Al Zanino "The Vampire Speaks/ In The Vampire's Lair" (Al-Stan, Al-Stan 666, 1957/1997)

An amazing 7" originally released in 1957 & reissued in a limited edition of 500 back in 1997, these tracks are also available on the OOP CD "The Al-Stan Masters: The Best Of Reading's Oldies". Here's an excellent overview I nicked from an ebay description, which looks to be the only source out there for the remaining vinyl singles (and trust me, if you can find a copy it's well worth the money; just a totally cool artifact).

"The original was recorded back in 1957 by Al Zanino and Cliff Juranis of Reading, PA. Only a few copies of the original pressing survive. They have gone for more than $200 at record shows all over the world. This one features a new pic sleeve designed by John Fundyga along with artist Rick Ulrich. The back features a copy of a rejection letter written by Roland/Zacherle on his original 1957 letterhead. Al Zanino sent a copy of the 45 to Roland when he hosted his Chiller Theater show back in 1957 in Philly. His letter was recreated from the original copy on the back of the sleeve. The letter has some funny comments written by Roland himself! The record label was painstakingly made to look like the original. It is a very interesting piece of horror history.

The record is very cool. Al Zanino does a dead on (pun intended) impression of Bela Lugosi complete with scary sound effects and weird piano music. There is a point on the record where the vampire remembers a time when a stake was thrust into his heart. The sound effects on that are chilling to say the least. The A side is called The Vampire Speaks and the B side is called In The Vampires Lair. Al does all the voices, Cliff did the piano work and effects. What a super cool piece of horror memorabelia."


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