Disney’s ‘Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House’ Album Has Been Providing Spooky Halloween Ambience for 60 Years
A while back, I unearthed some old record albums that had been stored away at my mother’s house, which I had not seen in a very long time.
Among the finds, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that this one had not been sold away at some long-ago rummage sale:
© 1964 Walt Disney Productions
I was all set to drop the needle on Disneyland Records’ Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House for the first time in decades, even though many of its creepy sound effects still lingered familiarly in my brain.
Just seeing that cover made me especially think of the groans and shrieks that had been part of the sound effects portion of the record on Side Two, following Side One’s more story-based elements, narrated with voiceover by Laura Olsher.
The liner notes on the back of the record jacket I found explain, in part, that “The Sound Effects Department of the Walt Disney Studio has been collecting all kinds of noises since 1927. … Drawing upon this enormous library of sound, Disneyland records has produced this LP.
“Side 1 contains ten stories in sound in which the narrator sets up the situation and the sound effects take over and tell the story.
“Side 2 is a collection of sound effects grouped by category. These may be used to create your own stories in sound.”
Later, a part of the liner notes written in bold type cautions that “This particular Disneyland record, CHILLING, THRILLING SOUNDS OF THE HAUNTED HOUSE, is not intended for young, impressionable children from three to eight. [unbold] It is intended for older children, teenagers and adults.”
I guess that’s fair warning; some of these sounds and tales, and general themes of a few of the stories, are surprisingly intense at times.
Remind Here’s a track listing for the original 1964 version of Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House:
SIDE ONE (stories and sounds)
1. The Haunted House
2. The Very Long Fuse
3. The Dogs
4. Timber
5. Your Pet Cat
6. Shipwreck
7. The Unsafe Bridge
8. Chinese Water Torture
9. The Birds
10. The Martian Monsters
SIDE TWO (sound effects)
1. Screams and Groans
2. Thunder, Lightning and Rain
3. Cat Fight
4. Dogs
5. A Collection of Creaks
6. Fuses and Explosions
7. A Collection of Crashes
8. Birds
9. Drips and Splashes
10. Things in Space
The record I have had been handed down to me sometime in the late ‘70s by an older relative who must have been tired of it, and it’s the original 1964 version, as you can see by the white around the main, classic picture of a haunted house (you can also see I had written my name on it at some point, probably because I brought it to school for a listen in class one day).
Disney apparently released another version of this album in the early ‘70s, which focused more on sound effects, and whose cover had an orange border around the haunted house image.
Both versions of the album went gold, so clearly there was a need for scary sounds and stories among consumers — most likely when Halloween came around, I’m assuming.
Remind Back to the album jacket I re-discovered. After I found it, I eagerly reached in and pulled out the record, only to get another surprise: The LP inside was not Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House, but was instead Steve Martin’s late ‘70s comedy album A Wild and Crazy Guy! I did remember having that record, but I don’t recall stupidly placing it into the wrong jacket (I don’t have the original sleeve for the Martin album, or at least have not been able to rediscover it at this point).
While I’m glad to be able to play A Wild and Crazy Guy on my turntable (do comedians still release stand-up albums in any format?), I was disappointed to not have been able to play my copy of the haunted house album, which I’m sorry to say I have no idea what I did with.
But, thanks to the internet, I found Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House in several places, and here’s a chance for all of us to give it a re-listen via some YouTube videos (in the second two, the videos’ creator even plays the album on an actual turntable).
I don’t know if Disney itself ever used the sound effects from this album much anywhere. It seems like the sounds would have been natural inclusions in the Haunted Mansion attraction at the Disney parks. The one and only time that I ever rode on the Haunted Mansion attraction, at Disney World in 1979, I thought I recognized some of the screams and groans from the album, but I cannot recall for sure.
I do remember that some of these sounds were used in a few of the local haunted house attractions I visited as a kid. I have not been to haunted houses or other similar Halloween attractions in a while, so I don’t know how commonly Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House is heard in those locales nowadays.
Some of the original 1964 album hasn’t aged very well; there is weird stuff with cats and dogs, and a fairly racist story about “Chinese Water Torture” (which was removed even by the early ‘70s re-release).
But Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House still is, as one of the headstones on its album cover hypes, “a most terrific collection of recorded sounds” that would make for a fun and spooky ambience while carving pumpkins, handing out candy to trick-or-treaters or just generally wanting to get into the Halloween spirit.
Remind