Countdown To Halloween - Week Four!

 Today we conclude our Halloween countdown with three more LP's of scary stories from yesteryear! More good stuff follows:

SCARY SPOOKY STORIES (Troll Records, 1973) - This is a fun one, and I only wish I'd had it as a kid, because it has everything: familiar narrator voices from commercials and episodic TV, humor, some genuine creepy moments, and even a jump scare! It would be a super-fun record to enjoy with little kids and watch the hijinks ensue.  This one is short but good, and is expensive in good condition!    

ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS GHOST STORIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE (Golden Records, 1962) - You've heard me say this before, but back in the day, they didn't necessarily dumb things down for kids to enjoy, and this is a great example.  Not only are the stories good, but the whole thing unfolds like an episode from "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," where you have wraparound segments from Hitch himself that tell a darkly funny story on their own.  This is another record that could've come off for much, much cheaper, but as a result of the effort put in, it's fondly remembered today.  We won't be saying THAT in 60 years about much of today's media.

SPIRITS AND SPOOKS FOR HALLOWE'EN (SUMMONED UP BY WILLIAM CONRAD) [Caedmon, 1973] - This is a strange one that I'd known about, yet never run into, and I actually found it at a flea market about a month ago (and cheap even), which you might say was pretty coincidental.  Of course, William Conrad was everywhere at one time--just to name a few, he was the original Sherriff Dillon on the radio version of GUNSMOKE, then there was CANNON, and most dear to me, the narrator of what we can collectively just call "ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE," ...and I almost forgot JAKE AND THE FAT MAN.  This record is all over the map, and can be a little tough to follow if you aren't paying attention.  One moment he reads short poems (the one where he moans like a ghost is about indecipherable), but that can quickly turn into a 20-minute European fairy tale about a witch, or a witch trial account with no proper context (or beginning or end, really).  They were right to release something like this on the higher-brow Caedmon label, rather than a kiddie one, because I don't think little kids are going to hang around for this harder-core, old-country type of Halloween stuff (your first clue of which is the older spelling of HALLOWE'EN).  I still really enjoyed it, and I think you will too (and like all vintage Halloween records, it ain't cheap to track down).  Happy Halloween to everyone!

LINK: Spooky Month Week 4!

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And don't forget last year's Spooky Month items, still undead:

Vintage Halloween Sound Effects LP Mega-Pack!

Scary Tales Featuring John Zacherley ("Good night, wherever you are!")