10/27/13

Rhino's HALLOWEEN - The Final Chapter?: HAUNTED HITS, FAMILY SCARYTIME CLASSICS and SPOOKY TUNES [1996-1998]

Happy Belated Birthday to Rhino Records which celebrated 40 years this past week!!!


This was a re-packaging job from Rhino with every one of the ten songs on the 23 track CD had been released on previous Rhino Halloween collections including the two songs by Elvira.  A sound effect track is heard before and after each song.  If you haven't pulled a trigger on a Halloween music disc yet, this disc from 1996 would be a good one to start your creepy collection.





This was the first in a series of Billboard Presents Family Classics discs that were released 1996-1998. Other titles included Christmas, Lullaby and Friendship.  Like it says on the cover this disc contains nothing but songs featured on film and television.  What it doesn't say is that nine out of the ten songs are not by their original artists.  The playlist above features just two songs from the disc (the others are not on Spotify and even if they were, they are really not worth our time): Kay Starr's "Headless Horseman" from 1949 (the song was originally sung by Bing Crosby) and Peggy Lee's "Bewitched" (1965) which was the theme song to the TV show of the same name, which ran form 1964-1972. Who knew it had lyrics?  HERC didn't until he heard Ms. Lee sing them.


For their final Halloween disc to date, Rhino once again went the repackaging route, this time including just one Elvira song among the ten songs on 1998's Spooky Tunes.  All but one of the ten tunes had shown up on previous Rhino discs if HERC is not mistaken: a cover of "The Addams Family Theme" by The Friends.  The other sixteen tracks are sound effects.  HERC picked this disc up on the cheap at Target in 1999.



THE END?

If you've made it this far, here's a treat from HERC - a playlist with all the songs from the nine Rhino Halloween playlists he's featured over the last three weeks!

All 35 songs!

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