The man who penned the novelty favorite "Monster Mash," Bobby "Boris" Pickett has died of leukemia at the age of 69. Pickett—who based the song around his impersonation of Boris Karloff—wrote "Monster Mash" in about a half-hour, recording it on the fly with a then-unkown Leon Russell at the piano. It became an immediate smash hit, and as close to a "Halloween carol" as it gets. Despite never producing another song that came close to matching its popularity, Pickett, for his part, claimed he never grew tired of "Mash," saying, "When I hear it, I hear a cash register ringing."