Moontrekkers - Night Of The Vampire

Here is one of my all time fave instrumental cuts, Halloween related or otherwise.

This songs is just plain great, the guitar and organ interplay is just plain wicked and creepy, the reverb overload just adds to the tension. the screams and backward tape masking add an additional creep factor and the overall groove and beat kind of sounds like floorboards creaking... I would imagine the Moontrekkers are English as I've never seen an non British pressing of this 45. This is a Joe Meek production of Telstar fame, who it is told had an obsession with the occult. Other than that i don't know much about the moontrekkers. anyone have any additional info? Was Joe meek a member of the band? Looks like they cut more singles which i certainly have to track down. Apparently this cut was also banned in the UK at the time of its release, who knew the Brits could be so creepy in a Halloween sort of way.

Moontrekkers - Night Of The Vampire

Johnny Thunder - Horror Show

Ok folks more Halloween tunes: here is the "American" version of Horrow Show....

Wonder what the "Non-American" version sounded like?

Not to be mistaken for Dead Punk Rock Icon and all around New York Doll Junkie Guitar God Johnny Thunders with an "S".

But Still I'm not even sure if this is "THAT" Johnny Thunder below because it doesn't state that he cut sides for Epic but keeping in the Halloween spirit here is "A" Johnny Thunder doing another kooky spooky "Horror" 45 side.

In 1963, Johnny Thunder, born Gil Hamilton, scored the only hit of his career. "Loop de Loop" was essentially a nursery rhyme set to music. The public loved it, and it assailed to the lofty perch of number four on the pop charts. Only "Hey Paula" at number one, "Walk Right In," and Bobby Vee's "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" at number three, prevented it from being the top record during the week of February 9, 1963.

Born August 15, 1941, in Leesburg, FL, Johnny Thunder started singing in church, high school, and on street corners. Nothing was happening in Florida in the late '50s, so Thunder moved to New York City under the advice of a friend who worked as the road manager for the Drifters. Thunder even sung with the famous Atlantic Record group for a few months prior to Ben E. King leaving to go solo. After the stint, he started recording under his birth name for Capitol and Fury Records, but had no success. To keep the rent paid and food in his belly, he made his self useful as a studio background vocalist working with then-unknowns Dionne Warwick, Luther Vandross, Cissy Houston, and others. Thunder's high mellow resonant tenor always lifted him above the others. One of his Capitol releases was "Tell Him," the same song which became a hit for the Exciters months after his version had died. (The Exciters' members included the boisterous voice of Brenda Reid, who's the mother of Antonio "L.A." Reid, who became a songwriting and record producing force with Babyface in the '80s and '90s.)

Producer/songwriter Teddy Vann came up with "Loop de Loop," a song that Thunder thought was a joke. Vann even suggested the name change from Gil Hamilton to Johnny Thunder. None of his following releases came close to equaling the success of "Loop": "The Rosey Dance" failed to enter the Top 100, stopping at number 122; Bert Bern's "Everybody Do the Sloopy" did much better, but its showing at number 67 was still unimpressive. Like most singers, Thunder didn't like the stuff he recorded, but did it hoping lightening would strike twice. He continued recording throughout the '60s, waxing sides for Calla, Vee Jay, and United Artists Records; the Vee Jay 45 dropped under his birth name. In the '70s, he recorded sides for Arista, but again, no hits. He recorded one album, Loop de Loop, on Diamond.
Biography by Andrew Hamilton - Allmusic.com

Johnny Thunder - Horror Show

The Tomko's - The Spook

Here is a record i posted back in April but seeing how we are in the beggining stages of the Halloween month i thought this deserved a re-post!

I don't know much about "The Tomko's" but i do know this is a pretty wild and "spooky" 45. Screams, howls, cries, wind & wailing and screeching sax and some insane laughter make this a real nutty "Halloween" type rocker!

So strap yourself in for a wild fun-house ride!!!

Enjoy!

The Tomko's - The Spook

The Tomko's - The Spook

For many a year now I've had the (un)pleasure to have lunch with Deacon Brimstone as we work in the same "Hell Hole" and since we found out early on that each of us play in a band and each of us have this strange affliction.... Vinyl addiction. We've always sorta "hung out" together even taking 1/2 a day off yesterday and do some vinyl digging round the northern tip of NJ... (Gonna post my scores later if i can find the time)

And while we don't see eye to eye on many issues one of the things we always agree on is "Monster" records and our love of them.

When we started hanging out and talking records i realized i had a lot of catching up to do in the monster record category. See, his Monster collection is pretty impressive and i started trying to find as many as i could to fill my voids. And here is one that has avoided me for many a years until i stumbled upon this rare gem in a lot of six 60's "Pop" records. A bid later and a few dollars i scored the lot and waited anxiously for my records to arrive.

Well here it is:

I don't know much about "The Tomko's" maybe Mr. Brimstone can chime in on that but i do know this is a pretty wild and "spooky" 45. Screams, howls, cries, wind & wailing and screeching sax and some insane laughter make this a real nutty rocker!

So strap yourself in on this beautiful Saturday afternoon for a wild fun-house type ride!!!

Enjoy!

The Tomko's - The Spook