Much has been written about Frankie Stein and his Ghouls, so I’ll keep things short and sweet. The name “Frankie Stein and his Ghouls” was used on four music albums released in the 60’s by Power Records (a sublabel of Peter Pan Records, who are actually still around) featuring work by uncredited musicians. But their combination of catchy music and overlaid sound effects proved so popular that even today their work is still fondly remembered. Apparently some of the Frankie Stein tracks also appeared (sans effects) on the infamous Batman cash-in album featuring Sun-Ra! The best way to describe their work is like something you would hear playing on the extras gallery of a Something Weird DVD. As I’m sure many Halloween parties of the time featured Frankie Stein and his Ghouls, I thought I’d celebrate the big day by sharing some videos featuring their work (“Who’s Afriad of Weirdo Wolf” and “Frog Frug”), as uploaded by thedeadfraggle:
Man oh man, do those bring back some memories. Remember how listening to music in Winamp and RealPlayer just to see the visualizations used to be a thing? Hell, remember when RealPlayer was actually still in use?
Getting back on topic, some of you are probably wondering why the first video has a “Watsusi” label (and what a “Frug” is). Part of those albums’ gimmick was that each track had a suggested dance craze of the time it could be adapted to and, well, you can easily figure out the rest on your own. Although it’s a sure bet that no further releases by these guys will ever emerge, there are two Frankie Stein-style tracks on the Volcano Kings’ Music For An Exotic Monster Beach Party in Outer Space : Volume 1. Perhaps they could be convinced to release more if enough people write in to them?
Happy Halloween!
