Music to Make Horror Movies By: James Coco

Published April 9, 2017 by biggayhorrorfan

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Best known for character roles with a decidedly comic intent, the sorely missed James Coco (1930 – 1987) also added some much needed presence to horror films like The Chair and The Stepford Children.

Impressively, he provided his own vocals for the 1972 film version of The Man of La Mancha, as well. His vigor and exquisite comic timing add much to the humor of this take on the show’s well regarded Golden Helmet of Mambrino.

Gone too soon, Coco’s presence here (and elsewhere) proves he definitely will never be forgotten.

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Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Gloria Swanson

Published March 19, 2017 by biggayhorrorfan

Sunset Boulevard

Was there ever anything as haunting as Gloria Swanson’s deliciously deluded Norma Desmond in Billy Wilder’s classic, emotional noir Sunset Boulevard? Many refined and enthusiastic film buffs will probably, unanimously, agree that there isn’t.

Thankfully, almost 25 years after this macabre venture, Swanson returned to play another demanding diva in Curtis Harrington’s fondly remembered television horror Killer Bees. As the queenly Maria von Bohlen, Swanson ruled her fictional family with a tart grip even as the matriarch’s fuzzy flying pets began to draw the life out of members of the frightened local community. gloria killer bees

Meanwhile, although she was never known as a singer, the always game legend tackled a couple of tunes in the early 80s on a variety of star studded specials.

Here, the Paul Whiteman Orchestra’s well regarded Wonderful One gets the nostalgic treatment.

Next, Swanson is joined by Brooke Shields (Alice, Sweet, Alice, The Midnight Meat Train) and Barbara Eden (A Howling in the Woods, The Stranger Within) for a surprising version of Cole Porter’s What Do You Think About Men?

For those interested, the adventures of this singular entertainer are explored in deeper detail at https://thehairpin.com/scandals-of-classic-hollywood-the-gloria-swanson-saga-part-one-e2d29b36eac2

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Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Doris Day

Published March 12, 2017 by biggayhorrorfan

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The girl next door. The sweetheart of WWII service men. That seductive minx of 60s romantic comedies. The eternally appealing Doris Day is many things. Even gothic songstress Diamanda Galas is a fan.

But why wouldn’t she be? Day even worked her way, passionately, through a trio of thrillers. The highlight of these might be her collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock, The Man Who Knew Too Much. But in Julie, where Day portrayed a stewardess stalked by her murder happy second husband, a smoothly handsome and totally dangerous Louis Jourdan, she paid full balance to her multiple charms.

Not only does her heroine here save a plane full of passengers by the movie’s end, foreshadowing Karen Black in Airport 75 by decades, but she also sings the film’s lovely theme song. It’s a pretty thing with hints of the turmoil that Julie is about to experience lingering lightly in the song’s lyrics. Day, of course, nails all the moods of the piece with the subtle and true touch of a master at work.

Of course, Day, who now spends much of her time in the pursuit of care and justice for animals, is always, quietly and happily, reachable at www.dorisday.com.

Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

Music to Make Horror Movies By: Sally Kellerman

Published March 5, 2017 by biggayhorrorfan

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One of the universe’s truly distinctive performers, Sally Kellerman went from playing a near victim in 1968’s The Boston Strangler to turning the tables in a series of alluring (and extremely conniving) roles in such 90s projects as Doppelganger (AKA The Evil Within) and Mirror, Mirror 2: Raven Dance. Employing her charmingly smoky demeanor, she brought a level of sympathy and understanding to her take on a lesbian modeling agency director in the psychological television slasher Drop Dead Gorgeous (AKA Victim of Beauty), as well.

Kellerman, also a distinguished veteran of multiple musical theater projects, released her first album Roll With the Feelin in 1972. The classic cut Don’t You Feel My Leg wasn’t included on that collection, but it perfectly reflects this sophisticated lyrical temptress’ earthy cabaret style.

From Mash to Brewster McCloud to the blues, Kellerman remains unique.

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Chequered Past

Published February 27, 2017 by biggayhorrorfan

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A super group isn’t necessarily always capable of providing a super theme song. But, glam loving rockers Chequered Past, which included members of Blondie (Clem Burke, Nigel Harrison), The Sex Pistols (Steve Jones), Power Station (Michael Des Barres) and Tin Machine (Tony Fox Sales), definitely came screaming out of the gate with the explosive A World Gone Wild in 1984. The song perfectly expressed the apocalyptic nightmare that the creators of (the almost exactly titled) World Gone Wild expressed in their 1987 feature, earning it a prime place on its soundtrack.

