Your Favorite Halloween Songs

It's that time of the year again! I generally listen to spooky-sounding music all year anyway, but this is the one time where it doesn't seem out of place. I thought we could share some Halloween music and talk about our favorites.

As for mine, I think I'll simply post the playlist to my CD mix Halloween Havoc. Making mixes either on CD's or cassettes have been a favorite hobby of mine since I was 12. So here we go, this is my Halloween CD mix.

• 1. The Tales from the Crypt theme by Danny Elfman
• 2. "This is Halloween" from The Nightmare Before Christmas
• 3. "Anything Can Happen on Halloween" by Tim Curry
• 4. "My Girlfriend's Girlfriend" by Type O Negative (which is not a Halloween song per se, but it sounds Halloween-ish)
• 5. The Undertaker Entrance theme (original)
• 6. "Bleeder" by Zombie Girl
• 7. "Every Halloween" by Insane Clown Posse
• 8. "Everyday is Halloween" by Ministry
• 9. "The Vampire Club" by Voltaire
• 10. "I'm Your Boogeyman" by White Zombie
• 11. "Trollberg" by Troll (You should hear this one if you haven't yet)
• 12. Beetle Juice theme by Danny Elfman
• 13. "Dance of the Headless Corpse" by Zombie Girl
• 14. "Tales From the Dark Carnival" by Insane Clown Posse
• 15. "The Greatest Show Unearthed" by Creature Feature
• 16. "Hell" by Squirrel Nut Zippers
• 17. "Brains" by Voltaire
• 18. "Blood, Brains, and Rock and Roll" by Zombie Girl
• 19. "Phantom Stranger" by Rob Zombie
• 20. "Blue" by The Birthday Massacre

Me, well, I have a lot of the classic Halloween novelty tunes, plus:

• A couple of renditions of "Mysterious Mose."
• Bing Crosby singing "The Headless Horseman."
• Allan Sherman's "My Son, the Vampire."
• "Brains" by Voltaire.
• Some Halloween-related songs from cartoons.

I also have a couple of Dr. Demento shows with Halloween novelty songs. A ton of unappreciated classics here.

The entire Dead by Dawn EP by Calibretto is a perennial favorite of mine. I just got into Oingo Boingo last year, so I'll add Dead Man's Party to the list.

Halloween by Helloween it is a 13 minute song.

Edit* Adding

Fear of the Dark - Iron Maiden and Burning the Witches - Warlock

edited 9th Oct '14 9:10:37 AM by Halberdier17

It's funny that I just made a Halloween playlist last month. I guess I'll throw a few samples from it here (one song per artist, naturally).

• AC/DC - Night Prowler
• Alice Cooper - Feed My Frankenstein
• Alice in Chains - Iron Gland
• Annihilator - Alison Hell
• Anthrax - Fight 'Em Til You Can't
• Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
• Danzig - I Am Demon
• David Draiman - Forsaken
• Devil May Cry 3 soundtrack - Mission Start theme
• Device - Hunted
• Disturbed - The Animal
• Dokken - Dream Warriors
• The Doors - Riders on the Storm
• Dream Theater - Panic Attack
• Iron Maiden - Phantom of the Opera
• Judas Priest - Night Crawler
• Marilyn Manson - This Is Halloween
• Nirvana - Endless, Nameless
• Ozzy Osbourne - Spiders
• The Ramones - Pet Sematary
• Rob Zombie - House of 1000 Corpses
• The Rolling Stones - Midnight Rambler
• Slayer - Bloodline
• Testament - Alone in the Dark
• Twisted Sister - Burn In Hell
• Volbeat - Room 24

It's at about 95 songs currently, after I started cutting it down. I've been looking for some Misfits to round it out, but their material is surprisingly hard to find (you can walk into an average music store and find their merchandise without much issue while their actual albums are no where to be seen).

If you do find some Misfits, the most obvious song choice is "Halloween".

Here are some highlights from my last Halloween playlist:

Alice Cooper - "He's Back (The Man Behind The Mask)" ^note naturally a lot of his material would work, but I like this for it's So Bad, It's Good qualities and the fact that it's about Jason Vorhees
The Cramps - "Zombie Dance" ^note another artist where almost anything would work
Darling Pet Munkee - "MONSTER S-I-Z-E MONSTERS"
DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - "Nightmare On My Street"
The Fall - "There's A Ghost In My House"
Fantomas - "Spider Baby" ^note The whole album The Director's Cut is worth looking into, because it's a Cover Album based around movie themes, many of which are horror films. Oh, and maybe even find the original version of this song from the soundtrack to Spider Baby Or The Maddest Story Ever Told, which is performed by Lon Chaney Jr
Future Bible Heroes - "I'm A Vampire"
Gorillaz - "Dracula"
Michael Jackson - "Thriller"
Outkast - "Dracula's Wedding"
The Ramones - "Pet Sematary" ^note In the past I've also used "Chainsaw", "Don't Go Down To The Basement", and "You're Gonna Kill That Girl"
Ray Parker Jr - "Ghostbusters"
RJD 2 - "The Horror"
Roky Erickson & The Aliens - "I Walked With A Zombie" ^note Another artist where tons of other songs would work - most of The Evil One is macabre / horror themed, complete with a couple of songs that are pretty much Shout Outs to particular horror b-movies
Screamin' Jay Hawkins - "I Put A Spell On You"
The Sonics - "The Witch"
The Specials - "Ghost Town"
Squirrel Nut Zippers - "The Ghost Of Stephen Foster"
Warren Zevon - "Werewolves Of London"
The Who - "Boris The Spider"

edited 9th Oct '14 8:53:31 AM by MikeK

I'll have to collect some of these songs for a sequel Halloween CD mix. ^^

Me: "There are Halloween songs?!?"

