Werewolves of London - Warren Zevon (1978) 10/31/22

Happy Halloween!

Back in the early '70s, Warren Zevon was managing The Everly Brothers, and hired a friend of his, Robert "Waddy" Wachtel, to play guitar in the Brothers' backup band.

As a joke, Phil Everly asked them to write a dance tune called "Werewolves of London," based on a cheesy old horror movie from the '30s. He wasn't the least bit serious.

Shortly thereafter, however, Warren and Waddy were fooling around on their guitars, when songwriter LeRoy Marinell asked what they were playing.

Warren facetiously answered "Werewolves of London," and Waddy started howling.

A short time later, after some lyrical improv between the three, a "Great Song of 1978" was born--although no one had realized it yet.

In 1975, another friend of Warren's--Jackson Browne--started playing the song in concert...and everyone, including his record label (Asylum), urged him to record it.

Jackson refused--because he thought it was "quintessentially Warren." In fact, he convinced "Asylum" to sign Warren to his own record contract...which they did...and Jackson became Warren's producer.

When Warren's third album, "Excitable Boy" was being put together, Jackson felt the time was right, and finally got Warren to record it. He even called in Fleetwood Mac's Mick Fleetwood and John McVie to add drums and bass, respectively.

When it was released as a single in 1978...it was a novelty, yes, but also a Top 20 hit in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US. (Billboard had it peaking at #21, but Cashbox had it at #18.)

Since then, radio stations have pulled it out and played it every Halloween, so this year, so am I!

"Werewolves of London" may not be one of the Greatest "Great Songs of the '70s...but it's a "HOWL" of a good one!