Our dearly beloved Rick Moranis was known for a ton of quality material. He was a nerd inventor in “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids,” a nerd accountant in “Ghostbusters,” and a nerd Darth Vader in “Spaceballs.” However, few might remember the brief period of time in the early ‘90s when he was the nerd lead singer of the Misfts.
Sandwiched between Glenn Danzig and Michale Graves as frontmen was the Moranis-era Misfits. It only lasted eight glorious months, but it was perhaps the most experimental period of the band’s decorated history, albeit not well-documented. Seemed like everyone wanted a slice of the Canadian actor during this time.
They only wrote one EP that saw an extremely limited release, but it was a killer record. This iteration of the group also played a few shows before Jerry Only decided to take the band in a more white supremacist lead singing direction with Michale Graves. Hindsight may be 20/20, but this was clearly the wrong decision by many accounts.
However, the “Strange Brew” star excelled fronting the biggest horror punk band of all time. He easily had one of the more memorable devilocks of any member, except for maybe Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein. The infamous skull logo even donned a pair of black frame glasses during this time. A complete rebrand.
That being said, Moranis still wrote lyrics that featured macabre imagery but brought his own sensibility to each track. For instance, the song “Little Shop of Horrors” was about a man-eating houseplant, which alluded to that time he played a nerd florist in a movie.
Even his song “There Is No Dana, Only Zuul” referenced his role as Louis Tully. I guess if you’re going to be a band that bases much of your material from films, might as well go with someone who actually acts in them.
Unfortunately, Danzig somehow owns the rights to all Moranis-era Misfits material so it’ll probably never get a proper release. Glenn even receives royalties every single time anyone streams “Little Giants.” How he managed to pull that off we’ll never know.