Pickett co-wrote "Monster Mash" with Leonard Capizzi in May 1962. The song was a spoof on the dance crazes popular at the time, including the Twist and the Mashed Potato, which inspired the title. The song featured Pickett's impersonations of veteran horror stars Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi (the latter with the line "Whatever happened to my Transylvania Twist?"). It was passed on by every major record label, but after hearing the song, Gary S. Paxton agreed to produce and engineer it; among the musicians who played on it was pianist Leon Russell. Issued on Paxton's Garpax Records, the single became a million seller, reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for two weeks before Halloween in 1962.[3] It was styled as being by "Bobby 'Boris' Pickett & The Crypt-Kickers". The track re-entered the U.S. charts twice, in August 1970, and again in May 1973, when it reached the #10 spot. In Britain it took until October 1973 for the tune to become popular, peaking at #3 in the UK Singles Chart.[4] For the second time, the record sold over one million copies.[5] The tune remains a Halloween perennial on radio and on iTunes.
A Christmas-themed follow-up, "Monster's Holiday," was also released in 1962 and reached #30 in December that year. Another of his songs, "Graduation Day", made #80 in June 1963. Pickett also recorded a novelty spoof on Star Trek called "Star Drek" with Peter Ferrara, again performing some of the various voices, which was played on Dr. Demento's radio show. There was also an early 1980s musical "sequel" to the monster mash called "the Monster Rap" which featured Bobby teaching the creature to speak through "rapping". Though not nearly as popular as the original "Monster Mash" , it found a reasonable following with the Dr. Demento fanbase. In October 2005, Pickett protested inaction on global warming by releasing "Climate Mash," a new version of his hit single.
