Are there enough “good” Halloween songs?
If you’re reading this, it’s probably safe to assume you’re a major fan of Halloween. As a devoted celebrator of the haunted holiday, you more than likely have a playlist of music you’ve compiled and listen to every October.
What one song could your Halloween playlist be incomplete without?
For us- there are several answers to that question.
If you’ve been reading Mr. and Mrs. Halloween for a while, you know we’re always sharing new Halloween Tunes that get us in the spirit.
But if you had to crown the official anthem of Halloween, it would probably be…
“Monster Mash”, right?
Whether it’s your favorite Halloween song or not, there’s no denying it takes the lead as the most iconic song of the season.
Ethan Hein, a doctoral fellow in music education at NYU, discusses the possible reasons why the signature song of the season has remained a crowd favorite in an article by Rae Paoletta on Inverse:
“… part of ‘The Monster Mash’s’ legacy could be due to a limited pool of Halloween jams, which is similar to what the Spotify data suggests.
‘Maybe we like it because we don’t have a lot of good Halloween songs,’ Hein tells Inverse. ‘It’s like, ‘Thriller,’ ‘Werewolf Bar Mitzvah,’ and that’s about it.'”
-Rae Paoletta, Inverse.
Paoletta’s article and Hein’s observations on the song’s legacy are spot on and definitely worth checking out, so click HERE to read the full article.
We do, however, disagree with one point.
There are quite a few GREAT Halloween songs besides the classic graveyard smash.
Earlier in the week, Miranda from Spooky Little Halloween prompted us and several other Halloween writers and creators to share our all-time favorite Halloween song. There were several different answers (“This is Halloween“, “Every Day is Halloween“, “Anything Can Happen on Halloween“, to name a few), and surprisingly, no one chose “Monster Mash“… or “Thriller“!
These selections barely even skim the surface of the plethora of songs that should be included on a playlist of great Halloween music.
When making a playlist of Halloween tunes, you would never leave out Ray Parker Jr.’s “Ghostbusters” or Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London“.
If classic rock is your jam, how could it truly be Halloween without playing Blue Öyster Cult’s “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” or The Eagles “Witchy Woman“.
If you like newer spooky tunes, you’d definitely want to include Ryan Adams’s “Halloweenhead“, Rob Zombie’s “Living Dead Girl“, and Marilyn Manson’s cover of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)“.
Our Ultimate Halloween Playlist on Spotify has more than 220 spooky songs, and we’d be remiss if we didn’t hear all of them at least once in October. Our list continues to grow, and each song captures the spirit of the season in their own unique way.
Full disclosure: we LOVE “Monster Mash”! We have to agree that it is the quintessential Halloween song. The most recognized and, according to research, the most played each year. The song is an iconic musical legend that instantly brings back the nostalgia of Halloween.
As much as we love it, we stand by our opinion that it’s not the only great Halloween song out there.
This year, as you compile your soundtrack for the season, we encourage you to do some musical exploration. Listen to some Halloween music you’ve never heard before, and select a new Halloween anthem of your own.
The graveyard smash may be the king, but there are a lot of great Halloween anthems waiting to be discovered.
For some suggestions, check out Mr. and Mrs. Halloween’s Ultimate Halloween Playlist on Spotify below.
Check out a few of our selections you may not have heard of before:
Check out: 15 Music Videos to Get You Ready for Halloween
And if you’re like us- open to a little Halloween music diversity but forever faithful to the Mash, check out Spooky Little Halloween’s “50+ Covers of ‘Monster Mash’ You Need to Hear”.
What’s your Halloween anthem?
Let us know down below!
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One of my new favorites that I stumbled upon several years ago is a song from Caravan called C’thulu Thulu – It is super creepy and just a great, eerie tune.
Just gave it a listen and loved it! Adding it to our Spotify playlist now. Thank you so much for recommending it!
Nice to see a lot of TV themes in there! Though I didn’t see “Tubular Bells” (aka the theme from “The Exorcist”) by Mike Oldfield:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzzjFVF25IQ
There’s also a whole bunch of old-school jazz and R&B songs at the YouTube channel “A Jazzy Halloween”
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4NOAUs7ujQiQcTWdFobSFQ
Oh my gosh! You’re right! That’s a glaring omission we had to fix. It’s been added!
Thank you for recommending the Jazzy Halloween channel too! We’ll be listening to it at work today 🙂
How about Pet Sematary by The Ramones?
That’s an excellent choice! We’ll add it to our list. We used to have that on a Halloween CD too!
Ok, here’s my list of spooky sounding songs that are apt for Halloween. Some you have on your list others you don’t Feel free to add any.
