Monster hit: The novelty radio song that lives on … and on

Two years ago, Australian all-women indie rock band The Buoys  performed a live (and lively) cover version of a sixty year old song on triple j.

It was part of Requestival, a chaotic week in which every song played on triple j is chosen by the listener.

That song was Monster Mash. And it went off like the proverbial frog in a sock.  triple j listeners couldn’t get enough.

“Top ten for the Hottest 100!”

“This is an absolutely fantastic cover!!”

“This is actually awesome.”

Not bad for a novelty song which originally took half an hour to write and less than half an hour to record.

Released by Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett & The Crypt Kickers in 1962, it’s since been covered by a host of bands and artists, from Alice Cooper to The Wiggles.

Today – as households stock up on Cadbury Favourites for their little Trick or Treat time visitors – Monster Mash continues to make its presence felt on Halloween playlists.

As Jaime Marconette – Vice President of Music Insights at entertainment data company Luminate – notes in an article published this week, few songs will ever match the staying power of Monster Mash.

“Spooky, infectious, and full of ghoulish fun, Monster Mash is synonymous with Halloween,” he says.

“And yet, however inadvertently, the song has courted controversy and can stake its claim as the ‘God Save The Queen’ of the horror rock genre.”

As Marconette points out, Monster Mash certainly spooked the BBC, which banned it from the airwaves, declaring the song was “too morbid” for radio, a decision it would later reverse when the song topped the American Billboard charts.

Today, it continues to be a favourite among older and younger generations alike.

Zoë Mahler is a US college student, and Monster Mash is the number one song on her iTunes playlist.

“When October 1st rolls around the Monster Mash is absolutely the first song I bop my head to as I adorn my witch’s hat and toss in some plastic glow-in-the-dark vampire teeth,” she says.

Marconette says songs like Monster Mash are unique examples of how cultural traditions and nostalgia can create long-lasting, repeatable success.

“Their reliability as revenue generators position them as both artistic and financial mainstays in the evolving streaming landscape.”

In its heyday, the song was also heard on radio here.

The question is – even as a one-off Halloween song – would Australian radio play it now?