"Monster Mash" is one of the all-time great holiday songs, resurfacing (and sometimes charting) every Halloween without fail. The Original Monster Mash is the accompanying Top 20 album from 1962, on which Pickett leads off with his big hit before plying his Boris Karloff shtick for another 15 songs. Pickett's other Top 100 monster hit, the Christmas novelty "Monsters' Holiday," is here as well, along with dated jokes about Fabian ("Rabian - The Fiendage Idol") and then-current dance crazes ("Transylvania Twist," "Skully Gully"). "Let's Fly Away" is a brief Stan Freberg send-up that replaces "John and Marsha" with Dracula and Vampira. The Crypt-Kickers were an all-star band that counted Leon Russell, producer Gary Paxton, and other famous folks among its members, and the album remains a fine Halloween party platter year and years later. Unfortunately, the album was remixed for CD release in 1991, and the vocals are obscured in the mix so that the generic rock backing often prevails over the "spooky" dialogue and singing, which defeats the point for a novelty effort such as this.

Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention is a transitional album that sees Zappa turning away from rock and putting more time into his Synclavier compositions. This is a year away from the computer-only (minus one live track) Jazz From Hell…

Rhino's three-disc box set The Remains of Tom Lehrer presents 75 tracks from the satirist's four decade career. The first disc concentrates on Lehrer's studio output, including pieces from his 1953 debut Songs by Tom Lehrer and his 1959 album More of Tom Lehrer, as well as a 1996 version of "I Got It from Agnes" and "That's Mathematics," a previously unreleased track from 1993. Disc two gathers his '59 performances at MIT and Harvard, captured on the albums Tom Lehrer Revisited and An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer (which offered many of the same selections as their studio predecessors). The third disc is a mix of live and studio tracks, including the material from the album That Was the Year That Was, songs written for PBS's The Electric Company in 1971-72, orchestral versions of songs conducted by Richard Hayman in 1960, and four new songs, including "Selling Out" and "(I'm Spending Hanukkah) In Santa Monica." Song-by-song notes by Lehrer, rare photos, and an essay by Dr. Demento add an extra depth to The Remains of Tom Lehrer making it the ultimate collection of his irreverent social commentary.