Unfortunately, despite making music that Des Barres described as “New York Dolls in a home for senior citizens”, the band only recorded a single album before calling it quits. Des Barres did go on to play various sexual degenerates and punk sauced villains in projects such as Ghoulies, Midnight Cabaret, Waxwork II and Nightflyers, adding a little rock flash to the genre world, therefore keeping some of the band’s seductively corrupt goals alive in other forms of entertainment.

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Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Evelyn “Champagne” King

Published February 19, 2017 by biggayhorrorfan

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She was the Queen of Shame, due to her propulsive disco hit of the same name, but the glorious Evelyn “Champagne” King also deserves credit for being a seminal horror movie soundtrack diva. Her seductive Give It Up highlighted the dance floor seduction scene between Chris Sarandon’s commanding Jerry Dandridge and Amanda Bearse’s awkward Amy Peterson in 1985’s beloved Fright Night.

Hot!

Currently, King, who had multiple R&B and dance club hits throughout the prime of her career, is still showing the world that there will always be a “love comedown” at https://www.facebook.com/evelynchampagnekingfanpage/.

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Amy Irving

Published February 12, 2017 by biggayhorrorfan

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Amy Irving regretted picking on Carrie and lived to tell the tale. Of course, as everyone knows, any wickedness in the world of horror is eventually compensated for. Therefore, Irving’s Sue Snell did eventually pay the ultimate price for her past misdeeds in 1999’s highly contested sequel The Rage: Carrie 2.

Perhaps, she could have taken some advice from Jessica Rabbit, the character she voiced/sang in 1988’s modern classic Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Irving, who also provided some sweet tunefulness in (the Willie Nelson starring) Honeysuckle Rose, famously sent John Cassavetes’ evil Ben Childress to a fiery grave in Brian DePalma’s The Fury, as well. Now, that’s a nice record!

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Until the next (semi-explosive) time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Nancy Sinatra

Published February 5, 2017 by biggayhorrorfan

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She defined an entire generation with a giddy sneer, a charming pout, some (fine, fine) tunes and…those (almost living, breathing) boots!

The superlative Nancy Sinatra also gave it her all in a number of teen comedies and genre films including Get Yourself a College Girl and The Wild Angels. Nicely, 1966’s fun The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini featured a number of silly supernatural happenings and appearances from such horror stalwarts as Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone.

Looking frisky and fabulous, Nancy also contributed Geronimo, a fun tune for that project, as well.

Currently, the passionate Sinatra is always creating a happening at https://www.facebook.com/NancySinatra and www.nancysinatra.com.

Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Martha Reeves and the Vandellas

Published January 22, 2017 by biggayhorrorfan

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She was one of Motown’s reigning divas and, along with her famed backup group the Vandellas, Martha Reeves also provided one of the most prescient songs on the 1976 Carrie soundtrack.

carrie-1976-19-seductive-chris As the evil minded Chris (Nancy Allen) and Billy (John Travolta) cruise around, conspiring revenge and destruction, Heat Wave, one of Reeves’ most iconic numbers, plays on the car radio. With all the fiery prom night action that occurs soon after, this song proves to be a wise choice, full of dark, foreshadowing measures.

Reeves, who has also worked as a journalist and politician, still performs around the world, often in benefit concerts. More information on her astounding career and activities is available at http://www.missmarthareeves.com/.

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Lisa Hartman

Published January 9, 2017 by biggayhorrorfan

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She should have been cowering from that electricity enhanced alien in Not of this World (1991), but instead the exquisite Lisa Hartman decided she would rather be Hiding From Love as witnessed by her 1982 album Letterock, a recording that was even rereleased as a self titled offering, later in the decade, due to her popularity on the nighttime soap opera Knots Landing.

Hartman, who also provided a killer surprise in Wes Craven’s Deadly Blessing (1981), even performed that popular Bryan Adams tune on an episode of Solid Gold.

Unfortunately, Letterock (and its subsequent reiteration) never really took off with the public. Interestingly, it is one of the perkiest female rock records of that era with some fun new wave and pop numbers and a running time that passes by brightly. It also qualifies as very ahead of its time. The song Johnny’s Always On My Mind details the female narrator’s attempts to steal a man away from his boyfriend – a bold concept even in today’s music world, let alone in the period of time when it was actually released.

So, bravo, Goddess Hartman….

….and until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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