99 Halloween Songs – Origins of Halloween Music, honouring the Dead

99 ultimate Halloween Song list –

In modern times, Halloween songs does appear to be very much a 20th and 21st  century formulation, we put together this 99 ultimate Halloween song list, and yup we have failed to stock with songs from the last 2,000 years. The good thing about Halloween, it has survived the test of time and long may it continue. 

• “Black Magic Woman” — Fleetwood Mac
• “Black Widow” — Iggy Azalea ft – Rita Ora
  
• “Boogie Monster” — Gnarls Barkley
• “Dark Horse” — Katy Perry ft – Juicy J
• “Demons” — Imagine Dragons
• “Disturbia” — Rihanna
• “Freaks Come Out at Night” — Whodini
• “Get Ur Freak On” — Missy Elliot
• “Ghost” — Ella Henderson
• “Ghostbusters” Theme — Ray Parker Jr
• “Halloween” Theme — John Carpenter
• “Heads Will Roll” — Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• “Highway to Hell” — AC/DC
• “Hungry Like the Wolf” — Duran Duran
• “I Put a Spell On You” — Nina Simone
• “I Want Candy” — Bow Wow Wow
• “I’m in Love with a Monster” — Fifth Harmony
• “Midnight City” — M83
• “Monster Mash” — Bobby (Boris) Pickett
• “Monster” — Lady Gaga
• “Psycho Killer” — The Talking Heads
• “Runnin’ with the Devil” — Van Halen
• “Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)” — David Bowie
• “Season of the Witch” — Donovan
• “She Wolf” — Shakira
• “Somebody’s Watching Me” — Rockwell
• “Spooky” — Dusty Springfield
• “Superstition” — Stevie Wonder
• “Sympathy for the Devil” — The Rolling Stones
• “The Addams Family” Theme — Vic Mizzy
• “The Monster” — Eminem ft – Rihanna
• “The Purple People Eater” — Sheb Wooley
• “This Is Halloween” — The Citizens of Halloween
• “Thriller” — Michael Jackson
• “Time Warp” — Little Nell, Patricia Quinn, & Richard O’Brien
• “True Blood” — Justin Timberlake
• “Werewolves of London” — Warren Zevon
• “Witchy Woman” — The Eagles
• “Wolves” — Selena Gomez & Marshmello
• “Zombie” — The Cranberries
• “A Nightmare on My Street” by J Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
• “Dead Man’s Party,” Oingo Boingo
• “Dinner with Drac,” John Zacherle
• “Five Little Monsters Jumping on the Bed” by Super Simple Songs
• “Grim Grinning Ghosts,” Buddy Baker
• “Halloween Spooks,” Lambert, Hendricks & Ross
• “Haunted House,” Jumpin’ Gene Simmons
• “Hello, Halloween” from Sesame Street
• “It’s Halloween” from Sesame Street
• “My Body’s a Zombie for You,” Dead Man’s Bones
• “Punky Punkin,” Rosemary Clooney
• “Skeleton in the Closet,” Louis Armstrong
• “The Boogie Woogieman,” The Brian Sisters
• “The Headless Horseman,” Bing Crosby
• “The Monster Hop,” Bert Convy
• “The Werewolf Watusi,” Bobby “Boris” Pickett
• “The Wobblin’ Goblin,” Rosemary Clooney
• “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah,” Tracy Jordan
• “Black Cat” – Janet Jackson (1989)
• “Dead Man’s Party” – Oingo Boingo (1985)
• “Desperation Samba (Halloween in Tijuana)” – Jimmy Buffett (1985)
• “Devil Inside” – INXS (1987)
• “Spooky – The Classics IV” (1968)
• “Spooky Scary Skeletons” – Andrew Gold remixed by The Living Tombstone (2013)
• “The Raven” – The Alan Parsons Project (1975)
• “Thriller” – Michael Jackson (1982)
• “Time Warp” – Cast of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
• “Casper The Friendly Ghost” theme song
• “Down by the Spooky Bay” from Super Simple Songs
• “Ghostbusters” from Ghostbusters
• “I Put A Spell On You” by Bette Midler from Hocus Pocus
• “Knock, Knock, Trick Or Treat” by Super Simple Learning
• “Monster Boogie” from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
• “Somebody’s Watching Me” by Rockwell and Micheal Jackson
• “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder
• “This is Halloween” from The Nightmare Before Christmas
• “Thriller” by Michael Jackson
• “Zombie Finger Family” by All Babies Channel
• “Creatures in the Night” KISS (1982)
• “Devil Woman” – Sir Cliff Richard (1976)
• “Encounter in the Fog”
• “Evil Woman” – Electric Light Orchestra (1975)
• “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding” – Sir Elton John (1973)
• “Ghostbusters” – Ray Parker, Jr. (1984)
• “Haunted House”
• “Heffalumps and Woozles”
• “I Wanna Scare Myself”
• “Mad Scientist’s Laboratory”
• “Monster Mash ” Bobby “Boris” Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers (1962)
• “Night Creatures”
• “Shake Your Bones”
• “The Addams Family” theme song
• “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” – Dave Edmunds (1979)
• “The Dungeon”
• “The Werewolf Song”
• “The Witches”
• “They Don’t Scare Me”
• “Which Witch Is Which?”
  
• “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead” – The Fifth Estate

Origins of Halloween Music, honouring the Dead

Halloween originates back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain some 2000 years ago, the end of the Harvest and the start of the new year. The festival ran over 3 distinct phases starting over the evening of the 31st October the fire festival and throughout the following day. Old fires had to be extinguished and new fires lit in the ceremony by druids. The festivities where not unlike New Years day, casting out the old and embracing and moving into the new. It was the end of the pastoral cycle, crops gathered from the fields and stored for the winter ahead.

Celtic celebrations involved gathering around bonfires, honouring the dead, listening to haunting songs. Over the centuries, during the Roman occupation, Medieval Britons with Christian influences Halloween continued to be associated with the wandering dead, setting out gifts of food to give to the spirits and in later times folks dressing up scary costumes for gifts, which closely resembles today’s ‘Trick or Treat’.

What makes music sound spooky

For those of a musical disposition, music played in a minor-key adds a certain musical character to the sound of the song, played in the right way sets the tone and sound of the song to be slightly unnerving and unsettling to the listener. Playing minor chords and scales can also lead to the musical piece to convey a certain level of sadness. 

As well as the key the song is played in, the choice of notes to add tension and the choice of notes played together are chosen to appear to be less harmonious, uncomfortable and not quite right when played together. By playing the melodies in a series of dissonant and then consonant styles  creates an overall tension raising piece of music.  

What is a great Halloween song without sound effects, who could forget the creaks and cracks in Thriller.