# 43 Days Till Halloween



## Dinosaur1972 (Mar 28, 2007)

43 Days Till Halloween
9/18/2013

More Kids stuff … perhaps I can wrap this folder up today.

*Scary Stories for Little Monsters (1999)
*This was a terrific listen. The first two tracks are okay … the three long traditional folk stories that follow, “The Sprightly Tailor”, “Jack and the Marsh Ghost”, and “Tan Lin” are very good, as is the shorter but still good “The Hobyas”. The narrators do a terrific job, the music provides a nice break between stories. This is a very good CD.

*Scary Stories- Frightening Tales for Halloween
*Can’t find much on this collection of stories, but I think they were all pulled from other sources. I already know 4 tracks from Olmsted and Karloff … the other three stories (“Berenice”, “The Golden Arm”, and “Shadow”) are OK.

*Sesame Street Elmo Says BOO! (1997)
*Pretty cute stuff, but I grew up watching Sesame Street (and I always loved The Count) so I am biased. We have “The Monster Mash” again, but they changed a few words here and there. I don’t recognize many of these songs from my era, though I’ve heard “The Song of the Count” (I love it), “Frazzle” and “The Batty Bat” before. Do kids still watch Sesame Street? They should.

*Spook Stuff for Hallowe'en (1960)
*This is a wonderful little early sound effects album. I love the slowed-down cat sounds. Side B is a little weirder than Side A. The album’s creators were sure having fun playing with all the knobs and levers on their equipment … reverb, echo, etc. “Krishtar has spoken!” Ends with an interesting reading of “Hey Diddle Diddle”. Seriously.

*The Haunted House Company - Halloween Party Planner Flexi (1981)
*Only 3 minutes to each side of the record. Side A is the story of how Neewollah became a witch, and on the other side she guides the listener through a haunted house with the same tricks they all have (bowl full of eyeballs, spider webs, etc.). Short and sweet.

*The Hit Crew - 50 Kids Spooky Halloween Tricks and Treats (2008)
*It leads off … LEADS OFF … with their cover of “Addams Groove”. Yech. Followed up by “The Monster Mash” and “Ghostbusters”, naturally. It’s got other dance-friendly songs, a story, a poem, and a lot of sound effects tracks. The sound effects are decent (each track about a minute long).

*The Ride of The Headless Horseman - Sounds of Sleepy Hollow (1986)
*Another oldie but goodie. Starts with a 12 minute telling of the the Legend of Sleepy Hollow with some fun sound effects. The other side of the record isolates the sound effects used in the story. I swear the horse neighing is the same on used on the old “See and Say”. I love “Midnight Music 1”, which I’ve heard on other records.

*Wade and Melissa Hooker - Monster Kid Music (2011)
*These are all original songs. They aren’t super-memorable, but they aren’t all that bad, either. Bonus points for most creative title … “Dinosaur Zombies With Chainsaws” which is kinda funny. They got some help from David Fair – good idea there.

*Walt Disney World - Halloween Parade (2002)
*Thought I was done with Disney, but not quite. It’s got “Gospel Truth” from the Hercules movie, and some Haunted Mansion action. Also some kind of barnyard dance, and a finale. It was kind of dull, but cheaper than actually being there.

*Wende and Harry Devlin - Old Witch Rescues Halloween (1972)
*Another old book-and-record – I think I remember this story from my youth.


*Winchells Donut House - Hear the Monsters (1976)
*An advertisement for donuts disguised as a Halloween story. Yet, there is an undeniable charm on this record. The kids that actually sound like kids, the frequent Halloween safety advice, the Halloween story (love the drumsticks hitting the floor representing the skeleton), the donuts that do “magic things to your mouth” – crazy fun.

*Wonderland Singers and Accompaniment - Spooky Halloween (1974)
*I definitely remember this one from my youth. We sat in a darkened music room, with this record playing, and we were supposed to sing along though we barely knew the tunes and we certainly didn’t know the words. I swear there was SOMETHING visual going on too … a slideshow or a 30mm film or something. I remember the stadium organ music and the “acka lacka ching, acka lacka chow” and the “we – are – here – to – scaaaaare you-oo-oo-oo”. It’s all common melodies with Halloween lyrics (as usual) with songs set to “I’ve Been Working On the Railroad”, “As the Army Goes Rolling Along”, and “The Sidewalks of New York” (no, I didn’t know that tune in 2nd grade). The slide-show or whatever it was would display the lyrics we were supposed to sing, and it had the song titles with “to the tune of” … and there were animated BOOs and spooky eyes and such. I wish somebody somewhere had the visuals to go along with this.

*Old Gray Goose - Scary Stories For Halloween (2004)
*Finally getting back to this. After listening to the first story – a 9-minute twisted tale of cannibalism (you know, for kids!), I wanted to listen to the rest real carefully. He’s not a particularly good story-teller – his delivery is filled with uncomfortable pauses and that accent is just a hoot. (“There, in the raftahs … was an ahm. Just an ahm.”) (“One time I went to school, and they were having a Halloween pahty.”) He sings a couple songs, he reads some clever gravestone epitaphs, has a version of the “High Beams” story, the Church Service for the Dead, and the Wonderful Sausage story. But the reader has so much character … “Here we ah, back in the graveyahd” … you have to listen to this to believe it.

That wraps up the Kids folder … maybe I can plow through these book and record sets.

*Casper And The Demon Of Darkness - Book & Recording (1976)
*Ah, Casper. I was never big into Casper – don’t recall ever watching the cartoons anyway. This story is pretty anticlimactic.

*Casper the Friendly Ghost - Haunted House Tales (1975)
*Track 1 – the theme song. Track 2 – the same story I just heard. Then, three more short Casper stories. I have no Casper-related childhood memories, so this is kind of a struggle. “This is the LAST TIME I’m going to wave this wand today” kind of made me chuckle.


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## talkingcatblues (Jan 30, 2009)

Speaking of kids' Halloween records, PumpkinRot mentioned this on his blog and I thought of you - http://rue-morgue.com/2013/09/a-little-preview-of-lonesome-wyatts-upcoming-halloween-album/

"According to Lonesome&#8217;s website, _'Halloween Is Here'_ is a terrifying tribute to all those strange and obscure Halloween albums from the 1950s to the 1980s. It contains twelve spooky stories and monstrous sing-a-longs for your unholy holiday party at the local insane asylum.&#8221;

Listening to the previews right now - they're fun!


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## GobbyGruesome (Sep 14, 2005)

I got a soft spot for the Winchell's Donut record too. It's spooky and adorable! Really well done.


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