Best Halloween songs

other than Monster Mash


The Haunted House Jumping Gene Simmons


Little Red Riding Hood Sam The Sham


The Mummy Bob McFadden


One Eyed One Horned Flying Purple People Eater Sheb Wooley



The Witch Doctor David Seville




any more?

Halloween. That explains why I heard "The Witch Doctor" the other day.

There is also "Spooky" by Atlanta Rhythm Section. I don't care for the Classics IV version. Actually, it's really just the keyboard solo and the jazz guitar solo that I like, both of which are only in the ARS version.

How about these too? A couple of these are from the early-mid 70's, but hey, it's Halloween, and this is the only forum I've seen on the topic.

(Assorted monsters...)
"The Eggplant That Ate Chicago" - Dr. West & The Medicine Men (Norman Greenbaum)
"Frankenstein" - The Edgar Winter Group
"My Son, The Vampire" - Allan Sherman
"Werewolf" - Five Man Electrical Band
"Beware Of The Blob" - The Five Blobs

(Witches, fortune tellers, other spooky gals...)
"Witchy Woman" - Eagles
"Swamp Witch" - Jim Stafford
"Dark Lady" - Cher
"Elvira" - The Oak Ridge Boys (OK, that's a stretch, but...)

(Psychos and killers...)
"They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" - "Napoleon XIV"
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer" - The Beatles
"Nature Trail To Hell" - 'Weird Al' Yankovic

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERY "BODY"!!

CarolinaFM said:

any more?

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None that I can recall from the 50's/60's.

I Put A Spell On You Screamin' Jay Hawkins
That Old Black Magic Bobby Rydell
Love Potion #9 Clovers or Searchers
Ghost Riders In The Sky many versions...I like the Outlaws' version, although it's not from the '50s or '60s.
Endless Sleep Jody Reynolds
Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead Fifth Estate

and a few rare ones to impress your party guests........

Batman, Dracula and Frankenstein The Diamonds
Monster Hop Bert Convey
Shutters and Screams Ben Colder
Devil That I See Penguins
The Cave Gary "Spider' Webb
Dinner with Drac John Zacherle

A few more...

"Do The Lurch" - Ted Cassidy (yooooou raaaaang?)
"I Want My Baby Back" - Jimmy Cross
"My Old Flame" - Spike Jones, with Paul Frees as "Peter Lorre."
"Marie Laveau" - Bobby Bare
"The Witch Queen of New Orleans" - Redbone

It wasn't a big hit, but one record that deserves mention for its sheer oddity is "The Fortune Teller Song," by the Fontane Sisters. This 50's RCA 45 was multi-grooved, meaning that depending on where you dropped the needle, this song about a visit to a Gypsy fortune teller would end randomly with one of four different "fortunes." Because of the mechanical limitations of recording four sets of grooves on one 45, the song itself played for only about one minute!

This technical gimmick was revived in the 60's to create "Magic Records," 45's that would play completely different songs at random; they were made as give-aways for various product sponsors (usually potato chip manufacturers as I recall.)

"Witchcraft" by Frank Sinatra and "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" by Doris Day.

Hey, they play standards at Christmas so why not?

I thought I heard the morning DJ this morning say something about candy.

I could be wrong, but we could take that route too.

"Candyman" by Sammy Davis Jr. (which likely would fit an oldies format) and "Sugar, Sugar" by The Archies.

vchimpanzee said:

"Witchcraft" by Frank Sinatra

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And a different song with that same name by Elvis or The Spiders

Alice Cooper - Welcome to My Nightmare
Blue Oyster Cult - (Don't Fear) The Reaper
Cliff Richard - Devil Woman
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bad Moon Rising, I Put A Spell On You
Charlie Daniels - The Legend Of Wooley Swamp
Golden Earring - Twilight Zone
Guess Who - Clap For The Wolfman
Jim Stafford - Spiders and Snakes
Michael Jackson - Thriller
Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells [Single Version]
Oingo Boingo - Weird Science
Ray Parker, Jr. - Ghostbusters
Rockwell - Somebody's Watching Me
Santana - Black Magic Woman
Stevie Wonder - Superstition
Warren Zevon - Werewolves Of London
Whodini - Freaks Come Out At Night

Oops, my apologies. Didn't realize this was the 50s/60s forum. All I saw was the original poster asking for Halloween hits. Obviously, ignore most of my above list, haha.

How about: Dinner with Drac from John Zacherle?

Maybe the wrong decade, but a pretty good list! Not sure if "Clap For The Wolfman" really qualifies as it's about Wolfman Jack rather than Lon Chaney's lycanthrope (look that up in your Funk & Wagnall's...) but as long as you brought it up, there's Todd Rundgren's "Wolfman Jack" too.

On the candy topic vchimp mentioned, there's also "I Want Candy" by the Strangeloves (or the remake by Bow Wow Wow), "Lollipop" by the Chordettes, "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows" by Lesley Gore, "Chewy, Chewy" by the Ohio Express, "Candy Girl" by the Four Seasons, "Sweet Gingerbread Man" by the Mike Curb Congregation, and "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor?" by Lonnie Donegan.

I had seen Clap For The Wolfman pop up on a couple playlists on Friday. That;'s why I had mentioned it.

eriedj said:

I had seen Clap For The Wolfman pop up on a couple playlists on Friday. That;'s why I had mentioned it.

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Nothin' wrong with that; just kind of a rimshot, that's all. Over the weekend someone reminded me about a 70's novelty called "Bigfoot," spoken (rapped?) by a DJ called Bro Smith. I remembered it too; wasn't a big hit nationally but got a hell of a lot of air play in Minnesota and probably other Midwestern states.

JeffM said:

How about these too? A couple of these are from the early-mid 70's, but hey, it's Halloween, and this is the only forum I've seen on the topic.

(Assorted monsters...)
"The Eggplant That Ate Chicago" - Dr. West & The Medicine Men (Norman Greenbaum)
"Witchy Woman" - Eagles
"Swamp Witch" - Jim Stafford
"Dark Lady" - Cher

Click to expand...

The 1st sounds like a earlier OR later revision of Bill Cosby's " The Chicken Heart......that ate up New York City!"...ALWAYS makes me laugh...

I have heard the song about Hattie by Stafford in DECADES...Always loved it..Great song...

and WHAT?? NOONE mentioned Vincent Price....HE WAS the man of fright as The Abominable Dr. Phibes!!! AAAAHHHHAHAHAHAHAHHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!

ContinuousWave said:

and WHAT?? NOONE mentioned Vincent Price....HE WAS the man of fright as The Abominable Dr. Phibes!!! AAAAHHHHAHAHAHAHAHHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!

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While it didn't include him by name, eriedj's list did include Michael Jackson's "Thriller," which highlighted a "rap" by the elegant Mr. Price.

Except for Boris Karloff, who did a number of spoken-word recordings of children's stories, the horror film stars made few if any records. There was a 70's MGM LP by cartoon voice king Paul Frees, in which he sang then-recent pop songs in character; imitating Karloff singing "The Look of Love," Bela Lugosi doing "Games People Play" (Joe South, not the Spinners,) and Peter Lorre performing "Hey Jude."

Lon Chaney, Jr. recorded "Monster's Holiday," but that one more properly belongs among the Christmas novelties.

Music Choice flipped their holiday music channel from Halloween to Christmas at 9:10 pm Pacific time last night, ahead of any of the radio stations in my market. Let me be the first to wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS! HO HO HO!

JeffM said:

Nothin' wrong with that; just kind of a rimshot, that's all. Over the weekend someone reminded me about a 70's novelty called "Bigfoot," spoken (rapped?) by a DJ called Bro Smith. I remembered it too; wasn't a big hit nationally but got a hell of a lot of air play in Minnesota and probably other Midwestern states.

Click to expand...

On a related subject, in the 90s the UPN affiliate where I live aired reruns of a show called "Harry and the Hendersons", based on the movie which somehow I still haven't seen. Cute family comedy with Bigfoot as a pet.

The theme song was "Your Feet's Too Big" by Leon Redbone.

Just think of me as being early for next year's version of this thread.

Fire

by

The Crazy World of Arthur Brown

Wrong time of year, I know....One that's always been one of my favorites but have never heard any FM radio station ever play is Jimmy Buffett's "Desperation Samba (Halloween in Tijuana)."

Donovan's Season of the Witch has definitely risen up on my list of favorites recently because of its connections to the 2018 Boston Red Sox.

The Music Choice Halloween channel is awesome. They play some oddballs like "13 Days of Halloween."

Here are three others that I have heard on the Music Choice Halloween channel, but have never heard on any FM radio station:

Frankensurfer II- The Surfaholics
Monsters' Convoy- Hillbilly Varmints
Svengoolie Stomp- Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon