HAPPY    ALL    HALLOWS    EVE


OK, so the day has finally arrived...All Hallows Eve...Devils Night...So my final three suggestions for listening pleasures this wicked evening are here as well...

First, I'll break ranks and suggest a compact disc.  Not just a compact disc but a compact disc single, CD5, whatever...In 1997, the visionaries @ K-Tel came up with the idea to release a novelty single for the Halloween season by none other than Chubby Checker...Maybe they had seen his half-time extravaganza with the Rockettes back in '88 and, that being pretty scary, they thought he could pull of the Halloween thing. The tracks- Doin' The Zombie, House of Horror, The Twist, & Screams From Beyond rival the Fat Boys collaboration on the scare-o-meter (of course none of these tracks come close to the Fat Boys collaboration that the Beach Boys did, or worse yet Mike Love's "Rock n Roll Again" LP where he helps butcher some older songs...check out "Walk Away Renee" by the Association, Midi/Yamaha DX7 frights from hell...anyhow I digress)




Next is an album I've selected purely for the cover. Don Shirley's "Orpheus in the Underworld" on Cadence Records, 1956...


Considering how polite and restrained Don's piano work is, his painting on the cover is quite surprising. Very wicked indeed.  A beautiful shellac original, in the future I will do a bit on Cadence Records. The label history is quite interesting and earlier releases such as this gives other labels known for their lavish packaging, such as Liberty and Atlantic, a run for their money...




Finally, we have "Barbara, the Grey Witch"...

Released sometime in the very early 70's on LA label DEA, this release bears similarities to the Louise Huebner classic in that there are incantations over crazed music and much 'feminist' power type talk.  I'm hoping that the Producer, Ed Hansen, is the same fellow who Directed Eroticize (the full nude workout VHS classic featuring Kitten Navidad, Phil do you have a copy?). My copy of this double LP has an axe mark (a little accident a couple of years ago) that makes one side unplayable, so I'll be accepting gifts of both Barbara and the Chubby Checker CD (as I only have a burn of that release). You can see where the axe hit the record on the front cover, below her left arm...I've got to go now,  enjoy your Samhain, however you must...