Timeless Thursday – Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett’s Other Monster Hits

Timeless Thursday, Throwback Thursday, it’s all the same, it means, we’re going back in time!

Did you know that Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett had a couple of lesser known monster hits after the chart topping smash hit Monster Mash in 1962? The original Monster Mash album had 16 tracks altogether, including this one:

Title: Monster’s Holiday
Singer/Band: Bobby Pickett
Date: 1962

Well, actually, comedian Pickett was probably the only person who ever continually parodied his own music, but the success of Monster Mash was never duplicated. He sure looked like he was having fun anyway.

Title: Monster Swim
Singer/Band: Bobby Pickett
Date: 1964

I suppose, if it aint broke, don’t fix it!😄

Title: Monster Rap
Singer/Band: Bobby Pickett
Date: 1984

About that Monster Mash, it was spoof on popular dance craze songs at the time. The song was co-written with Leonard Capizzi in May 1962 and hit the top US Billboard 100 by October the same year. By 1973, it had re-charted five other times and eventually earned gold status, making it the greatest novelty song in history.

Hit up Wikipedia to learn more about Bobby Boris Pickett. By the way, did you know Monster Mash still generates $1 million dollars annually in royalties?! <grunts> Mash goooood!

Songs copyright by respective owners. No copyright infringement intended. This is fan appreciation and critique. Reposting video under the “fair use” privilege of U.S. Copyright law. These videos still could be removed at anytime. Please email me at Halloweenkristy@gmail.com to report broken links.

Wicked Art Wednesdays 2025 – James Crouch

From rock stars to sports icons, custom jobs to landscapes, and Hollywood Murals to Disneyland Halls, chances are if you live in the USA, you’ve probably already seen SoCal artist James Crouch’s vibrant stunning art murals somewhere in person.

Disney’s Haunted Mansion Bride by James Crouch

Artist: James Crouch
Company/Studio: https://croucharts.com/

Where to Purchase Goods: https://croucharts.com/collections/vintage-monsters

Headless Horseman by James Crouch from Vintage Monsters Collection

Why we love it:

James Crouch is an Imagineer working with Walt Disney Company for over 30 years. Some of us just grew up seeing this guy’s iconic work our whole lives.

Social Media: https://www.instagram.com/crouch_arts/

Haunted Organist by James Crouch from Vintage Monsters Collection

Trick or Treat Tuesdays – Haunted Trivia Game

Happy Trick or Treat Tuesday! Be the first person to answer all five questions correctly in the Comments Section and win some spooky stickers as a treat!

What 1959 novel made The Atlantic’s Greatest American Novels top 100 list?

Horror icon Vincent Price deliberately turned in a campy over-the-top performance in which fun spooky film?

Celebrities share their real life encounters with the paranormal in which Apple TV series?

Paranormal investigative couple Ed and Lorraine Warren were heavily involved in the real life haunted funeral parlor case that inspired which “Haunting of” movie?

Haunted is the fifth track on the debut album for which 90s rock band?

Rules: First person to answer ALL five questions correctly in the Comment Section of this WordPress post, will win some spooky stickers.

Monthly Haiku Corner – October

Happy October! We are a haunted nation, full of demons masquerading as god’s children, in places we never dreamed, doing things we don’t want to imagine.

Resist evil.

October’s full moon is the first supermoon of the year, a harvest moon, named for time of year when crops are plentiful. Too bad no one is around to pick them.

screams that no one hears
beware of those haunted souls
nation full of ghosts

Be safe out there.

Sinister Saturdays – Graveyard Brownies

Every year, I see recipes for decadent desserts for Halloween and it makes me so jealous. One, I can’t bake for beans, and two, apt living means tiny kitchen, but I thought I’d give it another go this year.

I’ll be honest, I’m picking the laziest, no fuss recipes I can find. For me that means box mixes and pre-made shit. This is a judgement free zone when it comes to cooking and baking. If you have time to make from scratch, knock yourself out. I don’t. End of story.

Besides, work smarter, not harder!🎃

For this first Sinister Saturday, I made GRAVEYARD BROWNIES.

Inspired by the recipe for Graveyard Halloween Brownies over at Dish ‘n in the Kitchen, I too used Giarardelli’s Double Chocolate Brownie mix. This box mix is to die for. You only need to mix in an egg, 1/4 cup water and 1/3 oil, and 40 minutes later, so much deliciousness, you’ll think it’s a sin.

