Favorite Horror/Halloween Records!

[neonnoodle]

Another thing I very much enjoy is Halloween sound effects and horror records.  The newer stuff doesn't seem to be as good overall but there are some interesting new ones ("Around the Fire With Uncle Guts" is pretty decent).

Favorites from the late 60's/early 70's are Disney's "Chilling Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House" and Pickwick Records' "Sounds To Make You Shiver."

I am always searching Ebay for these because every once in a while, something I want will list really cheap.  For $5 plus postage, I got a fairly clean, unscratched "Sounds To Make You Shiver," and can listen to it over better stereo equipment than I had, certainly, when the record was new! This particular record is actually VERY creepy to listen to...

[Tom Smith Monsternut]

I love both of the Boris Karloff "Tales of the Frightened" records and an Evening with Boris Karloff myself !

Tom

[The Drunken Severed Head]

My noms for most fun:

Any Zacherley record!

Dracula's Greatest Hits (Gene Moss)

Lights Out!

Riboflavin Flavored, Non Carbonated, Poly-Unsaturated Blood

Tales of the Frightened records and An Evening with Boris Karloff

Spike Jones in Spooktacular Stereo!

Tales of the Sea Hag

It's Monster Surfing Time!

the first Frankie Stein album

[neonnoodle]

I recently got hold of Alan Sherman's excellent "My Son, The Vampire" on a Rhino compilation.  I never heard that one before!  I believe someone discussed the possibility of that song being the origin of the "Blah!" exclamation associated with the Lugosi Dracula--the "Play it again, Sam" of horror.

[Toy Ranch]

When I was a kid, I played "Thrilling Chilling Sounds" and Verne Langdon's "Phantom of the Organ" and "Dr Druid's Haunted Seance" over and over. 

There was also a narrated "Tales of Edgar Allan Poe" double album I used to listen to a lot. 

[Inkfink]

For me it would be Hanna-Barbera's Monster Shindig featuring Super Snooper and Blabber Mouse; the 45 version. The soundtrack of Mad Monster Party is another favorite!

[Penny Dreadful]

 Sounds of Terror! by Pickwick is my fave horror record!  It was a hand me down from my Monster Kid uncle who enjoyed terrorizing me with some of the more horrific tracks.  Once he tired of the record, he gave it to me and I still have it.  This thing used to scare the everlovin' heck out of me.... yet I couldn't resist the compulsion to listen to it again and again. 

[neonnoodle]

heh heh...I never had the Pickwick "Monster Mash" record but I have REAL fond memories of seeing it everywhere.  Every store had that one.  The graphics almost leaped out at you and grabbed your throat!

Another favorite, and really rare now, was the 7" 33 RPM "Spooky Sounds"  released by Sounds Records in Glendale, California.  Very serious atmosphere!

[SpankRamen]

You know what? I'm gonna be the odd woman out, here.
Jeff Wayne's War Of The World is what I like to listen to every Halloween. It has the perfect balance of Sci-Fi with a bit of spookiness. Listen to the album, not the CD. The CD just doesn't have the same effect, but the record's hisses & pops adds to the spook factor.

[poseablemonster]

Sounds of Terror! by Pickwick is my fave horror record!...This thing used to scare the everlovin' heck out of me.... yet I couldn't resist the compulsion to listen to it again and again. 

Ditto, Penny!  I would go down in my spooky, dank, partially dirt floor basement as a kid and listen to that record just to scare myself!  I remember the "Dog Attack" and the "Chinese Water Torture".  Just the tone of that woman's voice still gives me chills.  I love that record!

[neonnoodle]

Whoa, hold on there...I think you're describing the Disney record!

[poseablemonster]

Oh, you are right...that's the one with the orange cover and the haunted house?  So what's on the Monster Mash Sounds of Terror?  I am sure I had them both at about the same time.  I probably had that Disney record in the Monster Mash sleeve and vice-versa.  I guess my favorite one was that crazy Disney record, then.

[egorschamber]

A few gems (some already mentioned here) --

The great Boris Karloff, Forry Ackerman, Verne Langdon collaboration:



Excellent voice work by Dead End Kid Gabriel Dell --



The late great Bobby Pickett's original LP:



The original film faithfully dramatized for kids:



Lon Jr. spoken word recording (only 2 of the tracks, but great stuff)
-- why they used Oliver Reed on the cover I can't imagine:



Two of the albums of Hans J. Salter's film scores released in the 70s
with the involvement of the composer:



Two different LP releases of the same music; the Coral original has
lame, irritating "comedy" bits between the orchestrated tracks, but the
Varese reissue omits them (a good idea). Great cover on both! :

[neonnoodle]

That Horror Rhapsody album with Hans Salter on one side and John Cacavas' "Horror Express" score on the other side...pure joy.  One of my favorite records.  I was selling mine at one point but then had second thoughts and put in back in the collection.

[egorschamber]

The two volumes of short "Tales of the Frightened" read by Boris Karloff:



The stories were written by the late great "King of the Paperbacks," Michael Avallone.
I met Mike at Pulpcon years ago and we corresponded by letters and phone for
several years, and I illustrated a couple of limited edition pulp parodies Mike wrote for
the Pulpcon audience.  Mike was a prolific pro, writing every kind of pop fiction from
Spillanesque detective novels (about hardboiled dick "Ed Noon") to movie and TV tie-ins
to spy thrillers to gothics (as "Edwina Noone") and everything else imaginable. I miss
talking to him, especially about old movies, which he really loved -- he did great impressions
of his favorite stars of the 30s.

These stories were originally written for a short radio show (to star Karloff) that was stillborn
when television swiped the audience.  Mike was tremendously thrilled and honored to work
with Karloff, and very proud of these records, which really are excellent work and great fun to
listen to.  There was a paperback edition of these stories with the same artwork on the cover.

Mike wrote another projected radio series for another of his childhood faves, Chester Morris,
playing Mike's detective character Ed Noon. Unfortunately that one didn't make it either.