Christmas Countdown 2007: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

Joy of Joys!!! It truly is the season of miracles! And.....Martians!!

Ahem....after nearly 2 decades (!!!!) of searching, one of my of my Christmas wishes has finally been realized....

One of my first experiences with the world of B Movies was 1964's Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, a low-budget cheesfest that I first had the pleasure of viewing during the Christmas of 1988...and it has since become a holiday tradition of mine to view it. It's quite possibly one of my favorite "bad movies" of all time...

Prior to seeing it, though, I was aware that there had been a Dell comic book adaptation published in 1964 (thanks to religious reading of Overstreet's Comic Book Price Guide), and a few years ago, after years of searching, I actually came across a copy which I purchased.

The credits of the film itself mention that the movie's theme song, "Hooray For Santy Claus", was at one point released on vinyl, but I've never been able to track down a copy. I believe it may be a case of an extremely limited release .45 single...or, this release announced by the opening credits of the flick may be non-existent.

But....

Years ago, I was informed that Dell (a branch of what would later become Western Publishing, the folks behind numerous children's books and, in the 1970s, Golden and Peter Pan children's records) had released a read-along vinyl packaged with copies of the comic (Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, Golden Records SLP170) at some point in the 1960s, and for years I'd had hoped to run across a copy.

Well, tonight, after a visit to the local Goodwill thrift store....that hope has finally bore fruit. And, it only cost me 90 cents....though my copy no longer possesses the copy of the comic shrink-wrapped to the back of the album, it's of no matter, seeing as how I already own a copy of the funnybook's newsstand release version....

So, to kick off what I hope will be the first annual Christmas Countdown, I've thrown together a little Santa Claus Conquers the Martians package for download, so that other can find the joy that I've found over the years in this little holiday season cult classic...

Track Listing:

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

01- Hooray For Santy Claus- Milton DeLugg and the Little Eskimos

Monk Seven is a Japanese techno artist who recorded this delightful little ditty using samples from the film:

Monk Seven

01- Santa On Mars

A few years back, oddball European musician Senor Tonto recorded a cover version of "Hooray for Santy Claus", which I've included the single of in this package:

Senor Tonto

01- Hooray For Santy Claus
02- Hooray For Santy Claus (instrumental)

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Also, as my first gift to my readers this Christmas, here's a download link for the film in MPEG format (hosted by Internet Archive)

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) Download (567 mb)

Marvel Superheroes Power Records Part Two: "Man-Thing: Night Of The Laughing Dead" (Power Records, PR16, 1974)

When I was a kid, I loved that little corner of the Marvel Universe (circa 1970s) that darker, more horror themed characters resided. This would explain why I own complete runs of the Johnny Blaze Ghost Rider series, Tomb of Dracula, and Marvel Spotlight issues #12–24 (the run of the series that featured Daimon Hellstrom, also known as the Son of Satan).....

And then, there's Man-Thing.....

Coming from a long line of funny-book muck monsters, Ted Sallis, aka, the Man-Thing....y'know, the "Fear Burns At The Touch Of.." guy who first appeared in Savage Tales #1 (May 1971), has always held a special place in my heart. I just love the big dumb lug. So, please...refrain from any of the "Giant-Sized Man-Thing" jokes that seem to be so popular amongst the kids today....at least until you give this download a listen.

Included with this download is a file of JPEGs the complete comic...

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Batgirl Theme- Billy May

Another piece of Bat-Lore that was born out of the 1960s television series was the Barbara Gordon Batgirl. Presented here is an mp3 of the "Batgirl" theme from the short 1968 un-aired pilot starring Yvonne Craig.

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Burgess Meredith- "The Capture" & "The Escape" (ABC Records #10798) 1966

God Bless merchandising tie-ins.....in what other atmosphere would you find the creation of a novelty spoken word record performed by Burgess Meredith...in character as the Batman villain the Penguin?

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Frank Gorshin – “The Riddler” (A&M 804, 1966)

Being a comic book fanboy, my love for the 1966-68 ABC-TV BATMAN series knows no bounds...so, when I ran across this novelty single that Gorshin released as a merchandising tie-in in 1966, I immediately knew I had to have it....

Sure, it's a regular fixture it seems for oddball music sharing blogs to post this....but I figured what's one more time gonna hurt?

Track Listing:

01- The Riddler (A Side)
02- Never Let Her Go (B Side)

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The Ferlin Husky Project Part 1

I love "Hillbilly" movies. This attraction stems from the fact that I, in fact, could probably be considered one, having grown up on the banks of the Ohio River in Adams County, Ohio and a family line that extends back into the darkened recesses of the hills and valleys of Northern Kentucky....

Lum n' Abner (both the radio show and the series of films from the 1940s), the various incarnations of Li'l Abner (in the comic strips and various films, my favorite being the 1940 Mascot film, which literally adapts the first few years of the strip....and has Buster Keaton (!!!) as "Lonesome Polecat")....

H.G. Lewis' ventures into hillbilly territory (notably This Stuff'll Kill Ya! and Year of the Yahoo!, which at some point I'd love to reconstruct Claude King's soundtrack), Snuffy Smith comics, vintage Mountain Dew merchandise....you name it, I find it endearing...

From this fascination with rural folk was born what I've come to dub the FERLIN HUSKY PROJECT....

In 1966, Husky (a fairly popular country and western singer of the period) starred in two of my favorite "Hillbilly" flicks, Las Vegas Hillbillys and the always enjoyable sequel, Hillbillys in A Haunted House, and after years of searching for them on VHS, I finally scored copies of the now OOP (Out of Print, for the layman) VCI DVD releases a few years back, and made a disheartening discovery.....no formal soundtracks were ever released for these two films steeped in country and western music of the era.

So, I set out to try, using my own personal collection of vinyls, cassettes, 8-tracks (though I haven't found a decent A/V bridge for that format) and CDs....with a little help from LimeWire and other various torrent sharing applications, and reconstruct a formal soundtrack for both films. So far, some progress has been made, but I fear soem of the tunes are exclusive to the films themselves, or tracking down recordings have been a bitch....but still, I struggle on...

So, here I present my work so far, and bear in mind these downloads are a work in progress...and at some point in the near future there will be updates, but as with many things of this type, who knows when that'll be...

Las Vegas Hillbillys Track Listing:

01 -Ferlin Husky- I Feel Better
02-Bill Anderson - Bright Lights and Country Music
03- Connie Smith - Nobody But A Fool (Would Love You)
04- Del Reeves - Woman Do Funny Things To Me
05- Sonny James - The Minute You're Gone
06- Del Reeves - Belles Of Southern Bell

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Hillbillys In A Haunted House Track Listing:

01- Merle Haggard - Swinging Doors
02- Merle Haggard-Someone Told My Story
03- Sonny James - The Cat Came Back

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ED WOOD-A-RAMA Part 1: Orgy of the Dead (Strangelove, 1995)

What's a B-Movie themed blog without at least a little love for Ed Wood? In our first installment, where taking a look at Strangelove Record's 1995 CD release of the soundtrack for A.C. Stephens' ORGY OF THE DEAD, a little ditty from 1965 that Wood had a hand in scripting...

And, as a special bonus, Criswell performing "Someone Walked Over My Grave" from the 1995 single by Dionysus Records.....

Track Listing:

01 - I Am Criswell
02 - Let's Turn Back
03 - The Ghouls Feast In All Their Radiance
04 - She Died In Flames
05 - One Who Prowls The Lonely Streets At Night
06 - Some Kind Of College Initiation
07 - One Who Worships Gold Above All Else
08 - The Night Things Are All About Me
09 - To Love The Cat, Is To Be The Cat
10 - A Pussycat Is Born To Be Whipped
11 - Whatever You Do, Don't Do That
12 - She Danced To Their Destruction
13 - This One Cast Herself Into The Volcano's Fire
14 - Now I Will Talk To The Wolfman And Mummy
15 - No One Wishes To See A Man Dance
16 - She Lived As A Zombie In Life
17 - This Once Would Have Died For Feathers, Furs, And Fluff
18 - Our Fitting Climax
19 - There's Nothing To Forgive - It Was All A Dream

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