Welcome to Overthinking It, a new Esquire series in which editors and writers dig into a very, very specific moment in pop culture—putting our dogged journalistic and critical skills to use in the most unnecessary of ways.
Earlier this year, Esquire got in a bit of a tiff with the Twitter mobs when we mistakenly left "Monster Mash" off our list of Best Halloween Songs. We have since issued a correction, and admitted that "Monster Mash" is, indeed, a graveyard smash. But the whole episode got us thinking about the deeper meaning of "Monster Mash."
This is, made clear from the aforementioned backlash, a dearly beloved song. But what do we know about the "Monster Mash" itself? What does it mean? Is the "Monster Mash" a dance, a song, or both—like a "Macarena"-type thing? And, more importantly, is the song we’re hearing the actual "Monster Mash" the creatures were dancing to in the story, or just an interpretation of the original "Monster Mash" by the narrator? Have we ever heard the real "Monster Mash"?
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Let’s begin with a brief summary of the lyrics:
A narrator, likely a Dr. Frankenstein of sorts (who is later revealed to be named Boris, the stage name of the actor who played Frankenstein’s monster in the 1930s, but also the nickname of the original songwriter Bobby Pickett), is working in his lab, when his monster comes to life and suddenly begins doing the titular "Monster Mash." Soon, elsewhere in this castle where the narrator’s lab is located, the vampires begin doing the Monster Mash. They’re joined by Wolfman, Dracula, and his son (who is Dracula’s large adult son? That is a question for another column). A band joins, along with the vocal group The Crypt-Kicker Five (cool name). Dracula briefly gets annoyed that the "Monster Mash" has replaced the Transylvania Twist. He gets over it, he joins the band. And, in the end, by all accounts, "Monster Mash" is a graveyard smash.
Okay, so let's unpack this story. The narrator is simply describing the origin of this "Monster Mash" craze as he witnessed it. Nowhere does he confirm that the song we're hearing—that he's performing—is the same "Monster Mash" that he saw that fateful night. Throughout his story, he never provides any clear description of either a dance or the song—leaving the actual concept of the "Monster Mash" pretty ambiguous. We know it's a graveyard smash, we know the zombies were having fun, we know at one point The Crypt-Kicker Five "played the mash"—but are bereft of any deeper details. All of this leads me to the assumption that we've never actually heard or seen this "Monster Mash."
Desperate for answers, I reached out music legend Darlene Love, who sang backing vocals on the 1962 original version of Pickett’s song. At the time, Love had been performing with The Blossoms and got the call to sing background on a new song. They thought it was a hysterical throwaway song at the time—certainly not something that would still be beloved half a century later.
The concept for the song, as Love explains, clears up my first question. "Monster Mash" was released a few months after the smash hit “Mashed Potato Time,” which was then the song slash dance craze from Dee Dee Sharp. “We did the Mash, and you just did it a little more funnier and weirder by doing the mash, just doing the mash like Dee Dee Sharp did it,” as Love explains the dance. “They did the mash like they were monsters. They just did the mash, like the Mashed Potato. Only, they did with their arms flinging, and making all kinds of crazy moves. I think that's the only way you can say that that was the Monster Mash.”
Then I get to the big question for Love: Do you think within the fiction of the song, that we are hearing the actual "Monster Mash," or just the narrator's interpretation of the "Monster Mash?"
“I think it's the interpretation of it,” Love tells me. “I really do, because I think you can make this all about anything. I don't think Bobby figured this song would be a hit either. I think they're going there with the idea that this is a cute song, let's record it. So, I don't need to understand it. If they play it, it will be a hit. You never know what little kids are thinking.”
And on to the second question: Have we ever heard the real "Monster Mash?"
“No we haven’t,” Love says. “You make whatever you want of it when you hear it. But whatever you do, do some kind of mash.”
So, it's settled, "Monster Mash" is a song and dance craze—but we've never heard the original version that the narrator witnessed on that fateful night.
Kevin WinterSinger Darlene Love accepts the Best Documentary, Feature award for ’20 Feet from Stardom’ onstage during the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre on March 2, 2014 in Hollywood, California.
Despite getting the answers to the questions I sought, the best detail from my conversation with Love is that she doesn't really get into the Halloween spirit.
“I don't want no monster, no skeletons, and nothing like that around in my house,” she tells me. “I sang that song, but decorating your house and all of that stuff is like 'you're kidding?' I still say that today. I go by people's houses, and I see all the ghoul stuff they have, and I go 'really? Really?'”
And no, she does not listen to the "Monster Mash" when October comes around. “Never, never,” she tells me.
We agree to talk again once the Christmas music starts playing after Halloween. Because, when it comes to holiday music, Love is better known for her many Christmas hits. In fact, she’s also going to be in a Netflix Christmas movie coming out in November called Holiday Rush.
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