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Could I have this dance?

Monster Mash · Bobby “Boris” Pickett · 1962

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Monster Mash
They came one-after-another in the early sixties: hit songs based on new dance fads: “The Twist”, “Pony Time”, “The Peppermint Twist”, “Mashed Potato Time”, “The Wah-Watusi”, The “Loco-Motion” just to name a few.

(And wouldn’t you know it?) The number 1 song on the Hot 100 on Halloween, 1962, was—what else—a dance fad?

Monster Mash

Bobby Pickett was born in 1940, in Somerville, Massachusetts. As a boy, his father managed a movie theater in their hometown, so Bobby got to see as many movies as he wanted, as often as he wanted. Later, he decided to become an actor, and he became very adept at imitating the voices of other actors. One of his best imitations was his take on Boris Karloff who had brought to life—so to speak— the monster in the Frankenstein movies of the 1930s.

But after a stint in the army, and while waiting for his acting career to take off, Bobby met up with four old high school buddies, and they formed a singing group, the Cordials. The band had a weekly gig on Friday nights at a restaurant in Los Angeles that was owned by the mother of singer Timi Yuro (who had a big hit with “Hurt” in 1961.) One of the songs in their repertoire was the Diamond’s Little Darlin,” and in the middle of the song Bobby recited a monologue in his Karloff voice. Leonard Capizzi, one of the Cordials, told Bobby that they should write a song about a monster dancing to one of the latest hits. But Bobby wasn’t so sure, after all, he still wanted to pursue his acting career, and he figured that a song about a dancing monster would never be more than just a novelty.

But after about a year, with acting success still remaining elusive, he and Lenny got together one afternoon and they wrote Monster Mash.” The Cordials were under contract to Garpax Records; they signed Bobby, and he recorded it. “Monster Mash” entered the charts in the middle of September, 1962, and on October 20, it knocked the Four Seasons’ Sherry out of the number one spot, where it remained for two weeks.

Later that year, Bobby had a number 30 hit with “Monster’s Holiday”, and a decade later, in 1973, “Monster Mash” was re-issued on the Parrot label and it again charted for twelve weeks, peaking at position 10.


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