7 Songs About Bela Lugosi Not By Bauhaus

​Today is Bela Lugosi's 129th birthday. The man who will probably always be remembered as the definitive Count Dracula starred in dozens of plays and hundreds of movies, mostly horror and thrillers. Typecasting, his heavy accent, and a drug dependency on morphine to treat sciatica from a military injury took their toll on his career, and he was broke and forgotten when Ed Wood began hiring him for his famously awful films.

Lugosi has remained an inspiration for many musicians. White Zombie owed their name to a Lugosi flick, and the song that launched both the goth subculture and Bauhaus' career was, of course, "Bela Lugosi's Dead." Much like Lugosi himself as Dracula, that song may be the only one you know that pays tribute to the man, but Rocks Off managed to find quite a few more hidden gems.

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If you don't speak German, let us help you out here. "Der Graf" means "the Count." Die Artze has been making awesome German punk rock music for over 20 years. Their drummer goes by the name Bela B., and has admired Lugosi from early childhood. He wrote "Der Graf" for the same reason.

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We couldn't really found out much abut the Town Monster, other than they are pretty damned beloved in their native Ohio, but we do know that "Bela Lugosi" just came put this month. It's a hell of a song that would make a great dance tune at Numbers.

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We've always been big fans of Shadow Reichenstein. We actually have the promotional single for this track somewhere in a box of CDs. The band does a lot of Dracula-inspired material like "Borgo Pass" and "Dracula Built My Hot Rod." This song deals more with Lugosi's unfortunate addictions, but kicks ass regardless.