Hi ho, everybody.  I hope you are well and covid free.

Why I am writing is to advise you of my new blog which has been created to introduce (or reintroduce) you to a lot of the happy and interesting songs of the 1950s and 60s, along with the odd piece of trivia and fun facts. Songs from the u.k, America, occasionally from other countries, and, of course, right here in Australia.

The concept will be simple. I will list the songs under a theme, supply you with the correct name of the singer or performer(s) we are singularly interested in, and ensure that the songs are available to hear on-line.  Then it’s up to you to find the time to download them and listen to the recommended songs. All I do is copy the singer and song that has been been highlighted in bold and paste it google, but that may not work on all peripherals.

Regardless, oh how you get there, please remember, the point here is the audio … and the artist(s). This is what we are interested in – video is not necessarily warranted to enjoy the recording.

When many of these songs were recorded the only time you ever saw the performers was by attending a concert where they were on the programme. If you were lucky they may turn up on television from time to time, and on even rarer occasions they appeared in a movie, quite often on movies made on a shoe string. A good example of the meaning of a shoe string budget is in the first real rock’n’roll movie. ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK, starring one of main superstars of early rock, Bill Haley and His Comets. Despite its lack of sophistication, it was so successful Sam Katzman and his partner went on to make DON’T KNOCK THE ROCK which was also highly successful.

So it seemed natural several years later when the script for ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK was used to create TWIST AROUND THE CLOCK which starred CHUBBY CHECKER the man that brought the TWIST to the world. Another cheapie, made on a $250k budget and returned $6 million in the first 6 months of release. So, naturally, DON’T KNOCK THE TWIST (using the script for DON’T KNOCK THE ROCK) became their next big movie. And all of these films were released internationally. Anyway, it;s time for a segway … more about the movies later.

It’s all for a bit of fun and there is every chance you will learn a range of things about the way things were back then when you compare it to today. But I should warn you, there are thousands of songs that still produce that special something that made it chart the first time around. And you may be surprised at how many of these old songs are still to being served up to us in so many ways. I don’t expect you will love every song that I will suggest you listen to, but I feel certain that you may like more than you could imagine you will.

The songs listed in each blog will be tied to a theme and you may be surprised by the songs that charted at the (same) time, and there is no doubt that some of them may never have been recorded today; the world rolls in strange circles and censorship is at the root of it all. But again, that is all to come.

Just a point on the selections I have recommended in this blog, I simply wanted a version that had both clarity of sound, and had visual that was at home with the theme of the songs where ever possible. ie; HALLOWEEN (FUN TIME). I am under the impression that most music sites were created to be freely available for anybody to watch and all I have done was guide the punters to the song. If I have done anything illegal please let me know.

There is far too much background information and trivia to come on this blog to present it all in the one sitting, so I will you give you more details in future blogs; on applicable blogs, but remember – the blog is meant to educate you in what controlled our choice of fun and entertainment before facebook and its self-serving compatriots took over and almost destroyed us and took away our control over what we considered to be a good time. To present songs to you that should a joyous feeling, or at the very least, a bit of a chuckle. UYs oldies appreciate the chance to relive our youth and the time our music was fresh and I am certain that younger generations that jump on the reminiscing train will enjoy the journey.

But for now, lets move on to this blog whose blog theme is … (as if you didn’t know.”

When I think HALLOWEEN I think of spooky fun, which is why I have selected a dozen or so songs that I feel certainly co-relate with each other. When I mention it is best listening to the song rather than watching it is because you are meant to listen to the words, the music, the style of the songs on offer; the many reasons why it was such a popular hit.in the first place, and some video merging with an old song can be an absolute thrill to engage with on first hearing.

(eg: Thriller – Michael Jackson/Vincent Price, while other made-for-accompaniment to a song may distract the viewer from concentrating to the story as it is told. For those still young enough to have not yet heard, or seen, the official online version of  ‘Thriller‘ I am certain that they will love it once they see it. It may be that there are zombies everywhere, but once they join Michael in choreographed dance moves you will surely want to join them in the dancing. However, watching still photos of past horror movies is appalling if you are staring at it, and the words have absolutely no connection to the pictures.

