Customer Reviews

Monster Bop

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you ever wanted more than the `Monster Mash' then this CD will kick you in the head! It has 30 original tracks of monster songs that are pure 50's rock n roll. The cover is a colorful painting of a group of monsters (originally used for a Frankie. Stein & His Orchestra LP on Power Records 1964) and it comes with a 12 page booklet full of photos of some of the artists. I couldn't believe how great of a collection this is and then the label, BUFFALO BOP RECORDS in Germany released a second CD called Horror Hop with 31 more vintage monster rock n roll! Unbelievably great. 70 minutes of monster songs most of which were recorded before the Monster Mash. The only regret you'll have if you buy this CD is that you didn't get the companion CD, Horror Hop. Track Listing: ROCKIN' IN THE GRAVEYARD - Jackie Morningstar... WERE WOLF - Carl Bonafede... CAVEMAN HOP - Jerry Coulston... THE CAT - Rod Willis... MIDNIGHT MONSTERS HOP - Jack & Jim... NIGHTMARE - Scottie Stuart... GRAVEYARD - Leroy Bowman... THE SKELETON FIGHT - Mack Allen Smith... THE MONSTER HOP - Jimmy Dee... STORY THAT'S TRUE - Carl Bonafede... THE GORILLA - Bert Convy... LEOPARD MAN - Joe Wallace... NIGHTMARE HOP - Earl Patterson... THE MONSTER - Bobby Please... GRAVEYARD - The Phantom Five... CAVEMAN - Tommy Roe... MADHOUSE JUMP - The Daylighters... JEKYLL & HYDE - Jim Burgett... HAUNTED HOUSE - Cris Kevin... THE HEAD HUNTERS - Mike Fern... I'M THE WORLF MAN - Round Robin... FRANKENSTEIN'S DEN - Hollywood Flames... THE MONSTER HOP - Bert Convy... DON'T MEET MR. FRANKENSTEIN - Carlos Casal Jr.... I WAS A TEENAGE MONSTER - The Keytones... YOU CAN GET HIM FRANKENSTEIN - The Castle Kings... THE GILA MONSTER - Joe Johnson... FRANKENSTEIN ROCK - Eddie Thomas... I WAS A TEEN- AGE CAVEMAN - Randy Luck... FRANKIE FRANKENSTEIN - Ivan

Pay no mind to the ill informed review below. (NOTE: the "ill informed" review I referred to when I originally wrote this was pulled. Please do not presume I am referring to Mr. Osbourne's very fine review. Walking on the wrong grave by mistake would be a grave mistake.) These obscure gems are exactly what serious collectors of QUALITY Halloween music drool over and seek. Sick of coming across yet another insipid collection featuring "Purple People Eater," "Monster Mash," or heaven forbid - "Ghostbusters?" Yeah, really daring collections feature that kind of overplayed dross. The latter weak tea efforts are actually the kid stuff, Mr. Happy Meal. (NOTE: again, you had to have read the aforementioned pulled review). This is a mother lode of 50/60's weirdness. Rock and Roll and Rockabilly...from a time when horror movies were simple --even simple-minded -- yet cool, and not full of pretentious cerebral frosting or gratituous gore, digital hi-jinx, and received ideas for increasingly receeding imaginations. Folks who remember Famous MOnsters of Filmland; Saturday night television horror hosts; "spook show" hokum; gum on the back of uncomfortable seats (without cup-holders); Michael "Little Joe" Landon portraying a hormonally challenged teen werewolf; and the dark musty dusky stank of neighborhood movie theatres without hefty admission prices and ho-hum minimalist decor will know what I'm on about here. Dig this great volume and it's accompanying volume Horror Hop. Two of the very best - probably The BEST - compilations on the theme out there.
Absolutely essential if you love Halloween. It evokes the smell of cheap latex Halloween masks and cherry bomb exploding imaginations --- as it should be, sonny. Buy this!

Wow this cd sure is packed with alot of songs. Even though the songs clock in at about 2 minutes, you still get your moneys worth of musical bombardment. This would be fantastic to play in the background at any party during October. Without a record label like Buffalo Bop I never would have known or heard that so many songs like this ever even existed. These tracks, however, have cleary not been taken from the original source. It's not bad at all however. (1) I don't know where else I would obtain these songs (2) There are 30 tracks packed onto this cd. (3) I actually like the way these songs sound; kind of reminds you of the same sound quality you would hear on a bunch of '45s that you might find in your Uncles basement. Great 50s/60s Rock'N'Roll for any Halloween party. Also check out Horror Hop & These Ghoulish Things.

The truly great collections of Halloween early rock and roll (with minimal overlap) are Monster Rock 'n Roll, These Ghoulish Things, Monster Bop, and it's sequel, Horror Hop. The other collections don't come close.

The obscure nature of the artists on Monster Bop and Horror Hop (equally excellent) make for ideal companion discs to the more accessible nature of the artists on These Ghoulish Things and Monster Rock 'N Roll. Overall I give a slight edge to Monster Rock 'n Roll (if forced to pick only one of the four) due to the hilarious commercials and the excellent mastering by the legendary Steve Hoffman. It's out of print but pretty readily accessible.

Monster Bop and Horror Hop have minimal liner note information, whereas, Monster Rock 'n Roll and These Ghoulish Things have more extnensive information; however, all these discs together are like having a first rate boxed set of hard to find nuggets.

The cool thing about this disc (one of the cool things, anyway) is that it's way more than just a kooky novelty record. I mean, sure, it consists of nothing but obscure rockabilly tunes with b-movie lyrics and sound effects fit for a double feature, but what awesome songs these are! This is primo grease-soaked hillbilly blues shuffle boogie pop. It may not be as wild as, say, Jerry Lee Lewis at his most raucous, but the best tracks are cooler than Elvis and easily as wigged-out as the Cramps or the Sonics. The trash-cinema lyrics only contribute to the bizarre atmospherics, and help to make this one of the most relentlessly fun collections of music ever waxed. Good stuff!

The CD is a collection of 30 old school rock n' roll from the 50s and 60s with a flavor of Horror and things that go bump in the night!
It's good Halloween scary music!

BUT my only 2 complaints (down falls) is that each song listed should have the year or the complete date when the song was relased! and it doesn't! and that's too bad for those who like to keep track what year the song came out! like me!
And for the booklet that comes inside all it has are pictures of some of the bands and singers, no written commentary or historical story on this genre that you can read about.

...other than that, it's good, nostalgic, horror rock n' roll music! 5 Stars for the music!!! but zero stars for the booklet and "no year issue" on the songs!

This disc is an eye opener. Who knew there were so many Halloween-related songs around? This is generally a fun disc but I had to return a copy because of faulty sound around cuts 14-18. It sounded like there were problems with the copy itself. However, my replacement disc still had these problems which may be a by-product of copying from old worn out original discs. I was also hoping for several tunes with prototype Lux Interior styled howlings, growlings and the like. Not enough whoops, hollers, ominous laughs, shrieks, etc but they are still in evidence a little bit. Still not a bad disc to have around during Halloween-time.

"cd has a manufacturing defect. another customer noted the same thing. It plays fine up until track 9 (through track 17 or so) when the disc pops and skips. This was a brand new disc and appears to have not been mastered / pressed properly. Amazon quickly refunded my purchase though upon returning the cd."

A nice little piece of halloween nostalgia. Some of it is a bit annoying at times. There are some gems though. Trax 6,15,26,27,29,and 30 are great. The gila monster, I was ateenage caveman and Frankie Frankenstein are a riot.....not worth the price though.....I recommend spook along with Zackerle.....