"Vhatever happened to my Transylvania Tvist?"

Curse you, BOBBY (BORIS) PICKETT!
Your HALLOWEEN novelty pop song "MONSTER MASH" is so catchy I find it stuck in my head during random days throughout the year -- not just today.
"He did the Mash -- he did the Monster Mash!"
The "graveyard smash" grew out of a Boris Karloff shtick Pickett performed as a member of a singing group called The Cordials.
Pickett wrote the song with friend and fellow group member Lenny Capizzi, and Gary Paxton produced the record. Paxton provided the B-movie sound effects that help give the tune its s-p-o-o-k-y charm.
As Fred Bronson explains in "The Billboard Book of Number One Hits:"
"(Paxton) created the sound of a coffin opening by putting a rusty nail in a 2-by-4 and pulling it out slowly with a hammer. The bubbling sounds came from blowing into a straw in a glass of water. The chains were dropped onto plywood planks on the floor."
Sound effects aside, the tune's melody and clever lyrics endure.
The fact that the song has re-entered the pop charts numerous times since its 1962 debut attests to its lasting impression.
I guess I'm not the only one who gets "Monster Mash" stuck in his head from time to time.