It's Witchcraft - Cherry Red's Righteous Imprint Compiles 2-CD Set of Halloween Novelties

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With Halloween less than a week away, we thought we'd take a look at a new compilation which was recently released from Cherry Red's Righteous Records imprint: the 2-CD Trick or Treat: Music To Scare Your Neighbours - Vintage 45s from Lux and Ivy's Haunted Basement.

The Lux and Ivy in the title are the husband and wife mainstays of the punk/rockabilly group The Cramps, who debuted in the 1970s and were active until Lux's death in 2009. Aside from being punk innovators, the pair also championed older music on their own radio shows and from their vast record collection. Righteous Records has compiled several collections over the past few years taking their inspiration from items contained in Lux and Ivy's collection and this one certainly fits, as The Cramps heavily featured horror in their own music.

Trick or Treat features 50 songs over its two CDs. Most are from between 1956-1962, but a couple of tracks stretch back to the 1930s. The selection tends to the more obscure, novelty and underground, while covering many Halloween bases. On the set you'll find songs about ghosts, voodoo, witches, and monsters popularized in Universal films like Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy and The Wolfman, among other topics. And some of the artists and songs are more recognizable. Among those are TV-personality John Zacherle ("The Cool Ghoul") with "Igor," Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put a Spell on You," The Coasters performing "The Shadow Knows," Bo Diddley's "Bo Meets The Monster," The Three Suns with "The Creep" and even Rod McKuen (performing as Dor with Bob McFadden on "The Mummy"). The set concludes with Bacharach and David's all-time novelty classic "The Blob", performed by the studio group The Five Blobs from the 1958 film The Blob.

The set contains a full-color 8-page booklet with a four-page essay by MOJO's Dave Henderson. The art direction is by Lewis Henderson and it has been mastered by Alan Wilson. There is no discographical information in the booklet and the songs have been compiled from the public domain pursuant to current U.K. copyright laws.

If you would like to get into the Halloween mood with these fun songs from the late 1950s and early 1960s, we've got the full tracklisting and preorder links below. (And be on the lookout for a similar set coming in mid-November from Righteous devoted to Christmas music: the 1-CD Merry Luxmas - It's Christmas In Crampsville!).

Various Artists, Trick or Treat: Music To Scare Your Neighbours - Vintage 45s from Lux and Ivy's Haunted Basement (Cherry Red/Righteous Records, 2019) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

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