Hey Kindertrauma, this is Adam N. wanting to share a creepy memory from the bygone days of the late ‘70s.
Someone in my family (definitely not my Mom or Dad – likely a crazy AUNT!) bought my siblings and me a horror sound effects record that we listened to with abandon. This was likely around 1977-78, when I'd have been 7 or 8 years old, the oldest of the rugrats. We'd turn all the lights off, put a sheet over the dining room table, pile underneath and listen to this intensely creepy record.
Here's where my memory and reality might diverge. See, I remember this record being not a collection of sound effects strung together semi-randomly but long SOUNDSCAPES that, through only sounds and no dialog, really told simple, ultra creepy journeys through horror. The one I can almost still hear was called (something like) "The Haunted House."
You heard footsteps on a sidewalk, wind in the trees, then a shutter banging on a house in the near distance. Footsteps continue. A gate creaks open, and the sound of footsteps on old wooden stairs. Door opening with a deafening creak, then BANG! It's shut and the wind is gone.
I remember this tinkling sound, like wind through broken glass and maybe the sound of a GHOSTLY CHILD crying. It went on, the listener following these footsteps through this haunted house until it ended with – I dunno, must have been shrieks of terror or something. I can't remember.
In the past few days I've been searching for it, and thought I found it – an A&M record from 1977 called "Halloween Horrors" but when I listened to it on Amazon, it didn't seem right.
I would love to listen to it again to see if this horrific audio triptych still holds up!
I believe I know what album you are referring to. It is called Chilling Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House and holds many memories for me as well. One side had seperate sound effects, the other had them mixed together in a long track. Probably the one you are referring to.
It most commonly had an orange album jacket. Here's a link that talks about it:
http://www.haunteddimensions.raykeim.com/index361.html
I think the two most likely candidates are "Sounds to Make You Shiver: Bloodcurdling! Terror! Horror!" (Pickwick Records) and "Ghostly Sounds" (Power Records). The first one was in every record bin in the late 70s, and the lead track is "A Night in a Haunted House." You can download the whole thing here.
You can get the Chilling Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House on iTunes now – Yay!Â
Ahh, I remember it VERY well…
Just downloaded it myself – I don't hear the bit with the child crying, which is what really makes me want to hear this. I had a first pressing of the Disney album "Chilling, Thrilling…" but what always got to me was the eerie, almost asexual narrator.
That " Chilling, Thrilling" album used to scare the pants off me, too. I do remember the soundscapes, so creepy.
Ah yes, the Chilling, Thrilling Sounds. My cousin and I would listen to this year round with the lights out and only a candle to see the record player. I loved the one with the martian who came and (I believe) ate your brain. Crunch crunch, crunch…
I have already traumatized my son with this who seems to especially dislike the "cat fight" one for some reason. Good Stuff !
The liner full of spooky party hints and jokes was a bonus as well.
I still have my Chilling Thrilling Sounds – a white jacket version and and orange jacket version. Very cool record!
"Monster Mash: Sounds of Terror" is a culprit. Besides a cover of "monster mash" done by some uninspired studio musicians, the rest of the tracks are little 2-minute scenarios with titles like "exorcism" and "attack of the giant crab". Along with "sounds to make you shiver", it's a favorite of my halloween sound effects records, and I got a hundred of them.
http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/dinosaur1972/181-sounds-terror-1974.html
"chilling thrilling sounds" is a disney record. "ghostly sounds" is popular among electronic music geeks because gershon kingley (composer of "popcorn") does the sound effects.
I think we had the 'Chilling Thrilling' LP when I was a kid. I remember finding the 'being eaten by an alien' part as scary until the end when (if memory serves) the alien burped, or said 'yummy' or some such silly thing. Even back then that seemed to ruin the mood.
*Wipes away long-forgotten Trauma-tears*
Wow, this post reminds me a a major Halloween trauma. I must have been five or six years old. For some reason that I cannot fathom, I was at some highly-organized Halloween party for kids, maybe at a library or something – it wasn't local though. I did not know anyone and there were lots of slightly older kids with scary costumes. Someone thought that it would be a good idea to put several of us in a room and turn off the lights and play one of these "scary Halloween sounds" records. Twenty seconds in, I was losing my mind. I remember that the other kids seemed kind of cheesed off that they had to turn the lights back on because one of the "little kids" (me) was wigging out. They put me back out into the main room by myself, but gave me a copy of "Where the Wild Things Are" which I loved and weirdly made me feel OK. I went back in after a while – they were still playing the record but they had candles for light. Still, I brought the book with me…
My brother had that record. I think the alien says "mmmm, crunchy. I wonder what it was?" at the end of the alien track.
It most definitely is the Disney record mentioned. Me & my brother played the shit out of this! We had a cassette recorder and used this record's sound effects to make our own recordings. I remember how at the end of 'Chinese Water Torture' the narrator does some very un-PC "Ching-chow-chung-chang" gibberish, I wonder if that got edited out by iTunes?!