question of the week: favorite Halloween songs

Some songs just screeeeam Halloween. Other songs have actual screams in them, which make them perfect for the holiday. Cast your votes for your fave songs, and help Halloween party hosts fill their dance floors with as many bodies — living, dead or undead — as possible.

Did we miss any? Yes, we did, in trying to keep the list to ten songs. It wasn't easy. "Dead Man's Party" made the cut when two coworkers broke out into song and a little dance in support of it. And I fought for "Welcome to My Nightmare." This clip of Alice performing "Nightmare" on a Muppets Halloween special should explain why.

twiigs.com

Comments

Here's what I've thought of for my party so far:
Time Warp (Rocky Horror Picture Show)
Werewolves of London
Thriller
Monster Mash (I know, duh)
Adams Family Theme

I'd love more ideas, thanks!

The following songs:

Werewolves of London
Devil Inside
Monster Mash
Thriller
Dead Man's Party

aren't even remotely spooky sounding.

but then again, it is favorite Halloween songs, not spookiest Halloween songs.

Dead souls-Nine in nails
Halloween Parade-(unsure of the artist)
Spooky-Vicious Pink (not the original)
Masqeurade-Berlin
Witchcraft, Tubular Bells-Book of love
Bloodletting-Concrete Blonde
Flys on the windscreen, Black Celebration-Depeche Mode
Witchcraft-Frank Sinatra
Twenty killer hurts-Gene loves Jezebel
Psycho killer-Talking heads
Twilight Zone-Golden earring
Boogeyman-KC & the Sunshine
Every day is Halloween-Ministry
Flesh 'N Blood, No one lives forever-Oingo Boingo
Fear (of the unknown), Trick or Treat, Spellbound-Siouxsie & the Banshees
Moondance-Van Morrison

Hey, it's Halloween. It's all about dancing to cool dark vibes. Just go Goth & you can't go wrong! ;-)

@Robyn: Are you thinking of the Lou Reed song? Here are the lyrics:

http://www.elyrics.net/read/l/lou-reed-lyrics/halloween-parade-lyrics.html (potentially NSFW)

It's from his 1989 album New York.

A few perennials I always try to throw in to my radio setlists around the end of October:

It's Halloween - The Shaggs
Whatever Happened to Eddie? - Eddie and the Monsters (featuring Butch Patrick)
Monster - Fred Schneider (and the Shake Society)
My Son the Vampire - Allan Sherman
Ghost in a Bikini - The Judy's (a legendary Houston-area New Wave band, most of their catalog was finally issued on CD late last year)
Lockjaw - Todd Rundgren (it's about an ogre who nails the mouths of kids who lie shut - maybe not intended directly for Halloween but it works...and it's Todd!)
The Lurch - Ted Cassidy

I chose some 80's metal
ozzy bark at the moon
iron maiden 2 minutes to midnight
white zombie black sunshine
black sabbath black sabbath
wasp helion
slayer raining blood
blue oyster cult fear the reaper

Robyn had some very good ones. I love GLJ- never thought about that one! And it simply isn't Halloween until I hear both "Everyday is Halloween" and "Bloodletting". Also of note, the Lost Boys soundtrack. "Cry Little Sister", anyone?

Who's doing the math on this survey? Right now the totals add up to 174%! More votes have been counted than have been cast? What gives, guys???

Here are some songs I play for my halloween party:
Ghostbusters
Witchy Woman
Lucrisha McEvil
Clap for the Wolfman
Bad Moon Rising
On the Darkside - Eddie & the Cruisers
Midnight Hour
Witch Queen of New Orleans
Super Freak
Platters Magic Touch and Twilight Time
Black Magic Woman
Man Eater
I Put A Spell On You
Spooky
Evil Ways
Devil Went Down to Georgia
This is Halloween Tim Burton
After Midnight
Little Red Riding Hood
Night Dancing
Night Moves Seger
The Boss Dancing in the Dark
Wild nights are calling
Bad To the Bone
Staying Alive

Great songs, everyone! Keep 'em coming -- this Halloween is going to rock. :)

And Gene, we set up the poll so people could vote for more than one song (too hard to pick just one). I think that might be why the numbers look off.

Ghostbusters is also a good one

My favorite is Ministry- Everyday is Halloween

Here are a few songs in the Halloween spirit by well known artists...but not necessarily well known songs...

Rolling Stones - Dancing with Mr. "D"
Creedence - Walking on the Water
Pink Floyd - Lucifer Sam
Jimi Hendrix - Third Stone from the Sun
Syd Barrett - Scream thy Last Scream
The Beatles - What's the New Mary Jane?

Great ideas in Women's Day Mag. for fun food for Halloween parties. Also your local library has many party books with cool spooky food ideas, like bloody eyeball cup cakes and hard boiled eggs. monster fingers, coffin bread with dip in side. really cool stuff to make your party a hit.

Thriller - Michael Jackson
Ozzy - Bark at the Moon
Motley Crue - Shout at the Devil
- Helter Skelter
Iron Maiden - Number Of The Beast
Ray Parker Jr. - Ghostbusters
Talking Heads - Psycho Killer
Warren Zevon - Werewolves of London
Oingo Boingo - Dead Man's Party

Here's just a sampling of songs that I included on my Halloween mix tape this year that you don't see as much on mixes:

"Eaten by the Monster of Love" (Sparks)
"Freaks come out at Night" (Whodini)
"Haunted House of Rock" (Whodini)
"Spirits in the Material World" (Police)
"Weird Science" (Oingo Boingo)(And, "Dead Man's Party", of course!)
"Witch Queen of New Orleans" (Redbone)
"Somebody's Watching me" (Rockwell)
"Night Owl" (Little River Band)
"Istanbul (not Constantinople)" (They Might be Giants)

Great for a kids mix tape:
"Haunted House" by Jumpin' Gene Simmons
"The Martian Hop" by The Ran Dells
Anything from the Harry Potter soundtrack seems to be a hit with kids, too. "The Spiders" is popular!