Halloween has come around again. This Saturday evening little ghouls will be roaming our streets, dressed as princesses and superheroes, trick-or-treating. Older goblins will be revelling at parties. No doubt, at some point, you will hear "Monster Mash" or "Thriller". There aren't as many classic Halloween tunes as there are Christmas Carols but eerily the list keeps growing.
Halloween 2009 has at least 2 new songs for us from major artists. Veteran shock-rocker Alice Cooper released "Keepin' Halloween Alive" and it's classic Alice:
"Well I'm coming for you this Halloween
It's my favorite time of year, and I'm stealing the scene
I terrify the kiddies when I'm walking down the street
I got snakes in my hair, I got spiders on my feet
I keep it going, I keep it going
I'm keeping Halloween alive, honey 3-6-5
I keep it going, I keep it going
When the sun goes down I'll be creeping through your town"
The other new Halloween tune that I have heard this year is by John Fogerty on his 2009 album entitled The Blue Ridge Rangers Ride Again. The tune is called "Haunted House" and it is a remake of the classic rockabilly track by Jumpin' Gene Simmons. If you haven't heard it yet, here is a clip:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdciJwXN9Ak It has a great "Purple People Eater" quality to it.
For the classical music buffs, it's not Halloween without "Funeral March of the Marionettes", "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor", or "Night on Bald Mountain". For humor enthusiasts, Dr. Demento offers a great Halloween collection of songs on CD as well as on his online show. Some greatly demented Halloween tracks are "The Ballad of Bloody Guts" by Zilch Fletcher, "Bleh" by Eban Schletter, "Dinner with Drac" by John Zacherle, "Halloween" by Steve Goodie, "Halloween" by Stephen Lynch, "It's Halloween" by the Shaggs, "Monster Hash" by the Toyes, "My Son the Vampire" by Alan Sherman, "Re: Your Brains" by Jonathan Coulton, "Shrimpenstein" by Gene Moss, "Trick or Treatin' Blues" by Bob Rivers, "Werecow" by Flippy T. Fishead, and "Whatever Happened to Eddie" by Butch Patrick ("Eddie Munster").
Here is an alphabetical list of some of my favorite Halloween songs:
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes - Lewis Lee
Bela's Bash - Bobby "Boris" Pickett
Creature of the Black Leather Lagoon - The Cramps
Dragula - Rob Zombie
Emo Kid for Halloween - Jake Waters featuring Devo spice
Flip Top Box - Dickey Doo & The Don'ts
Goblin Girl - Frank Zappa
House of Frankenstein - Johnny Legend
I Hold Your Hand In Mine - Dr. Tom Lehrer
I Put A Spell On You - Screamin' Jay Hawkins
I Walked With A Zombie - Roky Erickson and The Aliens (also covered by R.E.M.)
I Want My Baby Back - Jimmy Cross
Little Ghost - The White Stripes
Marie Laveau - Bobby Bare
Monster's Holiday - Buck Owens
Monster Mash - Bobby "Boris" Pickett
My Old Flame - Spike Jones & His City Slickers
Psycho - Eddie Noack
Trick of Treat - Elvira, Mistress of the Dark www.elvira.com/home_2.html
and the ultimate Halloween track "WEREWOLVES OF LONDON" by Warren Zevon.
In honor of my home state of Texas, I should also highlight the many wonderful musical contributions to Halloween made by the great ROKY ERICKSON. His catalog sounds like a horror show..."Bloody Hammer", "Don't Shake Me Lucifer", "I Think of Demons", "If You Have Ghosts", "Night of the Vampire", "Stand for the Fire Demon", "Two Headed Dog", and the immortal "Creature with the Atom Brain", based on the 1955 sci-fi film of the same name. Here's the trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucCLeoRZo7k
Here's Roky being interviewed and singing "Creature".
www.nme.com/video/id/0PJ21m2PfhU/search/atom
Like Roky said, "Well, if you want to believe that story, you can."
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