NEW YORK - He does the "Monster Mash" no more. Bobby "Boris" Pickett, whose dead-on Boris Karloff impression propelled the Halloween anthem to the top of the charts in 1962, making him one of pop music's most enduring one-hit wonders, has died of leukemia. He was 69.
Pickett, dubbed "The Guy Lombardo of Halloween," died Wednesday night at the West Los Angeles Veterans Hospital, said his longtime manager, Stuart Hersh. His daughter, Nancy, and his sister, Lynda, were at Pickett's bedside. "Monster Mash" hit the Billboard chart three times: when it debuted in 1962, reaching No.
1 the week before Halloween; again in August 1970, and for a third time in May 1973. The resurrections were appropriate for a song where Pickett gravely intoned the forever-stuck-in- your-head chorus: "He did the monster mash. .
.. It was a graveyard smash.
" Fans included Bob Dylan, who played the single on his XM Satellite Radio program last October. "Our next artist is considered a one-hit wonder, but his one hit comes back year after year," Dylan noted. "It's certainly the biggest Halloween song of all time," said DJ Dr.
Demento, whose show features offbeat tunes. The DJ, who interviewed Pickett last year, said
, where the boy watched horror films in a theater managed by his father. He ultimately used it in his act. A bandmate convinced Pickett they needed to do a song to showcase the Karloff voice, and "Monster Mash" was born - "written in about a half-hour," said Dr.
Demento. The recording was rejected by four major labels before Gary Paxton, lead singer on the Hollywood Argyles' novelty hit "Alley Oop," released "Monster Mash" on his own label. The instant smash became a sort-of Christmas carol for the pumpkin and ghoul set.
In a 1996 interview with People magazine, Pickett said he never grew tired of it: "When I hear it, I hear a cash register ringing." "Monster's Holiday," a Christmas follow-up, reached No. 30 in December 1962.
And "Graduation Day" hit No. 80 in June 1963.
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