Rockin' SFX

(From Millimeter Sampler)

I was driving down to our local pumpkin patch on a recent Sunday with my wife and kids, trying to get in the Halloween spirit by listening to a new CD of songs from the late '50s and early '60s about monsters and ghouls.

Who knew there were 28 SONGS from the early rock era about FRANKENSTEIN, THE MUMMY, DRACULA, and so on, each more formulaic and insipid than the next?

Really bad stuff, I'm afraid.

But there at the end of the disc was the granddaddy of them all, MONSTER MASH by Bobby "Boris" Pickett And The
Crypt-Kickers Five -- a number one hit (or "a graveyard smash," if you prefer) in the fall of 1962.

Hearing it loud in the car, I was struck by the creative use of sound effects -- no doubt plucked from one of the several albums of scary FX on the market back then -- and then got to thinkin' about other pop songs that have incorporated SFX.

My totally unscientific survey tells me that two British bands were the kings of using SFX -- THE BEATLES and PINK FLOYD.

Now, it's a fact that The Beatles, who were fans of comedian SPIKE JONES (who did incredibly funny things with ordinary effects), used some BBC library FX material on several songs -- most notably perhaps GOOD MORNING, with its odd sonic menagerie filled with everything from chickens to hounds to a lion.

Pink Floyd recorded some FX themselves, but also relied on libraries on occasion.

Over in the United States, it was a library owned by a Memphis jingle company that ended up providing the waves on
OTIS REDDING's (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay.

Alas, I don't know where most of the FX on the songs below came from, but it's amazing to think of the impact they've had.

Can't you just hear them in your head?

AN FX TOP 20
(In no particular order)

Monster Mash -- Bobby Pickett And The Crypt-Kickers Five
(Lab Sounds, etc.)

Leader Of The Pack -- The Shangri-Las
(Motorcycle)

Summer In The City -- The Lovin' Spoonful
(Traffic, Horns Blowing)

Living For The City -- Stevie Wonder
(Urban Soundscape)

Yellow Submarine -- The Beatles
(Submarine Sounds)

Good Morning -- The Beatles
(Many Animals)

Back In the USSR -- The Beatles
(Jet Engines)

Money -- Pink Floyd
(Coins, etc.)

Granchester Meadows -- Pink Floyd
(Country Soundscape, Flies, Footsteps)

Time -- Pink Floyd
(Clocks, Bells, etc.)

(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay -- Otis Redding
(Ocean Waves)

Riders On The Storm -- The Doors
(Rain, Thunder)

Sky Pilot -- The Animals
(Plane Dogfight)

Don't Step On The Grass, Sam -- Steppenwolf
(Police Raid, Toilet Flushing)

Modern Times -- Al Stewart
(Clinking Glasses, Party Sounds)

Straight Outta Compton -- NWA
(Machine Gun)

Love Is The Drug -- Roxy Music
(Key Starting Car)

Hell In A Bucket -- Grateful Dead
(Vicious Dogs, Motorcycle)

Lather -- Jefferson Airplane
(War Sounds)

On With The Show -- Rolling Stones
(Party, Street, And Many Other Noises)

I can think of many others, too.

Care to add any to our list?

Piggies by The Beatles, perhaps?