Following the success of “Monster Mash”, “Purple People Eater”, and “I Put a Spell on You”, the “silly horror song” genre was in full swing in the late 50’s, early 60’s. “Teenage Brain Surgeon” is a welcome addition to that canon, building off the silliness of 50s movies such as “I was a Teenage Werewolf”.
Spike Jones was famous for whimsical renditions of modern classics with his “Band that Play for Fun” and his “Other Orchestra”… so of course he had to jump on the Halloween record bandwagon.
Teenage Brain Surgeon has a spooktacular lead vocal by none other than Thurl Ravenscroft, the voice of the Grim Grinning Ghosts, the Grinch song, and Tony the Tiger! He’s grrr-reat. Thurl regails us with tails of the very first Doogie Howser MD, graduating college at 10 1/2. As the song goes along we find he might not be the greatest brain surgeon, with hilarious results.

While the song didn’t tear up the charts, it has had a loooooong life on the Dr. Demento show and Halloween playlists for decades. As a slow dirge with Thurl’s deadpan delivery gives way to a jaunty sax-driven bopper, you can see why lonely 12 year-olds had this on repeat in the family parlor.
I couldn’t find any fun covers or anything of this song. Cherry Poppin’ Daddies have a song called “Teenage Brain Surgeon” that appears to be unrelated, and lame.