Music to Make Horror Movies By: Sam Harris

Published April 5, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

It wasn’t just rockers like Alice Cooper and Pat Benatar who embraced the asylum esthetic with their recordings. ‘80s pop sensation Sam Harris utilized the strait jacket as a colorful fashion accessory on the back portrait of his debut album, as well.
Such a bad boy move might seem the antithesis of Harris’ colorful reality star beginnings.

But Harris’ biggest hit Sugar Don’t Bite definitely wasn’t playing around. In fact, this track makes being a “bleeder” sound like a sexual position well worth trying out on some hot Saturday night.

Of course, Harris, an openly gay man whose career has encompassed everything from turns on Broadway to penning a memoir called Ham: Slices of a Life, is always serving up the sweet stuff at http://www.samharris.com/.

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

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Lorna Luft

Published December 22, 2019 by biggayhorrorfan

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Best known for her enthusiastic portrayal of Pink Lady Paulette in Grease 2 and for her famous lineage, Lorna Luft also joined the ranks of horror goddesses with her role in the Tales of the Darkside episode The Shrine.

The veteran of countless musical theater productions, Luft also knows her way around a torch song as evidenced by her take on The Music That Makes Me Dance:

Of course, New Wave enthusiasts are aware that she also backed up the likes of Debbie Harry, most notably on the popular Eat to the Beat track Slow Motion, and Hilly Michaels in the early ‘80s, making this performing dynamo a true delight in almost every entertainment medium imaginable.

https://www.facebook.com/LornaLuftOfficial/

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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: Helen Morgan and Lillian Roth

Published October 8, 2019 by biggayhorrorfan

Helen Morgan’s lovely take on Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man from Show Boat is used to grand effect in Alfred Sole’s unusually powerful horror effort Alice, Sweet Alice. Introducing the pivotal presence of Mr. Alphonso, a creepy landlord who antagonistically preys upon the title character, Sole uses this number in the background to illustrate the strange emotional landscape of this sometimes pitiful, always unsavory character.

Morgan (above left), who died of alcoholism at an early age, had two biographies filmed of her life and troubled times. In an interesting coincidence, Sole cast Lillian Roth (above right), a singer and actress in the tradition of Morgan, in a small but pivotal role of a pathologist in the film. In reality, Roth’s path echoed Morgan’s on many levels, adding a nice layer of show business coincidence to this well loved film, which was recently given the deluxe Blu-ray treatment from Arrow Video. As with Morgan, Roth’s life was given a cinematic appraisal by Susan Hayward, who was nominated for an Oscar for her work, in I’ll Cry Tomorrow.

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

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Bruce Davison

Published October 21, 2018 by biggayhorrorfan

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Beloved by the queer community for his Oscar nominated work in Longtime Companion, an acclaimed look at the effects of the AIDS crisis, the eclectic Bruce Davison has also worked with a number of classic film’s acclaimed divas.

Bruce-Davison-Mame-1974 In the skittering horror of Willard, Davison shared significant screen time with Elsa Lanchester, the Frankenstein Monster’s favored bride. A few years later, he played the nephew of comedic genius Lucille Ball in the celluloid version of the musical Mame. In that project, he added the role of vocalist to the many notches on his creative belt.

Nicely, Davison is still providing layered and passionate support to many of gothic filmdom’s talented divas. His recent work opposite Lin Shaye in Insidious: The Last Key provided both performers with the chance to connect with subtle yet deep emotion. He also provided a glow of kind energy against the more nefarious outpourings of such genre pros as Meg Foster and Dee Wallace in Rob Zombie’s very personal Lords of Salem.

Bruce and me

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

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Elaine Paige

Published July 22, 2018 by biggayhorrorfan

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Some people may appreciate 1978’s The Boys from Brazil for its mad scientist Frankenstein-ian themes. Those who feel revulsion for the Three Men and a Baby films may enjoy this dark conspiratorial yarn for its swift deposal of Steve Guttenberg’s nosy do-gooder in the opening sequence. Musical theater buffs meanwhile might dive into this horror hybrid because one of its main themes, We’re Home Again, was sung by Elaine Paige, one of the multi-talented, undisputed queens of the ever glittering boards.