Michael Jackson’s Thriller‘ is meant to be watched, or at least, danced to.  ‘The Mummy‘, however, is meant to be listened to because the singer is talking to you, the listener. He want’s you to understand why he is walking around town in his scratchy old bandages.  Remember, you are listening to a record (audio), not a d.v.d. (audio/video).  This mummy wants your help, but the visual images onscreen can be distracting and prevent you from clearly hearing the words, mainly because this mummy has nothing to do with the movies.  His daddy was a mummy too; its a family thing, not a film thing. Now, while the Mummy is a 1958 single and the visual can be distracting, the Flying Purple People Eater is from the same time zone, but the world’s top charting, sci-fi, rock’n’roll, hit has an ‘OFFICIAL’ visual version and it is equally a delight to watch and a joy to listen to because the video clip is made especially for the song … and the lyrics appear on screen in real time so your mind takes it all in.

If you can take a few minutes from your busy life and view the songs from each new theme, I am almost certain you will eventually not only enjoy some of the songs I suggest, but I believe you will gain a new appreciation of some of the musical genres that exist.  And you may be surprised when you learn just how old some of your favourite songs are.  Songs that are sung by more recent artists for example, and songs that appear in commercials.

Well, it is time for me to go, and you to ponder on whether or not you want to take a chance of putting some old fashioned fun and joy into your heart and day, as we celebrate our first musical theme .. HALLOWEEN.

Halloween is meant to have fun (and loads of sweet things to rot your teeth and make sadistical dentists richer and richer).  So all songs listed here are meant  to achieve that. (The fun bit, that is, not the rotten teeth).  I have checked their existence and they all seem to appear on youtube, spotify  or wherever, and I have supplied the correct song name and artist(s) to ensure you listen to the right version (the one that actually charted) and not a cover.  It is a really a rare thing to find cover versions that sound as good or better than the originals, and in the case of HALLOWEEN songs, the originals are often the only version.  Rarities do exist (songs that charted), but a later remake took the song into platinum territory, but they are far and few between … and covers will be covered in an appropriate theme at a later stage.  I know, on some occasions, locating the right version of a lesser known song or artist can be a bit of a nightmare which is why I suggest you input both the full title and artist name for the browser search and feed it through google search Right click … select Google search. It should go straight to the correct site, or at least list it on the same page you land on.

So to start our new blog we will look at the fun songs when we visit today’s theme …

 Theme: HALLOWEEN

*Take YEAR with a grain of salt. They should be correct, but could be out by one year either way.

A special note on TRIVIA. My information is based on memories I have from back in the day and stuff that I have gleaned from doctor google over the years. Now the problem with both sources is there is very little editing of fact guaranteed on the web, and memories can easily become distorted. So take it all with a grain of salt; there is no malice intended or provided.. All I am reporting on are little things that are believe to be true, but are either interesting or fun facts if they are true. If anybody with more in-house knowledge than I have disputes something please let me know.

The recommended FUN songs for HALLOWEEN:

Please remember to enter the full name and title (EVERYTHING ON TOP LINE IN BOLD TEXT including date if highlighted). This should take you to correct version, I normally highlight (right click) the BOLD PRINT, then right click and press SEARCH GOOGLE, and that will usually take me to the right site. However I have no idea at this stage if it will work that way on your system or equipment. If you are having trouble with it you may be able to let me know on tonystewart3.blog, though this e-mail may be incorrectly set up (it is uncharted territory for me), and of course, you will then not be able to advise me of the problem if the e-mail fails to work. However, I will do my best to follow up on this and I will advise you of what steps I have (am) taken (taking).

Now, let’s goooooooooooooooooooooo and have some Halloween fun.

#1 DINNER WITH DRAC – JOHN ZACHERLE PART 1 1958* (AUDIO). This is limericks at their HALLOWEEN best and accompanied by the koooolest jazz you could ask for. This is HALLOWEEN fun at its best. This is the best side.

#1a DINNER WITH DRAC – JOHN ZACHERLE PART 2 1958 (BONUS) This was the flip side of the record. Unlike the A side, this comes across as if the singer has sucked the life out of the A side and regurgitated it as the B side. Or perhaps it was Dracula who did the sucking. But it still has the same great jazz backing. Actually, according to wikipedia, after the song was performed live on American Bandstand there were enough requests to Camden, the recording company, to release a more sanitised (less scary) version. A new version was recorded; Side A stayed as the original, and the new version became the B side … and everybody in Halloween City screamed in joyous delight and lived happily until the end of time, which, of course, is still coming (I hope). The song charted, but it holds the longest record for time spent at the lower end of the u.s. charts, eventually reaching #6

