Once again, it’s Halloween season. The ghouls and ghosts are creeping out and the airwaves are filling with the sinister sounds of the Monster Mash. You know the song.
The classic Halloween tune was first released by Bobby “Boris” Pickett as a single in 1962, later releasing it on a full length LP titled, “The Original Monster Mash.” Since then, the spine-tingling melody has become a cult favorite for partiers and trick-or-treaters all around— generating roughly $1 million in royalties per year.
Yet, as universally loved as the song is, does anyone know what the Monster Mash really is?
It would be a simple mistake to say that The Monster Mash is Bobby “Boris” Picket’s classic song. But, if you look closer, you’ll realize that Boris’ song is actually about a dance called the Monster Mash, not the Monster Mash itself.
“They did the Monster Mash / (The Monster Mash) it was a graveyard smash (They did the Mash) it caught on in a flash / (They did the Mash) they did the Monster Mash.”
But the rabbit hole doesn’t end there. Though in the song, Boris talks about The Mash being a dance, Boris also mentions The Monster Mash as a song.
“The coffin-bangers were about to arrive / With their vocal group, The Crypt-Kicker Five /
they played the Monster Mash.”
Yet even though Boris’ song establishes the Monster Mash as a song, we never actually hear how it sounds. This leaves us with two Monster Mashes, the dance and the song, both inside Boris’ song also titled The Monster Mash.
To add to the confusion, Boris establishes additional canonical songs within his Monster Mash, songs that we never hear. Take for example Dracula, whom Boris attributes the once famous, but now irrelevant, “Transylvanian Twist” to.
“Out from his coffin, Drac’s voice did ring / Seems he was troubled by just one thing / Opened the lid and shook his fist / And said, “Whatever happened to my Transylvania twist?”
So to recap, Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s song The Monster Mash is about a person watching monsters dance the Monster Mash while they listened to the Monster Mash song, which is not the same one we’re hearing.
So what does the real Monster Mash sound like? Well, just like the ending of every good horror story, we’ll never know.
