ONE HIT WONDERLAND: "Fire" by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown

Oh man Todd, I would love for you to do some kind of retrospective on Zappa at some point. He seems fascinating, but I feel like I don't know nearly enough about the guy. Can't really beat the sound of a good vocoder break too.

Deanna Banana

hey does anyone one know if Voltaire's Day of the Dead a Hit Also What about HELL by Squirrel Nut Zippers? OR the Ghost of Steffen Foster by the same group? So many good Halloween songs out there.

Yes that's the one great song never charted here damn it. I was in England in 88-91. peace.

So how many "final" Spooktaculars have we had now? Three or four?

Jacob Alys Rudolph

The one by The Specials? It was a #1 in the UK, did not chart in the US. Fantastic song though, wish more people knew about it.

Jacob Alys Rudolph

This made me think of that song too!

Meowlissa

Yo Todd, will you ever do Ghost Town? That was a hit I think?

Thanks, don't know how that slipped through, fixed it immediately last night

Todd in the Shadows

Always look forward to the Halloween OHWs--they seem to bring up the most interesting artists. Does footnoting Screamin' Jay Hawkins in this video preclude using him for a future Halloween OHW?

Joe G

I think this is the first one I requested when I signed up.

I literally signed up to Patreon just to have the chance to request this one day, so glad you did it.

Michael M

Lizzie Mercier Descloux <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwuujEjbNK0" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwuujEjbNK0</a>

Michael M

All I remember of this song was when Jeremy Clarkson shouted 'I am the God of hellfire!' On an episode of Top Gear

Bruce Dickenson had a great anecdote about Arthur Brown. Apparently he met him one in London, where Brown was doing some kind of open-air concert and afterwards Dickeson went up to him and said. "Mr. Brown, you probably have no idea who I am, but I built an entire music career out of copying you. "

Kalin

What's the cover at the end?

dryeraser

My family's habit of reflexively bursting into this song whenever anyone says fire led me to believe it was a lot more well known than it is. So it's great to know a bit more about the guy.

Ooh! This really was a surprise. Glad to see you keeping the OHW Halloween tradition alive. I actually was marathoning the specials yesterday, so this is perfect timing!

Weirdly enough, this guy reminded me a lot of the strange career path of Napoleon XIV, of "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" fame. One inexplicably enormous mid-late 60s hit (TCTTMAHH hit #3 on the charts) notable mostly for how Goddamn strange it is, followed by a second album that the label refused to release. That one, entitled For God's Sake Stop The Feces, was an even bigger failure than Arthur Brown's second album, as it's STILL never gotten a proper release (to my knowledge), although a few tracks from it later turned up on a CD reissue of Napoleon XIV's only album. I'd request covering Napoleon XIV for OHW, but to my knowledge the guy never performed TCTTMAHH on-camera.

Tony Goldmark

Awesome vid. Thanks for the crash course in an obscure influential act I've never heard of. And as always, it's high time you did "You Get What You Give" by the New Radicals.

MPG1989

I AM THE GOD OF HELLFIRE! I know this sample from the Prodigy song “Fire”

Tommy Wimmer

I lost it at "all the songs are about alien zoo animals."

Meowlissa

"All Around Me"? I didn't realize they were Christian Rock, but now that you mention it, that makes sense.

I've never heard this song, but I found this pretty entertaining.

Hey Todd, you know whats spooky? Christian Rock. Flyleaf, believe it or not, have had a Top 40 hit

Joey Langdon

couldn't think of a song more fitting for the final ohw spooktacular!

sweesbees

Oh hell yes

Joey Langdon

Odd blackout spot around 1:45.

Michael Russell