Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween? Is that a thing? Do people say it?

Don't look at me. It's not really my holiday. I could ask Mrs Bhagpuss, who always says it's her favorite, although she never seems to do much for it. Mostly makes pumpkin soup and watches the Addams Family. More specifically, Wednesday Season 1 this year.

Speaking of the Addams Family...

I Enjoy Being A Girl 

Carol Burnett, Chita Rivera, Caterina Valente

I happened on that completely randomly a few days ago. I wasn't looking for Halloween songs or videos for a post or anything but I thought "OK, I can take a hint."

It's from the CBS Variety show The Entertainers, hosted by Burnett and Valente and also starring Bob Newhart. This skit was first broadcast in 1965, which makes it exactly sixty years old. Like everythng from that era it goes on a bit too long but it's still great. Boris Karloff turns up half way through, too, which is a bonus.  

The Addams Family TV show was mid-run then, having started in 1964 and lasting only until '66. It was a big deal, I guess. Carol Burnett is a legend and I'd heard of Broadway star Chita Rivera but Caterina Valente didn't ring any bells. It would have if I was on TikTok.  (That link goes to YouTube, by the way, so don't freak.)

At this point I imagine everyone's hoping I have lots more gems like the above to share. Well, I don't. Do you know how hard it is to search for unusual Halloween songs on YouTube? If not, be glad.

I tried to get some help from AI, this being exactly one of those research-assistant type jobs the megacorps keep trying to upsell their performing seals as being perfect for. Long-time readers may remember I've made several previous attempts to get ChatGPT or Gemini to do the leg-work for me when I'm putting posts like this together.

It didn't work then and it still doesn't work now. Gemini did at least explain why it doesn't work, which is because "The built-in YouTube search tool explicitly states that it "cannot filter by popularity" (which includes sorting by number of views)." Did you know that? I didn't. Don't say AI never teaches you anything.

On that basis, I wouldn't do any better acting as my own researcher, either. I was reduced to caveman level, where I just plug in keywords and hope for the best. My best was not best enough, I'm afraid. If Calishat reads this, maybe she'd like to build a low-view-count search tool for YouTube...

A deal of effort did not get me much but it did introduce me to the Hawkbirds.  

Pet Semetary - The Hawkbirds

The Hawkbirds are one of those family bands - mum and dad on guitar and drums and daughter on bass and lead vocals. I didn't even realize that's what it was until after I'd watched the video. Thanks mostly to the costumes, I thought they were all the same age, i.e. a regular teens/twenties indie band. It was only when I had a look through what else they'd done that I figured out the set-up.

They specialize in covers of punk-adjacent bands, specifically the Ramones, although they occasionally switch lanes. There are covers on their YouTube channel of songs as diverse as the Crystals' He's A Rebel and Radiohead's Creep. There are a few originals mixed in, too.

They've covered several Halloween-appropriate songs and they take the trouble to dress up so I'll throw in another. They even wish us all Happy Halloween at the start of this one. See? I knew it was a thing!

Horror Business - The Hawkbirds

Just in case that felt altogether to wholesome for Halloween, try a little of this...

 

I Go Where The Party Takes Me

The Phantom A.D.

Can you believe that comes in under two minutes? Feels a lot longer, doesn't it? He looks like he's dressed as Handsome Dick Manitoba for Halloween, which would certainly be a costume you could guarantee no-one else at the party would be wearing.

And finally, because Halloween isn't all about having fun, here's something a lot spookier.

 A Ghost - The Mall Goth Moths

Obviously I initially picked that one for the name of the band but it's a good tune and the video is... actually, genuinely disturbing and not necessarily in a good way. It would be a tough note to end on for a holiday post, too, so let's have something a bit lighter to send us out into the night dancing.

Pumpkin - The Regrettes

That's better!

Happy Halloween!