Help Me Solve the Mystery of Dickie Goodman's "MONSTER ALBUM!"
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This is a poor scan I made of an album that I have owned since I was 11 years old. For years I have been attempting to find more information on this album, with limited success. It is titled simply "The Monster Album" and the track list is as follows:
SIDE 1:
SIDE 2: There are no musician credits listed on the album, but several of the songs are credited to "Goodman/Ramal." This of course is Dickie Goodman & Bill Ramal. Most of you who have found your way to this page will already be familiar with Dickie Goodman, the man who INVENTED sampling and created some of the funniest records ever made. However, if you're not familiar with Goodman's work, here is an excellent article spanning his career: Dickie Goodman We've Spotted the Shark Again You'll notice the article makes no mention of "The Monster Album." Neither does any other discography of Goodman's work I've ever been able to find. Here's the one reference to the album I've been able to find on the web, an auction from 2004: Notice the album went for $178! He lists the release number as DCP International DCL 3805, and is in mono. My album lists the number DCS 6805 and is stereo. The absolute obscurity of this album baffles me, as in my opinion, it's one of the finest examples of monster exploitation from the 60's. I used to listen to it all day long when I was a child, and it STILL sounds great to me. Dracula Drag really rocks, in a surf kind of way, and the covers of monster hits from the era, are excellent- particularly Haunted House and Purple People Eater. It also contains some parodies- Ghoul From Ipanema (Girl From Ipanema) and Blood and Butter (Bread and Butter), as well as three songs- Monster Talk, Werewolf Waltz and Mambo Mummy which are long musical vamps similar to the music of Frankie Stein & His Ghouls, but with monster jokes spoken over the music. Interestingly, the version of Purple People Eater found on this album is NOT the version found on the Dickie Goodman anthology The King of Novelty Greatest Fables, Vol. 2. The Purple People Eater on The Monster Album rocks a lot harder and is not nearly as cutesy as the version on The King of Novelty Greatest Fables, Vol. 2. The recordings of Frankenstein Meets the Beatles and Dracula Drag ARE the same ones from The Monster Album, however. Back about four years ago when I started really trying to research this album I wrote to Dickie Goodman's son, Jon, and asked what he knew about it. Even HE had never heard of it! He wanted me to send him a rip of the album, along with cover scans and release info, so he could sue the label- which I found rather ironic, considering who we were talking about. Recently I managed to track down Bill Ramal here: I sent him an email, but got no reply. In researching the record itself, I found out DCP Records was Don Costa Productions. Don Costa was a musical arranger and producer that worked witrh Trini Lopez, Frank Sinatra, Little Anthony and The Imperials, and others, including Dickie Goodman. He formed his own label, DCP and released his own music as well as that of others. Here's a web page that shows most of the 45s released by DCP: You'll see listed in that discography Jeckyll & Hyde (Goodman & Ramal) 45s of My Baby Loves Monster Movies and Frankenstein Meets the Beatles/Dracula Drag- but no mention of The Monster Album (since it's a 45 discography only). That is ALL the info I've been able to gather on this album over the years. It's really a shame, as the music is GREAT- far better than some of the better known monster comedy of the day, such as The Munsters Album. Dickie Goodman's voice can be clearly heard on many of the tracks, and it sounds as if he's having a ball. The auction page linked above mentions Gary Usher was somehow involved- that may or may not be true. On this page: Chuck Girard, one time member of The Hondells states "It was really fun. Besides the hot rod/surf tunes, we did a "monster" album, changing the lyrics from some of the regular surf tunes to "monster" lyrics, like The Little Old Lady from Transylvania and Blood and Butter." While Blood and Butter IS on The Monster Album, there's no trace of Little Old Lady From Transylvania. Is Girard remembering The Dickie Goodman album, or something else entirely? It appears to be a red herring. The AllMusicGuide lists an entirely DIFFERENT album released in 1965 by Gary Usher, with an entirely different track list, with one exception: This is the album Chuck Girard & Gary Usher worked on. I have not heard this album, but I'm pretty confident the Blood & Butter song on this album is not the same one that's on the Dickie Goodman album. The poster on the Popsike auction mentioned above made the erronious assumption the two songs were the same. If you have any evidence to condradict this conclusion, please send it my way! I would like your help in finding more info about this lost gem! If you know ANYTHING about this album- what musicians played on it, the circumstances surrounding its recording, who the throaty voiced vixen is who sings Ghoul From Ipanema, or if you have this album and just want to share your thoughts, write to me! Or if you have any leads where info could be tracked down- rumors, ANYTHING! I'll post all comments on this page as I get them. Let's solve this mystery! Please- contact me at this address:
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| ADDENDUM: May 14, 2006- I've been able to listen to The Ghoul's recording of Blood & Butter, and while it's a fine surf instrumental with a killer dirty sax line, it's definitely NOT the same Blood & Butter that's on THE MONSTER ALBUM, thus ending once and for all any speculation of any connection between Dracula's Deuce and THE MONSTER ALBUM. |
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