"Monster Mash" Singer Dies

April 26th, 2007
The man who penned the novelty favorite "Monster Mash," Bobby "Boris" Pickett has died of leukemia at the age of 69. Pickett--who based the song around his impersonation of Boris Karloff--wrote "Monster Mash" in about a half-hour, recording it on the fly with a then-unkown Leon Russell at the piano. It became an immediate smash hit, and as close to a "Halloween carol" as it gets. Despite never producing another song that came close to matching its popularity, Pickett, for his part, claimed he never grew tired of "Mash," saying, "When I hear it, I hear a cash register ringing."