Strictly speaking, there aren't a lot that are expressly about the holiday, just ones about things associated with it (monsters, zombies, other "spooky" stuff). Come to think of it, even the most famous Halloween song, "Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett, never specifically mentions Halloween.

edited 10th Oct '14 9:04:31 AM by MikeK

The entirety of White Zombie's Astro Creep 2000 is probably the definitive Halloween album ever made (that or the first Static-X album.)

Too bad everything else Rob Zombie has been involved with usually sucks.

edited 11th Oct '14 9:25:08 PM by RoboZombie

That's what I meant. I didn't realize there were songs about that kind of thing, because even Monster Mash slipped my mind.

Even so only four out of the 20 songs I listed are actually about Halloween, and two are from movies.

I can think of a lot of "Christmas" songs that never mention the holiday anyway. "Jingle Bells", "Silent Night", a few others.

One particularly obscure Halloween-type tune I enjoy is October Country's utterly sike-ay-delic "My Girlfriend is a Witch":

This actually wound up on the Hanna Barbera Saturday morning show The Cattanooga Cats, but aside from that is utterly obscure.

Since this is pretty fun to put together, I'll post some more samples. Just because (once again, a single song per artist).

• AC/DC - Hell's Bells
• Alice Cooper - Unfinished Sweet
• Anarchy Club - Blood Doll
• Anthrax - Madhouse
• Avenged Sevenfold - A Little Piece Of Heaven (pretty much the goofiest band in the world that tries to be scary; they're absolutely perfect for this holiday)
• Black Sabbath -The Wizard
• Danzig - Mother
• Devil May Cry 3 Soundtrack - Continue Theme
• Disturbed - Devour
• The Doors - People Are Strange
• Drowning Pool - Bodies (this song has been so overdone that it's become humorous in a way)
• Flyleaf - I'm So Sick (unhinged girl as a lead singer sells it)
• Godsmack - Vampires (because of the title)
• Iron Maiden - Dance of Death
• Judas Priest - The Ripper
• Korn - Shoots and Ladders (So Bad, It's Good on so many levels)
• Marilyn Manson - Cryptorchid
• Metallica - Of Wolf and Man
• Mushroomhead - Sun Doesn't Rise (maybe nu-metal in general is just really goofy)
• Orbital & Kirk Hammett - Satan (an odd little dance number from an odd little soundtrack)
• Ozzy Osbourne - Zombie Stomp
• Rob Zombie - The Devil's Rejects
• Rush - Witch Hunt
• Screamin' Jay Hawkins - I Put A Spell On You
• Slayer - Hell Awaits
• Slipknot - Tattered & Torn
• Super Danganronpa 2 - Trapped by the Ocean Scent
• Three Days Grace - Animal I Have Become (another tune that loops into hilarious by some points)

I would love to get some King Diamond / Mercyful Fate on here. Also had my eye on this album by Iced Earth.

May as well post this

edited 13th Oct '14 8:06:01 AM by Alucard

Oh, well if that counts, then "Marie Laveau" by Bobby Bare is a good one.

I'm wondering, does Country Music ever delve into macabre themes? I could easily imagine the topics of old folk tale ghost stories and urban legends fitting into the traditional country sound.

Oh crap, how did I forget THIS one?!?

The story: This legend had been around for decades. A DJ at a Traverse City country station made the legend into a song that he narrated as an April Fool's joke. The song caught on and helped repopularize the legend, so he ran with it. He re-records the song every 10 years. The local station, plus another one that I listen to frequently that has the same ownership, still plays it every October.

I can't think of any other spooky folk tale country songs offhand.

edited 13th Oct '14 5:51:43 PM by Twentington

Another ancient jazz piece that has a rather spooky feel:

Tell me this wouldn't fit into a Betty Boop cartoon.

A few that have been on my mind lately:

• Diamond Head (by way of Metallica) - "Am I Evil?"
• Judas Priest - "A Touch of Evil" (I think this song captures the mysterious, sexy, and almost playful elements that people like about Halloween. I could see this being played at a Halloween party, whereas I can't for many of the songs in this thread.)
• The Misfits - "Last Caress" (Watch the video for the visuals. It's a fun danceable song about rape and murder!)
• Blind Guardian - "Mr. Sandman" (Again, it works best with the video.)

edited 17th Oct '14 1:55:40 PM by djbj

Tough one – they have lots of great songs – but I think I'd go with "Victim Of Fate".

Also, OP, you spelled their name wrong.

Not sure if it counts as a “song,” but it sure as hell keeps the trick-or-treaters at bay:

How about Shalebridge Cradle background music and sound effects from Thief Deadly Shadows.

It isn't a song but if you want to creat an eerie atmosphere it could be good to add.

edited 17th Oct '14 6:23:33 PM by Halberdier17

Since OST has come into the discussion, might as well post this old Caddy video on his personal scariest VGM tracks.

It's not specifically Halloween themed, but The Highwayman is a great ghost story, and Loreena Mc Kennitt's song version gives it great atmosphere:

edited 18th Oct '14 6:31:17 AM by Sisi

What's a Halloween thread without this song: