Check out this MP3 collection with almost 100 old spooky, corny and kitschy vinyl records from the 60’s, 70’s and early 80’s. If you are the right age, you might remember a few of these classics from your own childhood LP collections.
The entire MP3 collection is available for free — just in time for Halloween parties. Download your favorites to your iPod, or burn CD’s right from your computer.
Jason at the Scar Stuff blog provides the MP3s in zipped files for each album. For immediate gratification, scroll down this post where you can play tracks from a few of our favorite albums.
Enjoy! And Happy Halloween from Creativetechs in Seattle!
Halloween Sound Effects: A Trip Through The “Haunted House”
This first album is a straightforward Halloween sound effects album from 1985. Including classic sounds like a beating heart, a clock at midnight, chains, creaks, and groans. Scar Stuff summs this album up nicely: “Reeking of delicious Halloween audio cheapness, these titles must proudly number among the last of their kind before the rise of the compact disc.” To download the MP3 files for this album, visit “Haunted House”, “Night In a Graveyard”, “The Ride of the Headless Horseman” at the Scar Stuff blog.
Boris Karloff: “Tales of the Frightened” (vol 1 & 2)
“Are you one of the frightened?” Thus starts each story in this intimate collection, narrated by horror legend Boris Karloff. “The Frightened” was originally recorded for radio with classic radio drama sound effects. Several years after Karloff recorded these, the tales were compiled and released as a set of phonograph records in the early ’60’s. To download the MP3 files for these albums, visit Tales of the Frightened at the Scar Stuff blog.
Vincent Price: “A Hornbook For Witches”
Vincent Price is known as the king of horror. This album is a gem, with Price’s velvet voice narrating a collection of poems by Leah Bodine Drake. My favorite track is number 4, “The Ballad of the Jabberwock.” To download the MP3 files for this album, visit A Hornbook For Witches at the Scar Stuff blog.
Halloween Sound Effects: “Sounds To Make You Shiver”
One of the classic 1970’s Halloween sound effect records. I remember this from my own LP collection when I was growing up — Though some of the groans on this album sound a little more adult than I remember in my youth. To download the MP3 files for this album, visit Sounds To Make You Shiver! at the Scar Stuff blog.
Halloween Songs: “Monster Dance Party”
“Monster Mash” is a classic novelty song by Bobby “Boris” Pickett that remains a perennial favorite today. This album was released after that single hit Billboard’s number one in 1962. The other songs are less memorable. Track 6, “The Monster Swim” is an obvious attempt to recapture that initial mash-magic. However track 7, “Riboflavin Flavored, Non Carbonated, Poly-Unsaturated Blood” is pretty entertaining. To download the MP3 files for this album, visit Monster Dance Party at the Scar Stuff blog.
Halloween Kitsch: Count Chocula & Frankenberry flexi discs
Remember those wonderfully cheap plastic flexi disks that could be found attached to cereal boxes or tucked in magazines? These three flexis document the cheesy adventures of Count Chocula, Frankenberry, and Boo Berry of sugar-cereal fame. Track 2, “The Monsters Go Disco,” sums up the concept. Awful-but-wonderful. To download the MP3 files for these flexi discs, visit Sounds To Make You Shiver! at the Scar Stuff blog.
Scar Stuff’s Collection: 80+ Classic Halloween Records.
Finally, take a moment to browse through the full catalog of album covers. Click on anything you remember from your childhood and you’ll be taken to the appropriate page on the Scar Stuff blog. The full collection includes more than 3GB of MP3 files! Start your downloading and enjoy!
Source: We always try to dig up something fun for our annual Halloween issue. This year’s find is my favorite yet. It will be a hard one to top! Last year’s Halloween tip was Download “Night of the Living Dead” for free.