History's Dumpster = GLORIOUS trash! Kitsch, music, fashion, food, history, ephemera, and other memorable and forgotten, famous and infamous pop culture junk and oddities of yesterday and today. Saved from the landfill of time...
If you grew up in the '60s and '70s (as well as many from the '80s), this record was a part of your childhood. Even if you never owned a copy, you knew all about it's existence because you often had a friend that did..
Originally released in 1964, Chilling, Thrilling Sounds Of The Haunted House remains a perennial Halloween holiday classic.
(Kinda like this album, but for Halloween.)
It was re-released in 1973 with an orange jacket and it has been re-released in it's entirety on CD.
Side One of the LP is narrated by the great Laura Olsher, who sadly passed away in June 2012.
Side 1
Side Two has a compilation of classic Disney sound effects. The most famous one is here.
Side 2
Laura Olsher's voice could be heard on many Disneyland story albums........
King Diamond was the Marilyn Manson of the '80s. A self proclaimed Satan worshipper and frontman of the occult-metal band Mercyful Fate who went solo with a new band in 1986. He plays with both bands today.
If not exactly the most ORIGINAL guy on earth......
Pete Wentz? OK, yeah, he came later.....But see what Satanic music does to you, kids?
King Diamond and Mercyful Fate were popular with hardcore metal fans, but had virtually no commercial rock radio airplay (that darned devil warshipping thang put most major rock radio station managers teeth on edge.) It also didn't help their label, Roadrunner Records (now home to Nickelback.) was still a struggling Dutch independent until the '90s.
This is off King Diamond's first full album, Fatal Portrait.
You might know Roy Brown better as the original singer (and writer) of the classic "Good Rockin' At Midnight" (famously covered by The Honeydrippers in the '80s, who's version became a New Year's Eve party classic.) But in 1950, he released this disturbing little ditty (you can also heard it in the soundtrack of the video game Fallout 3.)
The King's Jesters were a big band vocal group from the Chicago area. They were featured frequently on the NBC Radio networks during the '30s and '40s and played with Benny Goodman and other big band leaders.
This single was released on the Chicago area independent, KaHill (or K-Hill) Records. A label I really don't have much information on them other than this is the first 45 RPM single I saw on KaHill. I've only seen KaHill 78s up to that point.
I have a copy of this 1974 Pickwick Records story album. And some of it is surprisingly shocking for what would be an ordinary kid's record. Even today, to say NOTHING of 1974.
Label Side One
Label SideTwo
Back Cover
The record starts off with a cheesy re-recording of "Monster Mash" (NOT the original hit. Hey, this is a Pickwick product. What did you expect?) But then it gets downright creepy on Side 2 with several stories, most involving torture of some kind. " Buried Alive", "Keel Hauled" "Burned At The Stake", etc. are super creepy for any little kid with the tortured screams and the effects are really twisted (especially the sizzling sound during "Burned At The Stake").
However the other recordings "Victims Of The Guillotine", "The Exorcism" "The Incredible Giant Crab" and "Curse Of The Zombies" sound hysterical with the fake accents and terrible script. But it should be noted that the writer of this album was soon to be famous screenwriter Frank Daniel, who had just emigrated to America and these sessions were produced by Wade Denning, a big band conductor who became a session producer at Pickwick and also made a few other classic Halloween kids albums, including his most famous, the much tamer Halloween with Kay Lande on Wonderland Records.
"Buried Alive"
I wish there were more examples I could present, but I'm not sure of the copyright status of this album. So I just present what I can find on the web. I have already digitized this album fortunately if I get some good news.....
