‘Monster’ a Good Mix of Song and Speech

“Monster Rock ‘n’ Roll Show,” just released by DDC Compact Classics, may appear on first glance to be just another collection of Halloween-related novelties.

But look more closely.

The 17 songs cited on the back of the package are well-chosen because many of them are relatively rare, but they are still pretty much what you’d expect to find on an album with monster in the title.

They range from--what else?--Bobby (Boris) Pickett & the Crypt-Kickers’ “Monster Mash” and Bo Diddley’s “Bo Meets the Monster” to the Revels’ “Midnight Stroll” and the Hollywood Flames’ “Frankenstein’s Den.”

The surprise rests in the 12 non-musical elements cited on the back of the package: brief segments pulled from movie trailers hawking various horror or sci-fi films, including “I Was a Teenage Werewolf,” “Horror of Dracula,” “King Kong” and “It Conquered the World.”

Sample excerpt from the trailer for “The Thing That Couldn’t Die”--the lines spoken, of course, in especially anxious tones with the wind howling in the background to underscore the alarm: “What is it . . . this head that lives without a body . . . a monstrous thing that enslaves every woman . . . (and) destroys every man who stares into its eyes?”

Alan Warner, who conceived and produced the entertaining album (which was mastered by Steve Hoffman), captures the spirit of the collection in his liner notes:

“Not all the ‘spots’ relate directly to the songs that follow them; some are specifically positioned to re-create those old double-feature kind of movie programs where you’d get two scary pictures for the price of one. So park your hearse, sit back and enjoy, but remember: Nobody leaves the theater during the last 10 minutes!”