"Frankenstein" is a rock instrumental by The Edgar Winter
Group from their album
They Only Come Out At Night. In live performances of the
song, Edgar Winter further pioneered the advancement of the
synthesizer as a lead instrument by becoming the first person
ever to strap a keyboard instrument around his neck, giving him
the on-stage mobility and audience interaction of guitar
players. The song topped the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart for a
week starting in May 1973, and sold over one million copies. It
was knocked from the #1 spot by Paul McCartney's "My Love".
Frankensteinreached #18 in the UK the following
month.,
The song's title, coined by the band's drummer Chuck Ruff,
derives from the fact that the original recording of the song
was much longer than the final version, as the band would often
deviate from the arrangement into less structured jams. The
track required numerous edits to shorten it. The end result was
pieced together from many different sections of recording tape
using a razor blade and splicing tape. Winter frequently refers
to the appropriateness of the name also in relation to its
"monster-like, lumbering beat". (One riff was first used by
Winter in the song "Hung Up", on his jazz-oriented first album
Entrance. He later tried a variation on it, "Martians"
on the
Standing on Rockalbum.) Winter played many of the
instruments on the track, including keyboards, saxophone and
timbales. As the release's only instrumental cut, the song was
not initially intended to be on the album, and was only
included on a whim as a last-minute addition. It was originally
released as the B-side to "Hangin' Around", but the two were
soon reversed by the label when disc jockeys nationwide were
inundated with phone calls and realized this was the hit. The
song features a "double" drum solo, with Ruff on drums and
Winter on percussion. In fact, the working title of the song
was "The Double Drum Solo".
The song was actually performed three years previously when
Edgar was playing with his older brother Johnny Winter at the
Royal Albert Hall in 1970. This rare recording was recently
released as one of several live bonus tracks included in the
two disc Deluxe Edition CD of Johnny Winter's
Second Winter.
The song "Hocus Pocus" by Focus is often mislabeled as this
song.