We haven’t done one of these in a while, and with Halloween approaching it’s time to scary up the playlists! I don’t know about you, but a good Halloween song can make an eh day a lot of fun. So I’m going to go through a few of my favorites, and some newer songs that somehow find their way into my Halloween playlists.
The Classics:
Monster Mash – loved it ever since I was a little kid. I don’t think it’s possible to not sing along at some point or another.
Flying Purple People Eater – for some reason this one disturbed me a lot as a kid. I’m still not a huge fan of it today, though I now think it’s cute. Plus, alien invasion that turns into rock n’ roll extravaganza…this could be a great YA novel or something.
Thriller – Do I even need to explain this one?
Ghostbusters – Love the movies. Love the song. Nuff said. I think my fave use of this song was in the Disney Monster Hits special where they spliced it into a sequence of Mickey, Donald, and Goofy chasing ghosts in an old haunted house. Brilliant.
The Addams Family – Grew up watching reruns of the show, and now I really appreciate the dark humor of the comics. And since I pretty much wanted to live in that atmosphere as a kid anyway…this is a given.
Back’s Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor – I’m serious. I truly love this piece. It’s ear-catching, soul-crashing, recognizable, yet so layered and textured you always notice something else. Loooove it.
The New Additions:
No One Lives Forever (Oingo Boingo) – This is such a bizarre, danceable, singable, but morbid little piece…and I love all the layering and yodelling and…it’s just fabulous. It’s humorous, dark, insightful, and fun.
Dead Man’s Party (Oingo Boingo) – this just screams Halloween to me. Brilliant.
People are Strange (The Doors) – this song has seriously stalked me for a month now…at work, in the car, on the radio…I never considered it Halloween-y until it decided to apparently campaign for the position, so I am including it in the hope that it will leave me alone.
Somebody’s Watching Me (Rockwell) – This bizarre tribute to paranoia amuses me every time I hear it, and I think it fits the theme well enough.
Sweet Dreams (Marilyn Manson cover) – If you have any doubt of this entry, then watch the movie Trick R Treat and you’ll quickly know why. The sound is just brilliant to me, though…it’s an uncomfortable song in general, and he manages to really do some great things with it to push it over the edge without killing it.
Cry Little Sister (G Tom Mac) – this gets listed not only because of the Lost Boys connection, but because when I hosted the MMP web chat the other week, I may have totally forgotten about it when we were discussing Halloween/horror music, and my friends are never going to let me live that down for the rest of my mortal lifetime.
So how about you? Are you crazy for the Munsters and Twilight Zone themes? Do you like something more sinister? What’s on your Halloween Playlists?
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