'Boris' Pickett -- He did the 'Mash'
Los Angeles Times
Friday, April 27, 2007
(04-27) 04:00 PDT Los Angeles -- Bobby "Boris" Pickett, whose Boris Karloff impersonation was immortalized on the novelty hit song "Monster Mash," which has become a Halloween perennial, has died. He was 69.
Mr. Pickett, a longtime resident of Santa Monica, died Wednesday of leukemia at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center, said his manager, Stuart Hersh.
" 'Monster Mash' is the biggest Halloween song of all time. The song was spooky but nonthreatening, just a natural -- it had a good beat and was a great, fun idea," said Barret Hansen, better known as syndicated radio host Dr. Demento.
The catchy tune, about a mad professor who joins his latest creation to dance the "Monster Mash," was the No. 1 song in the country on Halloween in 1962. Re-released twice more, it cracked Billboard's top 100 in 1970 and the top 10 in 1973.
Inspired by a dance craze called the mashed potato, the song was written in a few hours by Mr. Pickett and a musical colleague, Leonard Capizzi.
Not only did "Monster Mash" catch on in a flash, its refrain -- accompanied by Mr. Pickett's spirited Karloff impression -- was destined to get stuck in the minds of generations to come:
He did the mash
He did the monster mash
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