A perk of my job is that I can easily pop my ear buds in and listen to podcasts all day. While I listen to my shows however, another coworker has the localish top 40 oldies radio station playing in the background. One thing I have learned from listening to FM hits radio, especially since starting this job, is that these radio stations often have a short list of daily songs. This is usually even more limited during holidays.
While I had originally planned for a review of a super-awesome B-horror movie for Halloween, these same work hours and extracurricular activities prevented me from doing proper research for this topic. No worries however, as I will work to watch horror at a later date for your reading pleasure.
In exchange for this, I come back to the topic of proper Halloween listening. Forget hearing Michael Jackson’s Thriller for the hundredth time, or wondering whatever happened to the Transylvania Twist. Here’s a list of new bizarre treats to confuse your coworkers (with links to videos on YouTube – just click the song title).
Pet Sematary – The Ramones (1989)
This was written for the Stephen King movie by King’s request. Apparently he was a fan of the Ramones and thought they would be the perfect touch to his tale of demonic animals and possessed children. It does sound different than other more classic Ramones hits, mainly due to the attempt to make it fit with current commercial hits. Sadly, this is also the last Ramones music video to feature Dee Dee Ramone before he left the band.
Ghost Riders in the Sky – Blues Brothers (1998)
It’s not exactly a Halloween song until you consider the context of the song’s events. A dark, demonic herd of cows followed by an even more mysterious set of ghostly riders. Whether the entire scene is a hallucination or a glimpse from the past, this version from the Blues Brothers sequel beats Devil went down to Georgia any day.
Nobody Likes You When You’re Dead – Zombina and the Skeletones (2002)
I will be completely honest and say that I only found this band in the process of writing this post. A Briitish punk bank, they remind me a lot of Care Bears on Fire (the band, not actual Care Bears on fire). Ranging anywhere from living in a haunted house to being a zombie, this band has a touch of everything you need for Halloween in their songs with the perfect punk feel.
Night on Bald Mountain – Modest Mussorgsky (1867)
This composition is pretty creepy as it is, but the Fantasia montage adds the right nightmarish images that continue to haunt children. In the early ‘80s The Wonderful World of Disney showed several musical montage holiday programs in which they played popular music to clips from Disney cartoons. The Halloween special opens with a voiceover on this clip from Fantasia that makes this scene even darker.
Unearthed – The Ghastly Ones (2007)
If you feel the need for more surf in your life, this is a good band to seek out. The Ghastly Ones are but one of many Halloween surf rock bands dating back to the ‘60s when bands like the Ventures released many specialty records for Halloween or television shows.
!Aaah- ah yawa em ekat ot gnimoc’re yehT – VIX Noelopan (1966)
The trick to this song is taking a screen shot and reversing the image….. They’re coming to take me away, Ha-Ha! Simply play this around anybody to see if they catch the secret messages.
This is just a small dose of the forgotten Halloween tunes out there. If this isn’t enough and you still want more haunts, check out the Tales from the Darkness Podcast, where you can hear Vicki and I discuss real-life cryptids, ghosts, crazy clowns, and more.