Paige has won countless awards for her work on shows like Evita, Cats and Anything Goes. Along with Barbara Dickson, she also introduced the pop world to I Know Him So Well, a powerhouse duet from Chess, co-written by Tim Rice and Abba’s Benny Andersson & Bjorn Ulvaeus.

Paige, who recently celebrated her 50^th anniversary in show business, is forever bringing good protein to the entertainment smorgasbord at www.elainepaige.com and https://www.facebook.com/elainepaigeofficial/.

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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: Betty Buckley

Published May 27, 2018 by biggayhorrorfan

Betty Carrie

She’s one of Broadway’s reigning divas. Fans of Carrie and Split also claim her as their own. But there are probably few as singular and solitary minded as the exquisitely talented Betty Buckley.

Interestingly (and in a twist of fate as unusual as herself), Buckley who played the kindly Miss Collins in Brian DePalma’s classic adaptation of Stephen King’s novel also played Carrie’s deluded mother Margaret in the widely panned, short lived Broadway adaptation of this beloved horror shocker.

Recent reexamination has given this work a renewed appreciation. But, as evidenced in the video below, Buckley always seemed to know the piece’s worth. Her performance here is deliberate, delicate and captivating.

Buckley, meanwhile, who is releasing a new recording called Hope in June, is always bringing heart and soul to www.facebook.com/BettyBuckley/ and www.bettybuckley.com.

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

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Shirley MacClaine

Published March 25, 2018 by biggayhorrorfan

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In 1972’s The Possession of Joel Delaney, eclectic hoofer Shirley MacLaine encountered a demonic presence that forever altered the life of Norah, the steadfast mother and sister that the actress gave passionate life to.

Thankfully, as a veteran of such musical comedies as Irma La Douce and Sweet Charity, MacLaine seems to be imbued with something much less sinister in reality…the Gypsy in Her Soul!

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

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Lainie Kazan

Published January 21, 2018 by biggayhorrorfan

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More than blood and gore, horror films survive on their sense of dramatic stakes. Similarly, theater diva Lainie Kazan, who has graced a number of horror themed projects, has as much drama in her voice as the best of them.

First coming to prominence as Barbra Striesand’s understudy in the original Broadway run of Funny Girl, Kazan may be better known as a comedienne in projects such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Lust in the Dust. But she’s added sass and vibrancy to Out of the Dark, a late ‘80s slasher featuring a golden cast of stand-bys including Karen Black, Tab Hunter and Geoffrey Lewis, and an episode of Tales From the Crypt that featured other notables such as Bill Paxton and Brad Dourif…who did away with her overbearing office manager character in a very gruesome manner.

Lainie

www.lainiekazan.com

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Julie Wilson

Published December 3, 2017 by biggayhorrorfan

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Elegant yet slightly naughty, the legendary Julie Wilson enlivened Broadway stages, nightclubs and some minor Golden Age of Hollywood productions with her always divine, truly eclectic talents. Her electric presence was, perhaps, best met with one of her signature numbers, the fun and bawdy I’m a Bad Woman.

While, naturally, adored in the refined climes of the cabaret scene, Wilson also gave a little something to the Frankenstein Kids with her appearance on the A Face for Radio episode of Monsters…proving she was not only an eternal beauty, but a truly generous soul, as well!

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

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Lee Remick

Published May 21, 2017 by biggayhorrorfan

lee remick the omen

Richard Burton threatened her with The Medusa Touch and little Damian broke her body (and her heart) in The Omen. But the scrumptious Lee Remick did have some heroes in her life, as well.

Surprisingly, famed composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim was one of them. Remick appeared in the original Broadway production of Sondheim’s well regarded (yet short lived) Anyone Can Whistle and she also glammed it up in an all star production of his Follies in the ‘80s.

Here, with direct forcefulness, she takes on the bad guys in her own way with There Won’t Be Trumpets, one of her best remembered numbers from Whistle.

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

lee remick glamour

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