The lyrics to Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s 1962 Halloween classic “Monster Mash” mostly make sense, with one odd exception: The background singers sing about a tennis shoe. For what? No one knows and even Pickett himself didn’t remember it during an interview with Dr. Demento in 2006, the year before his death.
“(They say) ‘Ooh, tennis shoe, wah-ooh,'” he said. Dr Demento. “We don’t know why.”
From The hill:
(The song) was written by Pickett and Lenny Capizzi, his bandmate in a band called The Cordials. The idea came about after Pickett began demonstrating his impressions of Boris Karloff during the band’s cover of “Little Darlin’,” a 1957 song made famous by The Diamonds. Specifically, Pickett performed the song’s monologue (“My darling, I need you…”) in his Karloff voice, much to the amusement of the audience.
(THANKS, Bob Pescovitz!)
