Tuesday Top Ten: '80s Halloween Songs

Normally by this point in October, I would have provided you with my Ultimate Halloween Party Playlist, but no one -- I repeat, no one -- should be having any Halloween parties this year, and I certainly don't want to encourage anyone to spread COVID by giving them a list of songs that will only encourage them and their friends to party their balls and tits off.  Hopefully we're back to normal next year.

But in its stead, I shall give you at least a Tuesday Top Ten of '80s Halloween songs.  The '80s were a fertile time for Halloween-appropriate songs, from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal to horror punk to pop to rap to mainstream rock to hair bands to thrash metal. As always, I'm only going with one song per artist, or else it would be mostly Misfits songs.  This was a tough list to narrow down, and I'm giving you a massive honorable mention list, which includes songs by artists I've already featured this Rocktober, but doesn't include songs that I will be featuring as standalone Rocktober songs this week, even though there's no possible way I'm going to be able to fit everything I wanted to include with only a few days left, causing unimaginable stress about what to pick, both for this and for the rest of the week.  The struggle is real.  I'm putting them in alphabetical order by artist.

1.  "I Want Candy" by Bow Wow Wow (1982)
British new wavers Bow Wow Wow's cover of The Strangelove's 1965 hit "I Want Candy" wasn't a huge hit when it was released (reaching only #62 on the Billboard Hot 100), but it has become one of the most beloved Halloween songs of the past forty years, with its Bo Diddley beat and then-teenaged lead singer's Annabella Lwin's spunky vocals.

2.  "A Nightmare on My Street" by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince (1988)
This is a classic late '80s rap song, playing off of the popularity of Freddy Krueger, who, for many of us growing up in the '80s, was the most terrifying of all the horror movie villains.  I should also note that I did, in fact, perform this with a friend for our elementary school talent show in fifth grade.  I was Freddy.  It was pretty awesome.

3.  "Trick or Treat" by Fastway (1986)
'80s metal band Fastway -- whose lead singer was Dave King, who would later do a 180 on genres and found Celtic punk band Flogging Molly --  played the soundtrack to the 1986 the metal-themed horror film Trick or Treat.  This is the title song. Incidentally, the video below is a clip from the movie, so it's not King (or the rest of the band) on the stage.

4.  "Hallow's Eve" by Hallows Eve (1985)
American metal band Hallows Eve didn't burn up the charts, but their name fits the mold for this list, and their 1985 eponymous song does too.

5.  "Halloween" by Helloween (1987)
German power metal band Helloween obviously has the right name for a Halloween list, and their song "Halloween" is included for obvious reasons.  

6.  "Thriller" by Michael Jackson (1982)
This is a no-brainer and should be played at every Halloween party for eternity.  The extended version of the video is a masterpiece as well, from the choreographed dancing to Vincent Price's voiceovers.

7.  "Halloween" by The Misfits (1981)
The Misfits basically invented the horror punk genre, and their song "Halloween" -- released on Halloween in 1981 -- is all about the best things associated with Halloween:  bonfires, jack-o-lanterns, dead cats hanging from poles, and razor blades in apples.

8.  "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker, Jr. (1984)
The theme song to the classic 1984 film of the same name may have gotten Ray Parker, Jr. in legal trouble (because it lifted its melody from Huey Lewis & The News's "I Want a New Drug"), but there's no denying that it's a Halloween classic.

9.  "Sign of the Wolf (Pentagram)" by Pentagram (1985)
Doom metal pioneers Pentagram have a good number of hard-rocking creepy songs, but "Sign of the Wolf (Pentagram)" is probably the most relevant to Halloween.  It's a badass and sneakily catchy metal song, with a great riff and spooky lyrics that appear to be about a man who sold his soul and became werewolf.  

10.  "Raining Blood" by Slayer (1986)
The darkest and most demonic of the Big Four of Thrash Metal, Slayer built a huge following despite nary a radio-friendly song.  "Raining Blood" is a song that your mother would not approve of, unless you had one of those cool moms who likes songs describing the violent overthrow of heaven, culminating in the blood of angels raining down on heaven's overthrower.

Honorable mention:  "Hells Bells" by AC/DC (1980); "Heaven and Hell" by Black Sabbath (1980); "Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)" by David Bowie (1980); "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" by The Cramps (1980); "Am I Demon" by Danzig (1988); "Dream Warriors" by Dokken (1987); Hungry Like the Wolf" by Duran Duran (1982); "Zombie Eaters" by Faith No More (1989); "Kiss Me Deadly" by Lita Ford (1988); "Close My Eyes Forever" by Lita Ford and Ozzy Osbourne (1988); "Maneater" by Hall & Oates (1982); "Devil Inside" by INXS (1987); "Killers" by Iron Maiden (1981); "Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Iron Maiden (1981); "Number of the Beast" by Iron Maiden (1982); "Devil's Child" by Judas Priest (1982); "Fade to Black" by Metallica (1984); "Creeping Death" by Metallica (1984); "(Every Day Is) Halloween" by Ministry (1986); "Death Comes Ripping" by The Misfits (1983); "Mommy, Can I Go Out & Kill Tonight" by The Misfits (1982); "Bloodfeast" by The Misfits (1983); "Bark at the Moon" by Ozzy Osbourne (1983); "Zombie Zoo" by Tom Petty (1989); "Fallen Angel" by Poison (1988); "To Hell With the Devil" by Stryper (1986); Killer On the Loose" by Thin Lizzy (1980); "Burn in Hell" by Twisted Sister (1984); "Animal (Fuck Like a Beast)" by W.A.S.P. (1984); "Burning the Witches" by Warlock (1984); "If My Mind is Evil" by White Lion (1989); "Friends of Hell" by Witchfinder General (1983)