After waiting for the Brownies to cool down, I cut them into squares and added my other pre-made ingredients crushed Oreos for Graveyard dirt, and Milano cookies for tombstones. I didn’t have any black icing, so I just used some chocolate syrup and wrote RIP on the Milano cookies.

The results are delicious, even if my pictures don’t pass the smell test. 🤣

Happy Halloween! Be safe out there!

Friday Fright Nightcaps – Ghastly Spritzer

Happy Friday! It’s the return of Friday Fright Nightcaps! In honor of this month’s theme Haunted Halloween, I present the Ghastly Spritzer. Who doesn’t love a nice smooth fizzy cocktail!

Ingredients:
1 oz. Malibu coconut rum
2 oz. vodka
1.5 oz. pineapple juice
3 oz. sparkling water
ice

This drink wildly interchangeable. Too weak, add more vodka. Too strong, add more pineapple juice. Too sweet, add more sparkling water, I used a flavored La Croix but honestly the Malibu drowned out the flavor in sparkling water.

Also, I missed Random Acts of Poetry Day on October 1st, so I’m sliding in a suggestion to check out this great book from Everyman’s Library and edited by John Hollander entitled “Poems Bewitched and Haunted” a collection of classic spooky poems and short stories.

Gothic scares from literary greats like Dickinson, Goethe, Horace, and Poe. Must read for Halloween!

Timeless Thursday – Earliest Spooky Tunes

Happy October! It’s Throwback Thursday and today we’re listening to the earliest spooky tunes ever recorded.

Title: The Skeleton Rag
Composer: Unknown
Singer/Band: American Quartet
Date: circa 1912

The Skeleton Rag circa 1912 is the earliest known recorded spooky song. Not much is known about the song, but Wikipedia has a whole page dedicated to American Quartet, a widely known vocal group that made music from 1899-1925.

Title: At the Devil’s Ball
Composer: Irving Berlin
Singer/Band: Maurice Burkhart
Date: circa 1912/1913

According to Wikipedia, At the Devil’s Ball was first composed by Irving Berlin, with the earliest copyright registered on November 14, 1912. It was recorded a few times by different groups throughout 1912, but Maurice Burkhart’s 1913 version is best known.

Title: That Syncopated Boogie-Boo
Composer: American Quartet
Singer/Band: American Quartet
Date: circa 1913

Boogie woogie is a popular type of blues music from early teens and 1920s. Wikipedia reports that the first use of the word “Boogie” in a recording title appears to be a “blue cylinder” recording made by Edison of the “American Quartet” performing “That Syncopated Boogie Boo” in 1913.

Anything created before 1923 is considered a Public Domain work and free to use or reproduce. That said, the owners of these YouTube Channels control the content they posted, so these videos could be removed at anytime. Please email me at Halloweenkristy@gmail.com to report broken links.

Happy October 2025!

Happy October! It’s been a busy summer. I admit that keeping up with a blog this year has been challenging. On one hand I love it, I love sharing Halloween haiku and other spooky stuff, but truth is I simply don’t have the time to blog like I used to.

I did make time to visit Disneyland recently for some Fall fun.

I also know times are tough and depressing. It’s not going to get better anytime soon, we need Halloween! We need to celebrate our culture and traditions more than ever and we need to make new memories! Good memories! You never know when that may be the only thing you have. So after careful consideration, I will again be celebrating all 31 days of Halloween this year.

There will be two themes this month, Haunted Halloween and Halloween Happy. Americans are a haunted people, but we all deserve life. Halloween is for everyone. Full stop. The holiday combines both ancient pagan and religious ceremonies. The original purpose was to chase away the demons and bad ghosts that crossed over the spirit realm because of the thin veil between the living and the spirit world.

Don’t let anyone tell you how to do Halloween. Decorate or not. Wear a costume or not. We can be scary and sweet. We can be spooky and cute. Let the teenagers trick or treat. Kids collecting candy are too occupied to do anything else. I truly believe Halloween makes people happy. It’s about community. We need our communities more than ever. It’s the only thing that can save America now.

Be sure to check back every day this October for cool, fun, and inspirational Halloween, horror, and haiku.

HALLOWEEN SCHEDULE 2025

Monday Macabre

Every Monday, I’ll be posting a brand new Halloween Haiku, honoring the theme of Haunted Halloween.

Trick or Treat Tuesdays

Check in on Tuesdays for some online fun. I’ve got treats and I’ve got tricks.

Wicked Art Wednesdays

Every Wednesday, I’ll showcase the amazing and unique talents of Halloween artists from around the globe.

