Halloween Music (1910 to 1950)

Finishing out the Halloween 2013 postings this year with a quick reminder that if you are searching for some spooky tunes of our early century past (1910s to 1950s) click over to this seasonal vintage music station sponsored and programmed by Bindlegrim on live365.com: Bindlegrim Halloween. For the next seven days through the Halloween weekend the station has been upgraded to offer up to 60 non-VIP listeners at a time (up from the usual 5)...!

This is about 4 1/2 hours (as of this writing) of music from the 1910s to the 1950s featuring the music you might have found on 78 RPM, such as jazz, swing, big band, ragtime, lounge & more... (this is before rock and roll which has plenty of sources for that genre). The music here (not always p.c.) is about ghosts, witches, devils, skeletons, spooky haunts, or even just the simple pleasures like the autumn leaves, by musical artist such as Louis Armstrong, Kay Starr, Glen Miller, Betty Hutton, Cab Calloway...

Hope you enjoy! And suggestions / requests for songs are always welcome (though I may not get to them in the current year).  There is no monetary compensation in this for me. This is just a hobby as something I like to do (as a fan of music from all eras) that brought together my love of vintage decor with the music of that holiday past. Happy Hallowe'en...!!!

A Gaggle of Ghosts Goes to Town

I was listening to some retro-lounge music the other day - and came across an instrumental version of Mr. Ghost Goes to Town, (originally written in 1936 by Will Hudson, Irving Mills and Mitchell Parish.)  I had no idea there were so many cool versions of this song... each one worthy of a listen. Even today when I was going to say there were just three oldies of this tune - I found another blog writer who mentions two more (so that's a half dozen)!

1) I would have started first with the version by Louis Prima (1936), but can't find it anywhere as a sample online. It's a great version and it can be found on The Halloween Stomp mentioned in this entry: Halloween Music at 78 RPM.

2) The second in this list is by The 5 Jones Boys (1938), and though I'm having trouble finding information again about this band - I seem to remember they were known (minus the acoustic strumming) for creating most of their sounds with the voice: (and they use that to spooky effect here to make sounds somewhere between trumpets and theremins, with even the voice of Mr. Ghost making an appearance): 

3 & 4) For two more versions from around the 1930s (the song must have been really popular in that era), here are 2 versions featuring some early twang (one by The Tune Wranglers, and a 2nd by Zeke Manners and His Swing Billies) -- see Music/ Not Music for this entry featuring two early country/western versions: Mustic / Not Music: Three Versions of a Song About A Ghost

5) Switching gears just a bit the next one is an instrumental from The John Buzon Trio, and this is the one that spurred this entry. It's a version that will put a twitch in your tail bone, and be right at home in a cool retro lounge Halloween setting with its swinging organs and funky saxophone. (And if anyone has a collection of cool lounge Halloween tunes out there I would love to know about it!)

6) And finally for a bit of Halloween cheese in your trick-or-treat pail... here's another kicky version from the Lawrence Welk show featuring Bob Ralston in vampire attire playing the tune on the Thomas organ:

Well, do you suppose that's just for starters? With a song this catchy I have a feeling it hasn't fallen out of favor yet... but I think this covers most of the very early versions...? If you know of anymore, please post a comment.