'Grim Grinning Ghosts'

This one goes out to Kid Lulu, Mai-Mai, Larry and all my peeps on the NCMD Disney Extravaganza last weekend. We braved the Haunted Mansion -- and crooned along to No. 15 on the controversial Ultimate Halloween Playlist. Thurl Ravenscroft rules!

The Ultimate Halloween Playlist Nos. 20-11

 

Pennies, stickers, toothbrushes, toothpaste, anything promoting positive dental care — none of this is acceptable to give out on Halloween. Same goes for uncandied apples, Play Doh, boxes of raisins and anti-pagan tchotchkes doled out by women who remind you of Carrie’s mom. (Dirty pillows!) Here’s the deal, spoilsports: Kids will consume pounds of choco goodness whether you like it or not. In fact, you’re actually being harmful by trying to be healthy with your tricky treats. Why? Because (1) the “Stay in School” pencil topper you insisted on giving out are destined for a nearby landfill and (2) so is the toilet paper that will inevitably be wrapped around your house because kids hate you. Me? I’m giving out Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, KitKats and Take 5s. Cliche? Maybe. Delicious? Yep. Have a Baby Ruth, boys and girls, and enjoy the Halloween Playlist, Nos. 20-11.

20 Bark at the Moon, Ozzy Osbourne
19 Pet Sematary,the Ramones
18 Mr. Sandman, the Chordettes
17 (You’re the) Devil in Disguise, Elvis Presley
16 Witchcraft, Frank Sinatra
15 Grim Grinning Ghosts, from Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride
14 The Munsters Theme, Los Straitjackets
13 Psycho Killer, Talking Heads
12 Welcome to My Nightmare, Alice Cooper
11 I Want Candy, Bow Wow Wow

To recap, here are Nos. 40-31 and Nos. 30-21. 

Next week...the Terrifying Top 10!!!

Bing Crosby 'The Headless Horseman' (from Disney's 'Adventures of Ichabod & Mr. Toad')

Loved this movie as a kid, especially around All Hallows' Eve, when it would really scare the crap outta me. Der Bingle's Headless Horseman, recorded in 1949, ranks No. 25 on our controversial Ultimate Halloween Playlist. Hopefully the Daly fam will hear the spooky song again this weekend, when I take Kid Lulu and Mai-Mai to Disney World. Dad of the Year? No no, just doing my job, ladies and gentlemen. Just doing my job.

The Superhero Playlist (Disney buys Marvel!)

As someone who nerds out for Disneyana and Marvel Comics, today's news of the Mouse House buying the House That Stan Built has dizzied me a-plenty. My first dork thought was for my peeps at Universal Studios in Orlando, which might have to rethink their Marvel-based Islands of Adventure. Whither the badass Spidey ride? And what happens to the Hulk coaster? Word is that "third-party" agreements might hold, but we'll see about that -- especially when Universal's monstrous Harry Potter land opens next year. In a super-competitive scramble for tourism bucks, I bet Disney steps on necks at that point.

Selfishly, I'm pretty geeked to see what Disney does for my boy Hulk. Hulk Mountain? It's a Hulk World After All? Hulkcot? If they need a cast member to walk around in a Hulk outfit -- done and done. I dressed up as Hulk last Halloween, and although my vision was permanently blurred from horrifically toxic green paint sweating into my eyes, I'd gladly serve as the Jade Giant again.

Anyway, to celebrate (or denigrate) this major merger, let's pull on our supersuits for today's heroically themed playlist...

Smash -- the Offspring
Iron Man -- Black Sabbath
The Power -- Snap!
Superman -- Eminem
Spider Web -- No Doubt
Captain America -- Jimmy Buffett
Wolverine -- Sufjan Stevens
Flying -- Bryan Adams
Modern Marvel -- Mos Def

SD's Favorite Pop Soundtracks (or: Happy Anniversary, Purple Rain)

As a kid who loved both movies and music — not to mention conjuring suave cinematic fantasies of action, adventure and Christie Brinkley in a two-piece — I grew up with as many soundtracks in my collection as regular records. So with Prince’s Purple Rain turning 25 next week, it got me thinking about my other fave soundtracks, all 10 of which, no matter how old or weird, I still spin on the player all the time.

The Graduate (1967) Dave Grusin’s ripe cocktail swing puckishly frames the youthful freedoms of Simon and Garfunkel’s ethereal pop. April Come She Will gets me every time. (Fun Fact: The famous "leg" in the poster is not Anne Bancroft's. It's Linda Gray's. Yep, of Dallas fame.)

Superfly (1972) From the title track to Freddie’s Dead, Curtis Mayfield’s street serenade is sexy, cool and utterly terrifying.

Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973) Bob Dylan’s foray into soundtracking includes Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door plus a soft, jingle-janglin’ saloon score. I bought this on CD at the Princeton Record Exchange, then played it in my crappy rental car as I cruised around campus. Total bliss.

Grease (1978) If we’re talking Travolta dance flicks, I’ll take the bawdy ’50s fun of Greased Lightning over Saturday Night Fever’s ’70s-sparkly Stayin’ Alive.

