Artificial Radio Hour with Rev. Dr. Dr. Phill: Artificial Radio Hour with Rev. Dr. Dr. Phill Part 43h

HALLOWEEK WILL NEVER END!

...that's not true.

All the big hits are in Part 43h!

...that's not true either.

This was supposed to be the easy one. The one where I just put all the top hits, the big popular Halloween songs that everybody knows.

It turns out I can't do that. I mean I meant to, but you can see what came of that. A few million-sellers, sure, but I couldn't help sticking in some of my weirdo faves, plus some that I didn't even know I had. (Also I forgot Dead Man's Party. How could I have forgotten Dead Man's Party?)

The "invocation" here is from "Doctor Druid’s Haunted Seance". It's a record that is a tool for performing a real seance! It comes with instructions on techniques you can use to ensure that your seance is successful. Considering that Verne Langdon, who plays Doctor Druid, arranged the music, and plays the organ, is also a stage magician, you can guess what kind of techniques those might be. This record also has liner notes from Famous Monsters of Filmland publisher Forrest J. Ackerman, and was produced by Milt Larsen, founder of The Magic Castle!

Midnight Stroll is another great spooky doo-wop track that I got from dearly departed horror music blog The Essential Ghoul's Record Shelf. It was run by Max Sparber, you can read an interview with him about it here.

I don't know where I got this track by Curtis Knight Zeus (or is it Curtis Knight, Zeus?) but that guy's pretty weird. He was the frontman of an R&B group in Harlem called Curtis Knight & the Squires. He hired Jimi Hendrix as his guitarist and recorded a few demos and singles. Jimi signed a management contract with Knight's manager, which he promptly forgot about and went to London to form the Jimi Hendrix Experience. After Hendrix became famous, Knight & his manager Ed Chaplin issued hundreds of albums of the Hendrix recordings, resulting in legal action.

"The Devil Made Me Do It" is from the period after Jimi died when Knight went to London himself, formed the band Curtis Knight, Zeus (or changed his name to Curtis Knight Zeus?) and toured extensively, trading on his Hendrix connection.

The Hits! Everybody knows BÖC, right? A bunch of dudes from Long Island who planned to be the American answer to Black Sabbath. Also, there's that cowbell sketch.

Another song by Darling Pet Munkee. Read about them in the notes for part 43h.

Superstition was written by Stevie Wonder while improvising over a drum pattern played by guitarist Jeff Beck. It became one of Stevie's biggest hits of the 70s. My favorite version is the one he played live on Sesame Street.

"Release The Beast" isn't actually scary. It also isn't a big hit, so my bad on that one. Breakwater is a funk band from Philadelphia. From the looks of their album cover, I guess they love to sweat? Maybe, I don't know. This song was sampled in the Daft Punk song "Robot Rock".

Bauhaus were an English post-punk band, one of the first so-called "gothic rock" groups. "Bela Lugosi's Dead" is considered the first gothic rock record. It was recorded in one take with no overdubs in January 1979.

"Disco Devil" is a "dub", or remix, of "Chase The Devil", a 1976 record by Max Romeo and the Upsetters. Lee "Scratch" Perry, the song's producer, released the dub three years later. Lee Perry is a real weird guy, I should include more of his stuff in the future.

Thriller! Everybody knows Thriller.

The Green Slime (ガンマー第3号宇宙大作戦 Ganmā Daisan Gō: Uchū Daisakusen) is a 1968 science fiction film directed by Kinji Fukasaku. I've never seen it, but the theme song is amazing.

Doesn't this guy look terrifying?

Finally, the ultimate Halloween track, familiar to everyone, 1964's novelty blockbuster "Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett And The Filter-Tip Kickers. Everyone knows it. It's in every sitcom Halloween episode, you've heard it a million times. It's the only song by Bobby "Boris" Pickett I know...

...wait. I'm getting new info here... The Monster what? The what Mash? Nope. That's nothing. I refuse to include it. This one's the hit, I don't know what you're talking about.

Until tomorrow!

Enjoy!

- Rev. Dr. Dr. Phill