October 8, 1962 (2 weeks)
August 4, 1973 (3 weeks)
So, I'm going to come right out and say it: I don't like Halloween. I mean, it was okay when I was a little kid but even then it was by no means one of those days I looked forward to like the last day of school or Christmas or going to the Calgary Stampede. I wasn't a creative child so I never had a clue about choosing a costume and having to trudge around my neighbourhood going door-to-door in search of candy always seemed like more trouble than it was worth. Aptly, one of my favourite Halloweens was in 1984 when Alberta was hit by a cold spell and temperatures plunged to -25. I manged to do half a block before giving up and making due mostly with the Coffee Crisp and Aero chocolate bars my folks bought for kids who were similarly freezing and unwilling to go door knocking.
When I was ten, I unknowingly went trick-or-treating for the last time; a year later we were living in England where no one cared about it (though, apparently, this antipathy has changed considerably since then) and by the time we were back, I was in junior high school and no longer allowed to do it. And I didn't much care. I am now well into adulthood and I think I dislike it even more. I did dress up a couple times when I was a university student mostly to impress girls but that's about it. (My university here in South Korea used to do Halloween events for local kids which I would sometimes participate in. Students never bothered dressing up for it and so neither did I)
Now that that's out of the way, I'm going to go back on what I alluded to above. There's nothing at all wrong with "Monster Mash" getting to number one in the middle of the summer — or, indeed, at any time of the year. People went to see movies like Dracula and Frankenstein and The Exorcist and it mattered little if they came out in October or not. More than being about Halloween, it's about ghouls getting down. It's a party song. Not one that I would play at a party but that's just me. (Notice, too, that it wasn't even much of a Halloween favourite back in '62: with still over a week to go until the big day it had already been dethroned from the top of the Canadian charts by The Crystals with "He's a Rebel" which is also a far better party anthem)
Is "Monster Mash" great? Not especially. Is it utter crap like fellow novelty hit "The Purple People Eater"? No, it's nowhere near that bad either. It's perfectly good for what it is but I'd never choose to listen to it — though I wouldn't crabbily demand it be taken off if it happened to come on. As of late there has been a phenomenon called Whamaggeddon in which "players" are supposed to see how long they can go from the start of December until Christmas Eve without hearing Wham!'s eighties classic "Last Christmas". I've never played it myself seeing as how I quite like that song but I understand the impulse to avoid shit that gets overplayed, especially during the holiday season. The status of "Monster Mash" as a defacto Halloween song means you're not likely to come across it at any other time of the year - and it's easy to avoid and, thus, I never have to get sick of it. Not much of a ringing endorsement but don't forget I'm just a sad old grump who hates Halloween.
Score: 5
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"Can Con"
So, a song called "Montreal" was a Top 20 hit on the CHUM charts in '62. The credited artist is one 'Johnny Williams' who I assumed was a Canadian singer I'd never heard of before. Turns out, he's THE John Williams — or, to be clear, one of THE John Williams: not the author of the splendid novels Stoner and Augustus though. Yes, the film composer who did all those iconic Star Wars scores: "Main Title" (aka the opening crawl theme), "Cantina Band", "The Empire March", "Duel of the Fates". Apparently he scored other movies too. I'm pretty sure he did Superman but I'm not really sure about any of the others and I don't feel like taking a look. As for this "Montreal" single, I would never have guessed it was the same guy who I think also did the score for Jurassic Park. It's kind of a polka and it's okay. It helps that it's brief. Just don't ask me what movie it comes from. (It's not from Minority Report, is it?)
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Can Con
On to what was in the charts in '73, we have some genuine Canadiana with The Stampeders and their sixth Top 10 hit "Gypsy Minstrel". Just as Bobby Pickett does a mean Boris Karloff and a decent Bela Lugosi, singer Rich Dodson pulls off a seriously good Gordon Lightfoot impersonation here. I'm not so sure he was as capable of writing as good a song as the Canadian legend but it's not a bad try. A comfy bit of soft rock isn't the worst thing in the world but I'll take "Sweet City Woman" thank you very much.
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