Remembering Dave Goodrich and "The Halloween Song"
by Prof. Brian O'Blivion
In anticipation of Spooky Season, on the eve of the Chiller Theater reboot, we're sharing "The Halloween Song" by The Four Downs featuring Julie Holzen. This is the B-side of Dave Goodrich's 1979 Steelers fight song released on Dynasty Records. 
We aren't sure who the Four Downs, or Julie Holzen were, but Dave Goodrich needed no introduction in Pittsburgh record stores. Dave was an eccentric. He was a man obsessed with Pittsburgh music culture. He haunted any and every Pittsburgh record store that was worth haunting, in a tireless pursuit of Pittsburgh music history. Regardless of the season, he wore a baseball cap and a blazer, and he carried a binder that contained his current research with him everywhere he went.
Dave was the author of Key to the City Volume 1: 1928-1954; A Guide to Pittsburgh Music, History, Entertainment & More!, which he self-published in 1985. He was perhaps better known for his thirty-eight year tenure at the Edison Hotel, which became Club Elite, then Blush and is now Rick's Cabaret (all strip clubs) located on 9th Street in Downtown Pittsburgh. He spent much of those thirty-eight years living upstairs as a resident of the hotel. 
"The Halloween Song" is a seasonal novelty record, which Goodrich penned and dedicated to George A. Romero, director of Night of the Living Dead, and Bill "Chilly Billy" Cardille, host of WPXI's long running Chiller Theater program. The song is a bit hokey, but it's as thoughtful and unique as the man who wrote it back in 1979. Bill Cardille passed away in July of 2016. Then Romero passed in July of 2017. And sadly, Dave passed away the following April in 2018. Last Saturday, September 2nd would have been his 78th birthday. There's no doubt that Dave would have appreciated WPXI resurrecting Pittsburgh's beloved and well remembered Chiller Theater program.
We stand on the shoulders of walking encyclopedias like Dave Goodrich, who was compelled to tirelessly chase and document the local history that unfortunately falls through the cracks of time. Belated happy birthday Dave. "The Halloween Song" is in rotation this year. We'll be thinking of you on these upcoming Saturday nights, while we watch the creature features and the chillers on the screen.
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