What Happened To The Man Who Sang Monster Mash?
By MICHAEL DAWSON
History - Science
When it comes to Halloween-themed media, pop music has its fair share of entries in the seasonal canon, and so spooky songs like Michael Jackson's "Thriller" or "This is Halloween" from "The Nightmare Before Christmas" have dominated the holiday for years. However, the one Halloween song that you are guaranteed to hear during the holiday season is "Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett.
Pickett’s insanely catchy 1962 track became one of the most popular Halloween songs, dominating the charts at #1 for a long time. A fair amount of Pickett's career after "Monster Mash" was basically making sequels to the song or spoofs of other media, including the "Star Trek" parody called "Star Drek" (1975), and the “Monster Mash” quasi-sequels "Monster Rap" (1984) and "It's Alive" (1993).
Pickett also had a number of acting roles in various projects as well, like "Monster Mash: The Movie" and "Boogie with the Undead," and his 2005 project "The Climate Mash" was another spoof, aimed at raising awareness of global warming. The “Monster Mash” singer died from leukemia shortly after, on April 25, 2007, at the age of 69.