"Dragula" is a debut solo single co-written and recorded by American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

musician

Rob Zombie Robert Bartleh Cummings (born January 12, 1965), known professionally as Rob Zombie, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, filmmaker, and actor. His music and lyrics are notable for their horror and sci-fi themes, and his live show ...

. It was released in August 1998 as the lead single from his solo debut ''

Hellbilly Deluxe ''Hellbilly Deluxe: 13 Tales of Cadaverous Cavorting Inside the Spookshow International'' is the debut solo studio album by American musician and filmmaker Rob Zombie. The album serves as his first release outside of the band White Zombie, with ...

''. Since its release, it has become Zombie's most recognizable song as a solo artist. It is also his best-selling song, and had sold over 717,000 copies in the U.S. by 2010. The song is based on the drag racer " DRAG-U-LA" from the sitcom ''

The Munsters ''The Munsters'' is an American sitcom about the home life of a family of benign monsters that aired from 1964 to 1966 on CBS. The series stars Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster (Frankenstein's monster),Episodes referring to the fact that Herman is ...

''. The audio clip "superstition, fear and jealousy" heard at the beginning of the song is a

sample Sample or samples may refer to: * Sample (graphics), an intersection of a color channel and a pixel * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of something * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample ...

of dialogue from the 1960

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

'' The City of the Dead'' (also known as ''Horror Hotel''), and is spoken by

Christopher Lee Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015) was an English actor and singer. In a career spanning more than sixty years, Lee became known as an actor with a deep and commanding voice who often portrayed villains in horr ...

. The song also appears on Rob Zombie's '' Past, Present & Future'', the greatest hits album ''

The Best of Rob Zombie ''The Best of Rob Zombie'' is a greatest hits album by Rob Zombie, released in 2006 through Geffen Records. It was certified Gold by the RIAA. Track listing Certifications See also *Rob Zombie discography The discography of American ...

''. The original single included a

big beat Big beat is an electronic music genre that usually uses heavy breakbeats and synthesizer-generated loops and patterns – common to acid house/techno. The term has been used by the British music industry to describe music by artists such as the ...

remix of the song by

Charlie Clouser Charles Alexander Clouser (born June 28, 1963) is an American keyboardist, composer, record producer, and remixer. He worked with Trent Reznor for Nine Inch Nails from 1994 to 2000, and is a composer for film and television; among his credits are ...

, entitled the "Hot Rod Herman" remix (in reference to the Munsters episode), which is contained on ''

American Made Music to Strip By ''American Made Music to Strip By'' is the first remix album released by American musician Rob Zombie. The album was released through Geffen Records on October 26, 1999. It is composed entirely of remixes of songs taken from Zombie's debut studio ...

'' (under the name ''Si Non Oscillas, Noli Tintinnare Mix''). Additionally, it appeared on the soundtracks for video games, films and TV shows.

Background and writing

Zombie told ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' magazine that the title came from the name of Grandpa Munster's eponymous dragster '' DRAG-U-LA'' on ''

''. He goes on to say that it "was a classic show with great comic characters. Strangely enough, 'Dragula' was one of the last songs finished for the record. It fell together really fast and worked, but it could just as easily not

ave is a Latin word, used by the Roman Empire, Romans as a salutation (greeting), salutation and greeting, meaning 'wikt:hail, hail'. It is the singular imperative mood, imperative form of the verb , which meant 'Well-being, to be well'; thus on ...

been on the record."

Music video

The music video shows Rob Zombie driving the Munster Koach (not the actual Dragula racing car) with various shots of the band members and different scenes from classic horror films, e.g. ''

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'' is an 1886 Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novella by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. It follows Gabriel John Utterson, a London-based legal practitioner who investigates a series ...

'' (1920) at the beginning of the video and the killer robot from chapter film series '' The Phantom Creeps'' (1939) along with home video footage of mid-20th-century families being entertained by a clown with clips of nuclear testing mushroom clouds sardonically overlapping of when the clown and a girl are laughing, with the multi-color backdrops referencing ''

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory ''Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'' is a 1971 American musical film, musical fantasy film directed by Mel Stuart from a screenplay by Roald Dahl, based on his 1964 novel ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory''. It stars Gene Wilder as chocol ...

'' (1971), also with early-20th-century footage of children being entertained and shocked. It achieved heavy rotation on

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

following the huge success of the album. The video also appears in the 1999 film ''

Idle Hands ''Idle Hands'' is a 1999 American teen horror comedy film directed by Rodman Flender, written by Terri Hughes and Ron Milbauer, and starring Devon Sawa, Seth Green, Elden Henson, Jessica Alba, and Vivica A. Fox. The film's plot follows t ...

''.

Releases

Personnel

* Rob Zombie – vocals * Riggs – guitars *

Blasko Blasko is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: *Blaško Rajić (1878–1951), Croat priest, writer, and politician * Milan Blaško (1961–2016), Slovak ski mountaineer *Sarah Blasko (born 1976), Australian musicia ...

– bass * Tempesta – drums

Additional personnel

* Rob Zombie – lyrics, artwork, music * Tom Baker – mastering * Paul DeCarli – additional programming * Frank Gryner – additional engineering *

Scott Humphrey Scott Humphrey is a Canadian record producer and engineer. He began his music career as a keyboard player and programmer. He is best known for his work with multiplatinum recording artist Rob Zombie and has co-written, co-produced and mixed al ...

– production, engineering, mixing, programming *

Chris Lord-Alge Chris Lord-Alge is an American mix engineer. He is the brother of both Tom Lord-Alge and Jeff Lord-Alge, both of whom are also audio engineers. Chris and Tom are known for their abundant use of dynamic range compression for molding mixes that ...

– additional mixing

Charts

Certifications

In popular culture

The Hot Rod Herman remix version of the song is featured in the

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

of the 1999

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

film ''

The Matrix ''The Matrix'' is a 1999 science fiction film, science fiction action film written and directed by the Wachowskis. It is the first installment in the The Matrix (franchise), ''Matrix'' film series, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Ca ...

''. The song was also featured in several video games including '' Sled Storm'', ''

Twisted Metal 4 ''Twisted Metal 4'' is a vehicular combat video game developed and published by 989 Studios for the PlayStation. The game was released only in North America on November 16, 1999 and was re-released for the Sony Greatest Hits line-up in 2000. L ...

'', ''

Gran Turismo 2 ''Gran Turismo 2'' is a 1999 sim racing video game developed by Polyphony Digital and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. It is the sequel to '' Gran Turismo'', the second installment of the '' Gran Turismo'' series, a ...

'', and ''

Jet Set Radio (originally released in North America as ''Jet Grind Radio'') is a 2000 action game developed by Smilebit and published by Sega for the Dreamcast. The player controls a member of a youth gang, the GG's, as they use inline skates to traverse ...

''. In addition, the original version was featured the in the 2012 Twisted Metal reboot and in ''

Fortnite Festival ''Fortnite Festival'' is a 2023 rhythm game developed by Harmonix and published by Epic Games. In the game, players perform songs while attempting to achieve the highest score possible based on their performance. Each song features four differen ...

''.

References

External links

* * {{authority control 1998 songs 1998 debut singles Rob Zombie songs Songs about cars Songs about television Songs written by Scott Humphrey Songs written by Rob Zombie Geffen Records singles Halloween songs The Matrix (franchise) music The Munsters