Trick and Treat: Five Scary Songs to Make Halloween Even Creepier
Nothing makes a scary party scarier than a little music to set the mood. From novelty to downright spine-tingling, we’ve chosen our favorite scary songs to help you creep the candy corn out of your guests and neighbors.
1) “Bela Lugosi’s Dead,” Bauhaus (1979)
The English group Bauhaus, considered by many to be the original post-Punk Goth band, wrote and released this song in August 1979. A nine-minute-plus trip about the death of a vampire and with the name of the most definitive movie vampire in the title, it’s scary and hallucinatory and makes for a great backdrop to any Halloween party.
Though it’s most associated with the soundtrack to the movie The Hunger with David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve, it was also used in other movies and television shows, including Saturday Night Live. If you dare, play the MonstersHD Undead tribute of this song on YouTube on your big screen all day Halloween (over 150 replays!), you’ll be forever warped.
2) “I Put a Spell on You,” Screamin’ Jay Hawkins (1956)
A competent blues singer, Hawkins wrote and recorded this song in 1955, but it wasn’t released until it was re-recorded in 1956 as the version we know today. According to Hawkins, it was a raucous second recording session; the released version, with its perceived sexual innuendo, both in lyrics and rhythm, was banned from some radio stations.
Meeting up with Alan Freed to begin a tour, Freed suggested Hawkins kick up the song with costumes, makeup, special effects and stage props, effectively creating “shock rock” — predating Alice Cooper and Black Sabbath, among many others.
Hawkins’ song also was used in countless movies, television shows, and even burger commercials. The reality of the lyrics suggests a guy mesmerizing a woman to become his — in all its meanings — but, with Hawkins’s screaming and grunting in his stage act, it has also become associated with sorcery, voodooism, and black magic. The end result, however, is a great Halloween song that just about everyone recognizes today.
3) “Season of the Witch,” Donovan (1966)
Written and then recorded in May 1966 by Donovan just before he was busted for marijuana possession, the song foretold of something bad about to happen, an ominous feeling. It’s a mesmerizing song — folksy, yet mostly psychedelic (the title suggesting a time of year when witches come together) — which transports you to a dark place and creates a sense of paranoia and schizophrenia.
Critics have noticed that it makes a great Halloween song, an anthem for a day when everyone is in disguise and a general sense of mistrust abides since no one knows who is who. I agree. It’s definitely not a song to listen to alone. I heard it live at the 2012 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony when John Mellencamp sang it with Donovan, and even with thousands of people around me, it created a sense of unease.
4) “Werewolves of London,” Warren Zevon (1978)
Included on Asylum’s 1978 album Excitable Boy, “Werewolves of London” was part of a trilogy of terror-themed songs on the disc. Zevon, LeRoy Marinell, and Waddy Wachtel co-wrote “Werewolves of London” based on an idea by Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers after he watched the 1935 movie of the same name starring Henry Hull. Though overall a somewhat boring movie, it included great werewolf makeup by Jack Pierce, the legendary Universal Studios makeup artist who created the Frankenstein monster makeup for Boris Karloff, among others.
Produced by Jackson Browne and featuring Mick Fleetwood and John McVie from Fleetwood Mac in the studio band, Zevon called “Werewolves of London” “a dumb song for smart people.” Bordering on a novelty song, it does help if you have a passing knowledge of horror movies and London restaurants to really appreciate it.
The song creates great imagery of a suave, well-dressed werewolf (I’d like to meet his tailor…) who not only mutilates little old ladies and rips out lungs, but who also dines at Trader Vic’s and Lee Ho Fook’s and takes a walk with the Queen. It was thought this song might create a “Werewolves of London“ dance craze, but it did not happen.
This song makes my list because of the “dumb song for smart people” lyrics and the cool arrangement, but most especially for the “Ahh-ooh” chorus of howls when the werewolf celebrates his kills (also applicable to the joy of getting served the perfect piña colada). It’s a perfect Halloween party song everyone can sing.
5) “Monster Mash,” John Zacherle (1962)
Novelty songs were, well, novelties and pretty much hit or miss, requiring luck, timing, and a fertile environment for them to hit. And they’re usually especially big at holidays. All these things came together at the perfect time for “Monster Mash” to hit #1; it was a hit for Bobby Pickett in October 1962 and reached #1 on Billboard for a couple weeks. It even charted once more in August 1973!
Yet the history of this song — and of the genre in general — goes back a little further. In 1958, Universal Studios re-released a package of their horror movies to TV billed as “Shock Theater.” To showcase these films, stations around the country contrived hosts to present them, many of them in makeup pretending to be ghouls or vampires or such. They were hugely popular and many became legendary in the horror genre.
In Ohio, we watched the Ghoul & Ghoulardi and Fritz the Night Owl. Also that year, Famous Monsters of Filmland began publication. Edited by Forrest Ackerman, he and the magazine strengthened horror movie interest, introducing many a child to classic horror films.
[It Was a Graveyard Smash! On Loving Halloween and Missing Spooky Novelty Songs]
Seeing how some hit songs spawned new dances, such as “The Twist” by Chubby Checker and “Mashed Potato Time” by Dee Dee Sharp, Bobby Pickett wrote “Monster Mash” in an attempt to combine the monster obsession with a new dance craze.
Pickett, an actor/singer and Korean War Army vet who did imitations of monster movie actors, was urged by others to write an original song using one of his signature voices, and he chose to imitate Boris Karloff. Using “Mashed Potato Time” and its sequel, “Gravy,” as inspirations, he lifted the “wah-ooo” female background vocals, wrote “Monster Mash,” and released it on Garpax Records in August 1962. Kids around the country danced the Mashed Potato to it while adding Frankenstein-like movements.
Meanwhile, Philadelphia disc jockey and host John Zacherle met and became friends with Dick Clark of American Bandstand fame and sometimes filled in for him on his roadshows. Clark gave him the nickname, “The Cool Ghoul” and with Clark’s help, in 1958, Zach recorded the song “Dinner with Drac” on Cameo/Parkway, which ascended into the Top 10 on Billboard’s chart in March. The 45 single had a gory version on one side and a not so gory version on the other.
In 1962, Parkway released an album of Zach singing monster songs, including “Monster Mash” and “Dinner with Drac.” The rest of the songs varied from great to good, with all being imaginative and funny. Titles included, among others, “Let’s Twist Again (Mummy Time Is Here),” “Weird Watusi,” “Hurry Bury Baby,” “I’m The Ghoul from Wolverton Mountain,” “Pistol Stomp,” “Gravy (With Some Cyanide),” “Popeye (The Gravedigger),” and, of course, “Dinner with Drac.”
Bobby Pickett did a good Karloff, but I think Zach’s voice was better, being deeper and creepier in my opinion. Both versions of “Monster Mash” are perfect for Halloween, but the entire Parkway Monster Mash album is a classic and one you can drop the needle on and have a party or scare bunches of little kids.
Pickett died at the age of 69 on April 25, 2007, in Los Angeles, and Zach passed away this weekend, at the grand old age of 98. Rest in peace, you Cool Ghoul.
What are some of your favorite Halloween songs? Tell us in the comments!
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SteveK