the USA in the 1960s. All songs on this record were written by composer Kenyon Hopkins (pictured below, right) and each song includes a descriptive blurb. The one for "Haunted House" is this: "Groans, rattles and unknown sounds fill a haunted house with the echoes of the supernatural." I beg you, don't dare listen to this music alone. Here is a segment from the humorous and extensive notes on the backside of the record:

Prepare yourself... This record will give you a shock!

DO YOU SHOCK EASILY? In one way or another, just about
everyone does. The great folk heroes of shock, Dracula and
Frankenstein, have never been in more popular demand than today.
On motion picture screen and television sets, the ogres of shock
carry their bizarre appeal to millions of Americans. A new rite,
the "Shocktail Party" has swept the country. Throw one yourself—
it will put you in company with history, and you may finally be able
to settle the score with those shocking neighbors next door.

Happy Halloween!