The moon's transition into Scorpio can mean only one thing: it's almost Halloween. Call me a pagan who occasionally drinks goat's blood and dabbles in necromancy, but Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year.
In case you hadn't noticed, I also love music. Exactly one year ago today, on a day just like today, I posted my Ultimate Halloween Playlist to significant fanfare. It has since been called "rad" and "the only Ultimate Halloween Playlist I have ever seen." But many of you bloodthirsty buggers have been openly clamoring for more than the mere 41 songs included on last year's list.
For your benefit, Countess Bathory, I have more than doubled the list this year, compiling the best songs for you to use either at a Halloween party to set the mood right or in the background on Halloween night, when you're dressed like Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs, passing out candy and Jergens to the neighborhood kids.
As I so astutely observed last year, Halloween is the one time of year when it's okay to embrace evil. At any Halloween party or during trick-or-treating, you want there to be a certain level of creepiness, as well as some campiness, because Halloween is supposed to be a mixture of paganism, macabre, and fun.
As a result, the playlist below includes songs that have dark and evil themes, talk about monsters or the devil or witches or the like, mention the word "Halloween," or are just plain creepy. My mix has a lot of heavy metal, but that's kind of expected, since metal bands are more likely to embrace darker subject matter than, say, Meghan Trainor. As I pointed out last year, you don't want to go too dark, like, say, Norwegian black metal, because you're going to lose your party-goers or the neighbors are going to think you're really into church burning. And if you are into church burning, you're probably not going to want to tip the neighbors off by blaring Mayhem out your front door while handing their children fun-size Twix.
For parties, you'll probably want to mix these songs in with your regular party mix. After all, who doesn't want to hear "Bark at the Moon" after "All About That Bass"? For trick or treating, you're probably going to want to just go straight spooky, which probably means a heavy dose of Ghost BC, Pentagram, and Black Sabbath.
Halloween is on a Friday this year, which means Halloween parties should be starting as soon as this Friday. I'm having one Saturday night, which I'm pretty excited about, and you can guarantee the 85 songs below will be played (except maybe "Angel of Death" because there will be children there). You can also bet on the fact that there will be a fog machine, some fake bats, and probably a bunch of snatch.
With that, here are my recommendations for your Halloween playlist, in alphabetical order by artist, with comments where I felt it was necessary, and with an embedded player afterwards with every song, so you can creep our your co-workers for the next eight days:
1-2. "Highway to Hell" and "Night Prowler" by AC/DC
"Highway to Hell" is an obvious choice and a crowd pleaser. "Night Prowler" is a slower, creepy song that, several years later, serial killer Richard Ramirez (aka, "the Night Stalker") claimed inspired him, or something like that.
3-5. "Black Sabbath," "The Wizard," and "Heaven and Hell" by Black Sabbath
"Black Sabbath" was inspired by a vision Geezer Butler had one night after reading a book about witchcraft that Ozzy Osbourne gave to him. He woke up in the middle of the night, and a black figure was standing at the foot of his bed. The figure disappeared, and when Butler went to get the book, it too was gone.
6. "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" by Blue Öyster Cult
But do fear unvaccinated children.
7. "I Want Candy" by Bow Wow Wow
8. "Howl" by JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound
9. "Halloween Theme" by John Carpenter
Instantly recognizable as one of the more creepy horror movie themes.
10. "The Night Time is the Right Time" by Ray Charles
Baybaaaaayyyy!
11. "Spooky" by The Classics IV
12. "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" by The Cramps
13. "Am I Demon" by Danzig
14. "Am I Evil?" by Diamond Head
"Yes I am."
15. "A Nightmare on My Street" by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
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.
16. "Dream Warriors" by Dokken
Speaking of Freddy, this was the title track to Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.
17. "Season of the Witch" by Donovan
18-19. "The End" and "People Are Strange" by The Doors
"The End" is one of the creepier Doors songs, which says a lot.
20. "Murder On the Dancefloor" by Sophie Ellis-Bextor
21. "Trick or Treat" by Fastway
'80s metal band Fastway played the soundtrack to the 1986 the metal-themed horror film Trick or Treat. This is the title song.
22. "Evil and a Heathen" by Franz Ferdinand
23-25. "Monstrance Clock," "Year Zero," and "If You Have Ghosts" by Ghost BC
"Monstrance Clock" is about conceiving "Lucifer's son," and "Year Zero" is about Satan in general and has a nice gothic feel to it. To be honest, I would suggest just including all songs from Ghost's two albums, Opus Eponymous and Infestissumam, especially if you're looking for trick-or-treating background music. They are demonic in a polite Swedish way.
26. "Hallow's Eve" by Hallows Eve
27-28. "Halloween" and "Mr. Torture" by Helloween
German power metal band Helloween obviously has the right name for a Halloween mix, and their song "Halloween" is included for obvious reasons. I also chose to go with "Mr. Torture" because I like the song. So there.
29. "Friendly Ghost" by Harlem
This one's a little more light-hearted, to offset the vast majority of this list.
30. "I Put a Spell On You" by Screamin' Jay Hawkins
I prefer the original to CCR's cover (which is still very good) because Hawkins adds a level of voodoo campiness that CCR just couldn't have matched.
21. "I Ain't Superstitious" by Howlin' Wolf
32. "Devil Inside" by INXS
33-35. "Killers," "Murders in the Rue Morgue," and "Number of the Beast" by Iron Maiden
It was tough figuring out just one Iron Maiden song to include, so I went with two, both from 1981's Killers album: "Killers," which is essentially about someone being stalked and murdered, and "Murders in the Rue Morgue," which is not only my favorite Iron Maiden song, but is also based on short story by Edgar Allen Poe of the same name.
36. "Thriller" by Michael Jackson
This is a no-brainer and should be played at every Halloween party for eternity.
37. "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane
This is especially good if your partygoers are all on LSD.
38. "Devil's Child" by Judas Priest
39. "Hotter Than Hell" by KISS
40. "Pretend We're Dead" by L7
41. "Heeby-Jeebies" by Little Richard
42. "Look at Your Game, Girl" by Charles Manson
Recorded when Manson was still trying to break into the LA music scene and before he started ordering his minions to murder movie stars and grocery store owners, this song comes across as an innocent folky acoustic song. Then you realize it's sung by Charles Manson, and it becomes super creepy.
43. "Evil Love" by Meat Puppets
44. "Fade to Black" by Metallica
45. "Halloween" by The Misfits
This is my daughters' new favorite song. Seriously.
46. "Shout at the Devil" by Mötley Crüe
47. "Dead Men Tell No Tales" by Motörhead
48. "Spiderwebs" by No Doubt
49. "Running Scared" by Roy Orbison
50. "Bark at the Moon" by Ozzy Osbourne
51. "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker, Jr.
52. "Satan's Bed" by Pearl Jam
53. "Sign of the Wolf (Pentagram)" by Pentagram
Doom metal pioneers Pentagram have a good number of hard-rocking creepy songs, but this one is probably the most relevant to Halloween.
54. "Zombie Zoo" by Tom Petty
55. "The Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett & The Crypt Kickers
This is a classic Halloween song that should be played at least once at every Halloween party.
56. "Halloween" by Matt Pond PA
57. "Going to Hell" by The Pretty Reckless
58. "Gates of Babylon" by Rainbow
The song is about sleeping with the devil. And then paying for sleeping with the devil. Probably because the devil gave you the clap.
59. "Diablo Rojo" by Rodrigo y Gabriela
60. "Sympathy for the Devil" by The Rolling Stones
61-63. "Soul Sacrifice," "Black Magic Woman" and "Evil Ways" by Santana
64. "Li'l Red Riding Hood" by Sam The Sham & The Pharoahs
65. "Angel of Death" by Slayer
While I would generally recommend steering clear of Slayer at parties, there is no more appropriate time to let it loose than Halloween.
66. "Bullet With Butterfly Wing" by Smashing Pumpkins
It just wouldn't seem right to have a Halloween playlist without a Smashing Pumpkins song on it. I went with this one, not only because it starts by exclaiming -– wrongly, mind you -– that "the world is a vampire," but also because it's an awesome song.
67. "Serial Killa" by Snoop Doggy Dogg
68. "Wicked Garden" by Stone Temple Pilots
69. "To Hell With the Devil" by Stryper
In case you are concerned that your playlist might be a little too devil-heavy, you can balance it out with this '80s Christian hair band classic.
70. "Santeria" by Sublime
71. "Psycho Killer" by Talking Heads
72. "Here Comes the Night" by Them
73. "Killer On the Loose" by Thin Lizzy
74. "Running With the Devil" by Van Halen
75. "The Black Angel's Death Song" by The Velvet Underground
I have never done acid, but I assume this song is what a bad acid trip would have sounded like in Victorian England.
76. "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder
77. "Got My Mojo Working" by Muddy Waters
78. "If My Mind is Evil" by White Lion
79-81. "Death Letter," "Little Ghost," and "Walking With a Ghost" by The White Stripes
82. "Boris The Spider" by The Who
83. "Werewolves of London" by Warren Zevon
"I saw a werewolf drinking a piña colada at Trader Vic's / And his hair was perfect." Great line.
84-85. "Dragula" and "Living Dead Girl" by Rob Zombie
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