Bobby "Boris" Pickett died Wednesday in Los Angeles. He has been branded a one-hit wonder, and I guess that's fair. "Monster Mash" was his only real hit, (though a Christmas follow-up "Monster's Holiday" did reach the Top 40.) But if you're only going to have one hit, it's good when that hit keeps rising from the grave -- and I don't mean just to be played over and over as the most-popular Halloween song ever. "Monster Mash" actually hit the Billboard charts on three different occasions, first in October 1962, then in August 1970 and once more in May 1973. And it may come back to haunt us again, who knows? (By the way, that's a then-unknown Leon Russell playing piano for the Crypt Kickers)
Pickett was not bitter that his show-biz career never reached monstrous proportions. He said he never got tired of "Monster Mash." "When I hear it, I hear a cash register ringing."He even liked to joke around at concerts -- he kept performing up until last November when his leukemia got so bad he couldn't continue -- "Now, I am going to do a medley of my hit."
The "Guy Lombardo of Halloween" Pickett was 69 years old.
1 comment:
So sad. I was around for the first release of Monster Mash.
I looked up the name of our next book club selection. It's The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid.
Yes, that scene you described from TTTW was a good one. I'd like to read it again, but there are so many others out there I haven't read. What a dilemma!
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