Rattling Chains, Squeeky Doors, Ghostly Screams...
A Haunting Experience
With only a few hours to spare, I make it in for one last Freebie Friday for 2018! And this one is worth the wait!
If there's one thing that I have learned during my time of collecting and sharing my ever-expanding collection of classic novelty Halloween records and cassettes, it's that the rules never really applied. I have at least three different labeled cassettes that contain the exact same soundtrack and now I have at least two records with the exact same name. And this particular soundtrack even has two different release versions!
Power Records out of Newark, New Jersey was another of the novelty record labels that existed during the late 1960s through the late 1970s, releasing everything from Halloween novelty records to Superhero spoken word children's stories.
One of their most popular releases was 1974's Ghostly Sounds Halloween novelty record. Or was it called Ghostly Sound Effects? It depends on which side of the record sleeve you were looking at.
It says Ghostly Sounds on the cover, so I'm going with that. Of course this version is not to be mistaken for the other Ghostly Sounds soundtrack by Peter Waldron (although that version is really great, too!).
This version has 11 tracks, all of which are traditional, novelty sound effects. But all are really well composed. The standout track for me being The Phantom of the Cathedral, with its spooky array of classic organ, laughing and howling wind sound effects. So good!
Oh, and if you're an even bigger collector of Halloween novelty records than I am, you'll need to go out and find the second version of this record. The other version has similar tracks, the only difference being that it includes the narration of the track descriptions that are printed on the back sleeve. You can listen to one of the tracks here, although I like the original version better.
DOWNLOAD "GHOSTLY SOUNDS" HERE.