Timeless Thursdays

Every Thursday, let’s travel back in time and revisit some of the greatest Halloween music ever made on the corporeal plane.

Friday Fright Nightcaps

Bubble bubble, drink away trouble, it’s the return of Friday Fright Nightcaps!

Sinister Saturdays

Decadent desserts from the darkside. I’m not much of a cook, so this could get truly evil.

Spooky Sundays

Spooky Sundays are for reading, relaxing, and recharging our brooms.

Eat, drink and be scary!

7th Annual Halloween Haiku Challenge
#Halloweenhaikuchallenge2025

Due to time constraints, this year’s contest will start at midnight on October 30th through Halloween day. Winner chosen on November 1st.

More details to come, but for now, sharpen those pencils or pull up a blank page; I can’t wait to see those Halloween haiku!

Don’t forget to follow Halloweenhorrorhaiku on Pinterest and Blue Sky.

Have a Happy Halloween season, everyone! Be safe out there!🎃

Horror’s Spookiest Pumpkin Scenes

October is mere hours away and to celebrate this month’s theme of pumpkin apocalypse and welcome back the Halloween season with some of the spookiest pumpkin scenes in horror.

Stsrting with my personal fave from Disney’s Adventures of Icabod and Mr. Toad, 1949. The Headless Horseman wore a fiery pumpkin head on top his shoulders and terrified the poor ‘ole school master Icabod Crane by chasing him down and throwing his own head at him. It’s one of the most iconic scenes in animation and pretty darn scary for Disney.

Who can forget the 1952 Disney classic Trick or Treat, when Witch Hazel casts a spell on Donald Duck’s pumpkin causing it to dance around and sing. Head on over to Disney Plus to view the whole classic animation in its entirety.

Horror films are meant to scare us, whereas spooky family films are meant to delight us. It’s all about the intention, right? Which is why horror fans everywhere took a doubletake at Eli Roth’s scary kids film, The House With a Clock in the Walls.

The horror maestro traded in his trademark blood and gore for a whimsical Halloween tale with an incredible production design featuring a magical haunted house filled with secrets and crazed jack-o-lanterns who spew their pumpkin guts on you.

Enough with the kid films, we want killer pumpkins!

Carved 2024

If you didnt see the logo plastered all over the posters, no one would have ever guessed this stoner horror-comedy was a Hulu production. It wasn’t the greatest movie, but the scene where the pumpkin creature exacting revenge by slaughtering most of the participants of a pumpkin carving contest is alone worth a watch.

Tales of Halloween, 2015

Starring several horror icons, this spooky anthology features ten terrorific tales set on Halloween night, directed by a who’s who in horror. I adore this film, it has Adrienne Barbeau as segment DJ, killer ghosts, naughty trick or treaters, aliens vs axe murderers, demons, witches, but no creature is scarier than the killer pumpkin from hell in Neil Marshall’s horror short Bad Seed.

Trick ‘r Treat, 2007

Michael Dougherty’s directorial debut is four Halloween stories connected by a mysterious trick or treat demon named Lil’ Sam. Candy is good enough keep Sam at bay, just as long as you don’t break any of the rules of Halloween. In one of the movie’s scariest scenes, we learn there are consequences to making Lil’ Sam angry. You will never blow out a pumpkin before midnight again after watching this movie.

Trick ‘r Treat never received a decent theatrical release, but instead of falling into obscurity, it became an instant cult horror classic. This October, the movie will get a re-release for two nights only.

It’s one of my favorite horror films of all time and instantly invokes the true spirit of Halloween. A must watch for any Halloween and horror fan.

Monthly Haiku Corner – September

Happy September! I’m so excited the ‘Ber months are back! This is my favorite time of year. It’s also the time of year that seems to go by super fast, making it hard to enjoy the holidays. The way things are going in America, I think this year will be important to celebrate Halloween, lean into traditions we love and make new memories. This is the way only way to keep our hearts and spirits free.

This month’s full moon is corn moon, named after the harvest time in North America. It’s also a blood moon, a total lunar eclipse. It’s a special night for charging crystals and casting spells to keep evil away. Hopefully, it work on earthbound evil as well.

It’s not that I think the world will end anytime soon, but we’re getting to the point where choices for survival may need to be made sooner than we ever thought possible. In some ways, it feels like the 80s all over again, with the same damn players! Except this time, we have treasoners in the mix! So, this Halloween season, grab a GenX’er and party like it’s 1999. I’m not going to say it’s our last Halloween, cuz unlike my younger self, I still have hope.