Bobby “Boris” Pickett Passes On
I just got an email from Rotting Flesh Radio that reports that the famous Bobby “Boris” Pickett has passed to the great haunted house in the sky. Pickett was known for being the singer of “The Monster Mash”. Here’s the quoted release they sent out.
“It is a Sad, Sad for all of us Monster Kids out there. Bobby “Boris” Pickett the artist who crooned the novelty tune the Monster Mash, has died at age 69. Sources have said that Pickett passes on to the Graveyard in the sky from leukemia on Wednesday night in West Los Angeles Veterans Hospital. So let’s all turn out the lights in our haunts and play Monster Mash before we continue on….
Bobby had a knack for doing an impression of the legendary actor Boris Karloff. His father, a theater owner encouraged him and helped drive his love of the golden age of Horror Films. This translated to him often doing an impression of Karloff during his time with the band the Cordials. It was there that the legend of the MONSTER MASH was born.
One of his bandmates told him he needed to do a whole song dedicated to the Horror Icon and so the writing of the song began. MONSTER MASH was written in about half an hour, and has since become the staple of Halloween, Trick or Treating and Parties around the world and of all time. Most of the sound effects were created by Pickett himself including the creaky door, a nail being pulled from a piece of wood, the boiling viles, Pickett blowing bubbles in a cup amoung others. This creative master piece went on to hit Number One on the Billboard Charts the week leading up to Halloween in 1962, 1970, and May of 1973!
Now as we know here at ROTTING FLESH RADIO, Pickett made entire albums full of campy, novelty Halloween Songs. Some of my personal favorites were Monsters Holiday, Wolfs Bane, Transylvania Twist and others. The LP remains in my collection today and I will never forget the time I was able to meet Bobby and talk with him about this classic era when Halloween was true Americana.
It has been reported that Pickett, who died with his daughter, Nancy, and his sister, Lynda, at his bedside. is also survived by two grandchildren.”
April 27th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
… the Transylvanian Twist!
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