Werewolves of London-Warren Zevon
Don’t Fear The Reaper-Blue Oyster Cult
Frankenstein-Edgar Winter Group
I Put a Spell On You-Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
Spooky-Atlanta Rhythm Section
People Are Strange-The Doors
Boris the Spider-The Who
Hellacious Acres-Kris Kristofferson
Psycho Killer-Talking Heads
Superstition-Stevie Wonder
Autumn is Coming – Original Fun Song Halloween – Karenmuenchen
Witch Doctor-David Seville
Ghost Riders in The Sky-The Ramrods
Time Wrap-The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Clap For The Wolfman-The Guess Who
I Was A Teenage Werewolf-The Cramps
Ghost Town-The Specials
It Must Be Halloween-Andrew Gold
Rock n Roll Halloween-Bobby Bare
Feed My Frankenstein-Alice Cooper
Teenage Frankenstein-Alice Cooper
Witchy Woman-The Eagles
Killer On The Loose-Thin Lizzy
Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead
Blues For Dracula-Philly Joe Jones
One Eyed one Horned Flying Purple People Eater
The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkin Head-XTC
Nightmares-A Flock Of Seagulls
Wolf Like Me-Tv On The Radio
Ghost Song-The Doors
Ghost of a Chance-Rush
Ghost Train-Madness
Japan Ghosts
Ghost In My House-R Dean Taylor
Devil Inside-INXS
Dance With The Devil-Cozy Powell
Fire-The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown
Halloween-Dead Kennedys
Everyday is Halloween-Ministry
Halloween-Misfits
It’s Halloween-The Shaggs
Battle of Evermore-Led Zeppelin
Ghostbusters-Ray Parker Jr.
Do The Vampire-Superdrag
The Legend Of Wooley Swamp-Charlie Daniels Band
Devil Woman-Cliff Richard
The Devil Went Down To Georgia-Charlie Daniels Band
Among The Dead-Tim Armstrong
Zombie-The Cranberries
Surfin’ Dead-The Cramps
Dead Man’s Party-Oingo Boingo
Red Right Hand-Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Pet Sematary-The Ramones
Skulls-The Misfits
Season of the Witch-Donovan
Swamp Witch-Jim Stafford
The Witch Queen of New Orleans-Redbone
Witch’s Rave-Jeff Buckley
Witch’s Promise-Jethro Tull
Evil Woman-ELO
Black Magic Woman-Santana
Rhiannon-Fleetwood Mac
Long Cool Woman In a Black Dress-The Hollies
Love Potion Number 9-The Searchers
Time Of The Season-The Zombies
Voodoo-Godsmack
Voodoo Child-Jimi Hendrix
Somebody’s Watching Me-Rockwell
Thriller-Michael Jackson
Abracadabra-Steve Miller Band
You Can Do Magic-America
Bad Mood Rising-Creedence Clearwater Revival
Crazy in the Night-Kim Carnes
Nightmare on my Street-Will Smith
Bela Lugosi’s Dead-Bauhaus
Nosferatu-Blue Oyster Cult
Scary Monsters and Super Creeps-David Bowie
My Body’s a Zombie For You-Dead Man’s Bones
I Want Candy-The Strangeloves
Eye of the Zombie-John Fogerty
Poison-Alice Cooper
Fear of the Dark-Iron Maiden
Horror Movie-Skyhooks
Halloween Spooks-Lambert, Hendricks & Ross
Do They Know It’s Hallowe’en?-North American Hallowe’en Prevention Initiative
Something in My House-Dead or Alive
Boogie Monster-Gnarls Barkley
Haunted House-Jumpin’ Gene Simmons
Evil Eye-Gymslips
The Twilight Zone-The Ventures
The Ghost of Smokey Joe-Cab Calloway
The Skeleton in the Closet-Louis Armstrong
This list is EXCELLENT! We can’t wait to go through and listen to the ones we haven’t heard yet. I guarantee a lot of these will be added to our playlist! Thank you so much for all these great recommendations!
My absolute fave is Halloween (She Gets So Mean) by Rob Zombie. He released a Halloween collection called, ‘Halloween Hootenany’ and every song on it is great! The entire CD is my Halloween anthem!
Also love…
anything by Voltaire.
Hell by Squirrel Nut Zippers
Dracula’s Tango by Total Coelo
Dracs Back by The Bollock Brothers
Jack the Ripper by The Sharks
Zombie Zoo by Tom Petty
Walk Like a Zombie by Horrorpops
All my Friends are Zombies by The Pricillas
Man With the Hex by Atomic Fireballs
Vampire by Antsy Pants
Thanks for the Spotify list, listening to it now!
Thank you for checking out our playlist AND for all these great recommendations! We’ll be listening to these today! We’re totally with you and LOVE Halloween Hootenanny! That CD is great, and Rob Zombie is always perfect around Halloween!
Here’s a few more I stumbled on while I was watching Sounds of the Seasons on satellite TV:
Svengoolie Stomp-Freddie “Boom Boom” Cannon
Over At The Frankenstein Place- The Rocky Horror Picture Show
T’ain’t no sin so take off your skin- Dan Russo/Oriole Orchestra
Yes! Love getting new Halloween music! We will give these a listen today. Thank you so much for sharing them!