#2 THE PURPLE PEOPLE EATER  (the official video)  Sheb Wooley 1958  WATCH THIS ONE. Probably the world’s first and best sci-fi rock’n’roll top charter.  The VIDEO suits the song and  reinforces the words.  Sheb Wooley, the singer and songwriter was appearing on t.v. in Wagon Train at the time of release along with  soon to be super star Clint Eastwood, he of Dirt Harry fame, and also was doing stage performances and recordings of popular song parodies under the name Ben Colder

#3 THE MUMMY    Bob McFadden  1959  NB: PLAY the record , Not the Picture of a Mummy (Boris Karloff) Bob Mc Fadden was the voice of Milton the Monster and Cool McCool t.v. cartoons. If you end up with an accompanying video, ignore it and listen to the audio.  The mummy makes reference to Kookie and his comb. Kookie was a hip young detective in a popular t.v. series called 77 Sunset Strip.  Kookie’s real name was Edd Byrnes.  The show might not ring any bells, but Edd played the cool t.v. announcer in the 1978 movie version of Grease.

#4 THE WITCH DOCTOR-1958 version.  David Seville a.k.a Ross Bagdasarian Sr. (real name)  The 1958 ORIGINAL is recommended, but the remake, The Witch Doctor 1996 digital remaster (input the entire highlighted area) is almost as good as the original rock.n.roll version, but it has David Seville singing with Alvin and the Chipmunks.  The original 1958 version created the sound of the witch doctor’s voice by speeding up the tape recording and, in turn, that gave Bagdasariam the idea to create Alvin and the Chipmunks.

#5 THE MONSTER MASH  Bobby (Boris) Pickett    1962    You are after the words, so you don’t need to worry too much about the video … just do the mash

#6 THRILLER ‘Official Video’- Michael Jackson  1982     Narrated by Vincent Price (popular actor OF the 40s to 70smainly horror movies of the 1950s and 60s (MANDATORY HALLOWEEN – WORTH THE WATCH)

#7 THE LITTLE BLUE MAN – BETTY JOHNSON  1958   I am certain that there are millions of baby boomers around the world that will remember this totally enjoyable song and have good memories of it. Perhaps to potential over zealous helicopter parents it may seem a bit creepy today, but to the innocent children of the fifties and sixties, their parents or grandparents, it was a cool and enjoyable mystery. What was the little blue man? Was he an alien? He was obviously indestructible, so was he a magical being from some far off country where he lived with leprechauns and unicorns, or some lost soul who had found his way from Venus. It did not really matter. Everybody loved the song and saw nothing wrong with the song. We were innocents. We loved the song for what it was, a song we could sing along with and let our imaginations run riot. Don’t forget, we also loved Puff, the magic dragon, despite the accusations of his participating in little heart shaped lollies and other such pleasures supposedly consumed in the swinging sixties. It may have been true,but very few saw it for more than it was meant to be … a cute little imaginative song that still has fans today.

#8 The ADDAMS FAMILY THEME – YOUTUBE These next two families are definitely the right guests for a fun valentine, and the version you watch for the Addam’s Family should be the opening and closing scenes of the original t,v. show. By the way, Caroline Jones (Morticia) starred opposite Elvis Presley in his fourth movie, a drama named King Creole which still managed to have a great soundtrack, and she also starred in one Vincent Price’s classic spooky horror shoes, The House of Wax … and Vincent Price, of course, is the narrator on Michael Jackson’s thriller

#9 And this one is THE MUNSTERS OPENING (IN COLOR

#10 LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD SAM THE SHAM AND THE PHARAOHS This song is included because it gives the wolf”s version of things, and it is a great song,

#11 THE BLOB – THE FIVE BLOBS  1958 (the original movie personality). Another Jazz themed sci-fi movie starring a very young Steven McQueen who first found fame on t.v. (Wanted: Dead or Alive)  Then the ‘King of Cool’ found fame in movies such as The Great Escape (this is where that famous image of him and a motorcycle came from), and The Magnificent Seven western that starred seven of the most popular actors of the period.  Footnote;The SONG is limited to one or two verses, but they do describe the characteristics of the alien fairly well. considering the Blob is exactly that … a blob … and considered to be a cult movie. Actually, it’s ironic telling somebody that a cult classic is extremely popular, when a by default of the intention of a cult object, it is only appreciated by very few … not the masses. You can take or leave this one.

Well, I hope some of you enjoyed the HALLOWEEN music, if not all of you … hope you all have a happy HALLOWEEN and get your fair share of the goods stuff before the kids grab it all, and I look forward to sharing a new theme with you all next month.

See ya,

Tony Stewart