You’ve
made your costume, carved your pumpkin, and decorated the house with ghosts and
goblins. A huge bowl of candy sits by the front door, awaiting sugar-starved
witches, zombies and spider-people.
All
that’s left is to load your iPod with some spooky sounds of the season.
Here
are 20 Halloween party-ready songs you can sink your fangs into. Crank them up
while you open the door to trick-or-treaters, or queue them up on TV as your
party guests arrive.
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (Early 1700s)
Johann
Sebastian Bach
Used
to enhance the intensity and fright factor of such classic horror films as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) and The Black Cat (1934), this classical
piece is a “towering monument of organ music” with a “deep sense of
foreboding,” says Melissa Lesnie of www.limelightmagazine.com.au. The number was
originally written for solo organ, but many prefer the full orchestral version
that kicks off Fantasia, Disney’s
animated masterpiece from 1940.
Headless Horseman (1949)
Bing
Crosby
Everyone
knows Bing Crosby sang White Christmas,
one of the all-time great yuletide tunes. Far fewer people are familiar with Headless Horseman, a song Crosby (as
Brom Bones) sang in the “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” segment of Disney’s animated
semi-classic, The Adventures of Ichabod
and Mr. Toad. In this snap-inducing, speech-rhyme ditty, Crosby rightfully,
frightfully reasons that you “can’t reason with a headless man.”
Psycho Suite (1960)
Bernard
Herrmann
Fifty-five
years ago, Alfred Hitchcock made moviegoers think twice about taking a shower.
The scene in Psycho (1960) where Norman
Bates stabs the beautiful Marion Crane to death with a butcher knife remains
terrifying today, but it wouldn’t have nearly the impact without Bernard
Herrmann’s Psycho Suite, which
heightens the fear factor considerably. Strings have never sounded so scary.
Monster Mash (1962)
Bobby
“Boris” Pickett
A
Halloween staple since it hit #1 on the Billboard
Hot 100 chart more than 50 years ago, Monster
Mash features Bobby Pickett sounding like Boris Karloff, the horror legend
who frightened audiences in such flicks as Frankenstein
(1931) and The Body Snatcher (1945).
Ghouls, vampires, graveyards, castles, zombies, werewolves, the dancing undead and
a mad scientist laboratory—this fun (and funny) novelty tune has it all.
People Are Strange (1967)
The
Doors
Recorded
during the Summer of Love, People Are
Strange eschewed the happy hippie communal ethic of the era, focusing instead
on alienation, loneliness and how people seem ugly and wicked when you’re an
outcast. The song’s dark theme and surreal sound give it Halloween cred, as
does the fact that Echo & the Bunnymen covered it for the 1987 vampire
film, The Lost Boys.
Rhiannon (1975)
Fleetwood
Mac
A
song about an old Welsh witch who “rings like a bell through the night,” Rhiannon is sung by groovy goth goddess Stevie
Nicks, whose haunting and unusual vocal style could “Halloweenize” just about
any tune. Both ethereal and accessible, the track is from the first Fleetwood
Mac album to feature Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham, the duo responsible for some
of the band’s biggest hits.
Time Warp (1975)
Rocky
Horror Picture Show Cast
Stand
up, jump to the left, step to the right, put your hands on your hips, bring
your knees in tight and do a pelvic thrust. Congratulations, you’ve just done
the Time Warp, an early high point of
the interactive midnight movie musical, The
Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). An infectious, upbeat number, Time Warp is still routinely played at
dance clubs, weddings and, yes, Halloween parties.
(Don’t Fear) The Reaper (1976)
Blue
Öyster Cult
Before
it was immortalized, satirized and, ultimately, demoralized in the famous Saturday Night Live skit, in which Christopher Walken demands “more
cowbell,” (Don't Fear) The Reaper was
a hypnotic, spine-chilling song, appearing in such films as Halloween (1978) and Stephen King’s epic
TV mini-series, The Stand (1994). Forgetting
the SNL comedy routine, the song
still packs a mighty death-punch, thanks to its lush harmonies, haunting melody
and rocking riff.
Halloween Theme (1978)
John
Carpenter
Early
in his filmmaking career, director John Carpenter (Christine, The Thing)
composed his own music because he liked to work quickly and was on a tight
budget. His spooky piano theme for Halloween,
the movie that popularized the slasher subgenre, plays during the opening
credits and at various points throughout, adding immeasurably to the dread and
fear wrought by the knife-wielding, mask-wearing Michael Myers.
Werewolves of London (1978)
Warren
Zevon
At
once humorous and grisly, Werewolves of
London is about a lung-ripping lycanthrope who eats Chinese food, drinks
Pina coladas and visits hip areas of London. Zevon played piano (quite
memorably) on the tune, backed by Fleetwood Mac’s John McVie (bass) and Mick
Fleetwood (drums). Jesse Ventura, joined onstage by Zevon, sang the song at his
inauguration party when he became governor of Minnesota—now that’s scary.
(Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Legend (1979)
Johnny
Cash
Numerous
singers covered this fiery country and western tune, from Burl Ives to Peggy
Lee to Elvis Presley to actor Christopher Lee, but we’ll stick with the galloping-good Man
in Black version. Written and originally recorded by Stan Jones in 1948, the
song implores an old cowboy to change his ways or he’ll spend forever trying to
“catch the devil’s herd across these endless skies.”
Creatures of the Night (1982)
KISS
After
spending a few years toying around with disco (Dynasty), pop (Unmasked)
and conceptual music (Music from “The
Elder”), KISS made a resounding return to their hard rock roots with Creatures of the Night, one of the best
albums by the makeup- and costume-clad band. The title track, featuring sinister
vocals by frontman Paul Stanley and loud, bombastic drums by the late, great Eric
Carr, is pedal-to-the-metal madness from beginning to end.
Thriller (1982)
Michael Jackson
Lightning strikes and wolves howl. A door slams and there’s nowhere to run. A creature creeps up behind while demons draw near. Horror icon Vincent Price warns that “grisly ghouls from every tomb are closing in to seal your doom.” Atmospheric, fun and downright thrilling, Thriller is the ultimate Halloween song, and it inspired the greatest MTV video of all time, an epic saga directed by John Landis featuring dancing zombies that are still mimicked today.
Bark at the Moon (1983)
Ozzy
Osbourne
While
still reeling from the death of legendary guitarist Randy Rhoads, Ozzy Osbourne,
accompanied by new axe man Jake E. Lee, recorded Bark at the Moon, a hard rocking track that spawned a video that
borrows from both the werewolf myth and the Jekyll
and Hyde story. Hollywood legend Rick Baker did Ozzy’s werewolf makeup.
Freaks Come Out at Night (1984)
Whodini
In
Freaks Come Out at Night, pioneering
rap group Whodini sing about nightclub-loving freaks who “come in all shapes,
sizes and colors” and “like to wear leather jackets, chains and spikes…they
wear rips and zippers all in their shirts…real tight pants and fresh
mini-skirts.” But the tune has a spooky vibe that could just as easily refer to
trick-or-treaters.
Ghostbusters (1984)
Ray
Parker Jr.
Thirty
years ago, if you had an apparition you wanted to get rid of, there was no
question who you were going to call—Ghostbusters! The theme to the 1984 horror
comedy of the same name, Ghostbusters
hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart
and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. While waiting
for next summer’s franchise reboot, gear up by listening to this synth-funk favorite.
Dead Man’s Party (1986)
Oingo
Boingo
Memorable
for its appearance in the Rodney Dangerfield comedy Back to the School (1986), Dead
Man’s Party is a quirky song by a quirky band, the Danny Elfman-lead Oingo
Boingo. A must-play at any good Halloween party, the tune, which suggests you
“leave your body at the door,” was also featured in the “Halloween” episode of Malcolm in the Middle.
Ghost of a Texas Ladies Man (1992)
Concrete
Blonde
Best
known for Joey, their lone top-20
hit, Concrete Blonde also recorded Ghost
of a Texas Ladies Man, a country-tinged horror rocker sung with authority
by Johnette Napolitano. The bold-voiced brunette sings that she’s unafraid of
the “ectoplasmic lover from the other side” floating above her bed, all the
while throwing down a bass line that would’ve made Johnny Cash bassist Marshall
Grant proud.
Dragula (1998)
Rob
Zombie
Culling
from such tunes as Living Dead Girl, Halloween (She Get So Mean) and I, Zombie, you could make an entire book
of Halloween songs by the ghastly, ghostly Rob Zombie, formerly of White Zombie
(which was named after a Bela Lugosi film). If we had to choose just one, we’d
go with Dragula, a relentless,
crank-it-to-11 rocker named after Grandpa’s dragster on The Munsters.
Heads Will Roll (2009
Yeah
Yeah Yeahs
Every
Halloween party worth its weight in candy corn needs a good dancer number by a
New York art punk band, and Heads Will
Roll by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs fits the bill nicely. Backed by a catchy combo
of guitar, synthesizer, and drums (think Words
by the Missing Persons), South Korean-born indie diva Karen O sings, “Off with
your head; Dance ’til you’re dead; Heads will roll.”
Thirteen
more songs to listen to while you party or hand out Halloween candy:
Symphony Fantastique (1830, Hector Berlioz)
Night on
Bald Mountain (1867, Modest Mussorgsky)
Carry Me Back to Transylvania (1964, Gene
Moss and The Monsters)
Season of the Witch (1966, Donovan)
Tubular Bells (1973, Mike
Oldfield)
Bela Lugosi’s Dead (1979, Bauhaus)
Halloween (1981, the
Misfits)
The Number of the Beast (1982, Iron
Maiden)
(Every Day Is) Halloween (1984,
Ministry)
Pet Sematary (1989, the
Ramones)
Feed My Frankenstein (1991, Alice
Cooper)
Creep (1992, Radiohead)
True Blood (2013, Justin
Timberlake)
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