The Electric Horseman (1979) Willie Nelson owns Side 1 of this underrated gem, from his crackly take on the Allmans’ Midnight Rider to the bittersweetly spare Hands on the Wheel. Catch me at the right time -- say midnight, alone in my office, can't sleep -- and I'll tell you this is my favorite soundtrack of all.

National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983) As well as having hits by the Ramones and the Pointer Sisters, this fun, cheeky road-tripper is bookended by two great Lindsey Buckingham cuts: Holiday Road and Dancing Across the U.S.A. This sucker is pretty rare and rather expensive (at least on CD).

Some Kind of Wonderful (1987) For all the verbal zip of John Hughes movies, the director also had killer taste in music. This soundtrack stars ’80s one-hitters Flesh for Lulu (I Go Crazy) and Lick the Tins (a cover of Can’t Help Falling in Love). Sadly, Charlie Sexton's climactic Beat So Lonely (an extended version, no less) is not on here.

Pulp Fiction (1994) You could go with any Quentin Tarantino soundtrack and you’d be in happenin’ shape. (I was this close to picking Reservoir Dogs.) Still dig the surfy, switchblade licks of Dick Dale’s Misirlou kicking off the bloody party. 

Toy Story (1995) There are myriad reasons why Pixar has a winning streak unmatched in modern cartoonage. One of those is the reliance on big-hearted satirist Randy Newman to provide the music. Here he matches adult cynicism (Strange Things) with chummy tyke sing-alongs (You’ve Got a Friend in Me).

Slumdog Millionaire (2008) Composer A. R. Rahman’s Bollywood-meets-techno score, plus devilish help from Sri Lankan hip-hopper M.I.A., helped make this beat-mad soundtrack a crossover smash.

Ashley Tisdale: Five reasons why millions of tweens (and one doughy music critic) love her

Ashley Tisdale's new album, the titularly self-aware Guilty Pleasure, comes out next Tuesday. Her new movie, Aliens in the Attic, arrives next Friday. That’s a whole lot of Tiz coming at you. So because Pop Life is rife with haters and naysayers, here are five awesome reasons why the 24-year-old is more than another vapid Disney doll:

1) Tisdale is a bad singer. But here’s the thing: Whether she’s vamping as HSM’s Sharpay “Fabulous” Evans or warbling her bubblicious pop, Tisdale is seldom overproduced or monstrously pitch-tuned. Why? Because unlike, say, Vanessa Hudgens, Tisdale has an actual personality, and it’s based on charming imperfection.

2) Tisdale is a good comedian. Her deliciously vain Sharpay was the saving grace of the HSM flicks. And while gamboling with twins Zack & Cody on the Disney Channel, she proved a slapstick star. I like a girl who can take a pie in the face.

3) Tisdale’s grandfather, Arnold Morris, created the Ginsu knife craze. Oh, please, don’t pretend that’s not cool.

4) Tisdale is not sleazy. In a day and age when her Hollywood peers are getting caught on sex tape or wrapping Ferraris around parking meters, we only see Tisdale on TV and in magazines when she wants us to. Sure, she did give a lapdance to an Obama impersonator, but it was funny and, more importantly, totally unconvincing.

5) Tisdale is pretty, but not THAT pretty. When Tisdale went out and got herself a new schnoz, the rhino-response was vitriolic. But people were upset mainly because we already have enough perfecto Barbies out there. Tiz was cool because she had a giant beak. Although we miss her old honker, she’s still unconventionally lovely — a little mousey, a little gangly — a decent message for kids who don’t look like Brit-Brit. Of course, if she gets a boob job, she’s dead to me.

54 years ago today...Disneyland opens to laughing children, crying parents

That's right, Mouseketeers: 54 years ago today, seconds before Disneyland swallowed its first lookee-loos, chain-smoking Uncle Walt took that infamous stroll through Sleeping Beauty Castle (it's Cinderella's joint in Orlando), surveying his "architecture of reassurance" before it went live. Love that picture. This is what he told the throngs (mostly the press) on opening day:

To all who come to this happy place: welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America...with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world..

Since that speech, 515 million people have visited the Anaheim, Calif., park (although that opening day was a major mess -- all Mouse House hell broke loose).

As the Forever Fiancee will tell you with a dramatic eye-roll, I'm an unabashed Disney apologist, from obsessing about Hidden Mickeys to nerding out over Mr. Toad memorabilia. I have no problem with the notion of going to a park and relying not on my own imagination, but someone else's. As the father of two young daughters, I'm often swearing, sweating, bemoaning my fate as I wait 50 minutes for a 30-second Dumbo ride. I get the grotesqueries. I do. And yet, I always return. (For all the FF's mocking, for Father's Day she bought me two drool-worthy books: Designing Disney: Imagineering and the Art of the Show and Walt Disney's Legends of Imagineering and the Genesis of the Disney Theme Park.)

To celebrate Disneyland's anniversary, here's the coolest Disney song of all time, brought to you by Phil "Baloo" Harris and those songwriting Sherman Brothers.