The 901: A Memphis Halloween mini-playlist; plus, Whiskey & Witches & Whatnot

Good morning, Memphis, where Ja Morant and the Grizz have achieved FOMO status, where a festival has become Memphis in Ma(la)y(sia), and where the sheriff wants to be mayor. But first...

To many, Memphis means music.

To many, October means Halloween.

Put them together, and you get Halloween music, genius.

Memphis never had a monster hit that hit the charts as monstrously hard as did Bobby "Boris" Pickett's "The Monster Mash," which has proved as immortal as the undead creatures name-dropped in its lyrics: The recording reached No. 1 on the Billboard pop charts in 1962, No. 10 in 1973 and No. 37 in 2021. (Imagine that: in the Top 40 again, 60 years after its debut!)

Nevertheless, Memphis can boast about as many Halloween-worthy tunes as Elmwood Cemetery has gravestones. Well, that might be an exaggeration, but there are plenty. Here are five of them (one for each finger of that severed hand crawling around in the corner).

1. Earl Patterson, "Nightmare Hop."

Produced by future "rockin' granny" Cordell Jackson for her local Moon Records label (a distaff would-be rival to Sam Phillips' Sun), this 1959 recording recounts the eventful night "when Teenage Werewolf took Dracula's Daughter to the hop," and discovered "they liked to rock and roll — they didn't want to stop."

2. Sivad, "Sivad Buries Rock & Roll."

Recently reissued with deluxe packaging on blood-red vinyl by Black & Wyatt Records, this 1963 novelty single on the Union Avenue-based Tom Tom label is testimony to the immense popularity of Sivad (real name: Watson Davis), the vampiric "monster of ceremonies" who, from 1962 to 1972, hosted WHBQ-TV's weekly horror movie program, "Fantastic Features."

3. Gene "Bowlegs" Miller, "Frankenstein Walk."

Hi Records had a banner 1969. Al Green released his first album on the label that year, while Gene "Bowlegs" Miller — a trumpet player, band leader, and longtime Beale Street nightclub entertainer — proved Frankenstein could get funky with this unforgettable if in fact largely forgotten dance-floor filler.

4. The Cramps, "I Was a Teenage Werewolf."

These unearthly-looking New York-based psychobilly horror-punks hied themselves to Memphis in 1979, to record their debut LP, "Songs the Lord Taught Us," with producer Alex Chilton at the Sam Phillips Recording Service. Inspired by the 1957 drive-in classic of hormones gone horrifically hairy, "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" has proved to be the breakout bread-earner of that session, being licensed for an episode of "Stranger Things" and for the current "Halloween Ends."

5. Jerry Lee Lewis, "Haunted House."

It seems appropriate to end this list with a song from the late great Jerry Lee Lewis. Cut for the Killer's 1973 Mercury album "Southern Roots: Back Home in Memphis," the song has Memphis pedigree, having been a hit in 1964 on the Hi label for "Jumpin'" Gene Simmons (no relation to Gene Simmons of Kiss, the band that took Halloween-esque costumery to another level).

Memphis: Not rolling out the Welcome Wagon for witches

I generally don’t acknowledge most of the nonsense "news opportunities" that enter my email inbox on a daily basis, but desperate times (i.e., when the editor says, “John, it’s your turn to write The 901”) call for desperate measures. And, as I mentioned earlier, it is the Halloween season.

So let me report that an entity known as Lawn Love, which takes a "high-tech approach" to a "traditionally low-tech sector," i.e. lawn care, this week sent me an email titled "2022's Best Cities for Witches," which links to a story that asks "Witch cities are best for living a charmed life?," and includes ranking for the 200 U.S. cities.

"We compared the 200 biggest U.S. cities based on access to covens, tarot readers, and astrology classes," the website states. "We also looked for cities brimming with natural healers, herbalists, and metaphysical supply stores, among 18 total metrics."

Sounds like, to put it politely, a lot of hocus pocus. But I was curious enough to scan the list. New York is ranked No. 1, Los Angeles is second. Nashville is in 26th place, while Pasadena, Texas, is dead last. As for Memphis, we are positioned at 60, between St. Petersburg, Florida, and Mesa, Arizona. (Apparently, the overseers of LawnLove.com have never visited the hoodoo section at A. Schwab on Beale Street.) As Margaret Hamilton moaned when Judy Garland splashed her with a bucket of water: "Oh — what a world, what a world!"

Luke & Laura & Elvis

Speaking of witches, the only "daytime drama" I ever watched was "Dark Shadows," the ABC-TV Gothic soap opera of the late 1960s and early '70s that showcased Jonathan Frid as the vampire, Barnabas Collins, and Memphis' own Lara Parker as the bewitching spell-caster, Angelique.

But my sisters sure watched "General Hospital." And so did millions of others, even to this day.

In a collision of overlapping fandoms, "General Hospital" enthusiasts come together this week with Elvis devotees for the "General Hospital Fan Celebration" at Graceland, a convention that brings soap opera addicts from across the country to Memphis, Tennessee, to hobnob with the residents (i.e., actors) of Port Charles, New York (i.e., the fictional city that is home to the titular hospital). Genie Francis, who played Laura in the program's famous "Luke and Laura" storyline, which brought rare mainstream attention to daytime scripted television, is among the many "Hospital" stars scheduled to attend.

You may not be planning to join them, but you may be intrigued by the fact that this event exists. If so, read all about it here.

23andMeandOhMyGoodness!

One of the more popular stories in The Commercial Appeal this week was Dima Amro's report about Anna Carlson, an Oakland, Tennessee, woman whose quest for a driver's license led to the discovery — with the help of the DNA-testing website, 23andMe — that her biological father was not the man who had raised her.

"It was incredibly devastating for me and him," said Carlson, whose "father" also did not know the truth.

Devastating, yes, but the revelation eventually led to "the best hug of my entire life."

The story is here.

Whiskey river

To paraphrase the old blues song: "If the Mississippi River was whiskey and I was a diving duck/ I'd dive to the bottom and I'd never come up."

Well, the river is located less than a half-mile from the Old Dominick Distillery, so maybe it's time for that duck to waddle over to 305 S. Front.

As Jennifer Chandler reports: "After five years of patiently waiting for it to mature, Old Dominick Distillery will release its first Straight Tennessee Whiskey on Nov. 1.

"This is a historic milestone for the Memphis-based distillery. The Straight Tennessee Whiskey is the first distilled, barreled, matured, and bottled whiskey in Memphis since Prohibition."

The "flavor notes" for the various whiskeys include such words as "toffee," "light corn," "shortbread," "hay" and, yes, "leather." In other words, if the shoe fits, drink it?

John Beifuss is a pop culture and features reporter for The  Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at john.beifuss@commercialappeal.com.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: The 901: Memphis Halloween playlist, Old Dominick whiskey and witches