More Halloween Nuggets: Haunted Underground Classics
by Kevin Wierzbicki
The ghoulies at Liberation Hall released
Halloween Nuggets last year and now they're back with this follow-up compilation featuring 18 obscure Halloween-oriented cuts. These spooky selections come from the 1950s and '60s so you can shriek along to songs like "Witch Girl" from the Mystrys who tune into a haunted Buddy Holly groove with added sound effects, the swinging and super campy "The Beast of Sunset Strip" by the deep-voiced Teddy Durant and his bevy of female backup vocalists, and the Farfisa-rocking "Seance" from the Ebb-Tides. "Why Do I Love You" is one of many numbers here where the artists have monster-themed names; the cut is by Bela La Goldstein who sings the song as Dracula who recalls meeting his infatuation at the Transylvania Twist Party. Along the same lines is the surf rock of "Ghost Guitars" by Baron Daemon & the Vampires where Daemon also sings in a Dracula voice. In a nice touch the set also includes three radio ads from classic horror movies; interspersed with the music are blurbs from ads for "The Mummy," "Night of the Blood Beast" which begins with a startling scream and the Boris Karloff/Bela Lugosi film that has two famed monsters facing off, "Frankenstein & Dracula." Also contributing are Murray Schaff & His Artistocrats with the werewolf howl-featuring "Tombstone Number 9," Round Robin's "I'm the Wolfman" with the warning "if you see me on the prowl, watch it when you hear me growl," the surf guitar and sax romp "Count Macabre" from the Connoissurs and "Zoola Zooky" from Johnny Alderson, an account of a girl who is nine-feet tall and "too ugly for the horror shows."
More Halloween Nuggets is great fun for a Halloween party but these nuggets from the early days of rock 'n' roll will thrill any time of year.
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