The Halloween Song

TRACK #350:

The Halloween Song by The Four Downs

Look, I know this album cover over here ain’t exactly selling the sizzle or the steak, but the 2006 CD Bomp in the Night is actually a pretty solid Halloween compilation.

It’s a 30-track packed offering of, mostly old (but trusty) Halloween staples. Bert Convy, Danny Hutton, Jack and Jim, Lee Ross and Mann Drake all appear on this comp. It even features a rare cover of Spooky Movies by Ron Barrett. Nice!

Now, this sort of thing is completely irrelevant these days, given that most of the songs here are readily available, if not on music streaming services, then most certainly YouTube. And that affords you all the ability to take or leave as many of these songs as you’d like in the building of your own personal Halloween playlist.

Most of them.

There are a few rare and unique tracks here that might cause a guy like me, in a year like 2020, to actually seek out this album, including the song I fully purchased this album to hear, The Mysterial’s Halloween (It’s Your Big Scene).

This tune is only available either here, or (I think anyway) on their 2008 release Theatre of the Seasons under the title Halloween (The Story of Linus). I assume this is the same song, but I ain’t in no rush to confirm that shit, because I don’t really like this song. It’s definitely not making the playlist, either way. Such is life. So it goes. Thanks for playing.

It’s a throwbacky Doo-Wop snoozer about Linus waiting for the Great Pumpkin, which might sound great, but it doesn’t actually sound great, so here it ain’t.

I will make it available on DigTV however, so that any potential diggers out there can spare themselves any serious scouring or dollars and decide for themselves if they want to hear it a 2nd time.

Ok, then why the fuck are we even talking about this damn CD then?

Well, I mention it because it’s also the only place I’ve ever seen where you can hear tonight’s track, outside of finding it’s original 45 anyway. And it’s The Halloween Song by The Four Downs.

Of course, I found that 45 before I found this CD, but I enjoy having the 45, and it certainly didn’t cost much, so either way.

However, that 45 contained some sort of scratch or imperfection that made it so I couldn’t actually rip a clean copy from the vinyl, even after hours of cleaning, brushing, replaying and trying again.

So, in went the CD. But, ah-ha! This CD apparently contained its own imperfection, as it would only rip to track 25 before promptly ejecting the fuckin’ thing over and over and over. What is this, some sick joke? It played fine in my car, so what gives?

I ended up having to drag my DVD player out to the Halloween Hole and hook it up to my inputs and manually record the output of the CD to get this digital copy. Holy shit.

But after all of that, I can confidentially state that this tune was actually saved from Halloween obscurity by Bomp in the Night. Big ups.

And now my frustration is the world’s gain as in addition to this song now being featured on the playlist, I will post it on YouTube for Halloween hungry hermits the world over. No longer need The Halloween Song by The Four Downs be hard to come across, scratched and digitally corrupted. Nay!

Because this is exactly the sort of thing we wanna have cap off our Referential Monster jam mega block. This mellow tune (which sounds suspiciously similar to Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da) is possibly the most Referential Halloween Monster Song this side of Vanilla Ice’s Born on Halloween.

V. Ice probably still holds the crown, based on sheer volume, but for the quality over quantity crowd, The Four Downs have got you covered. The record itself is even dedicated to George Romero and Billy Cardille. Nice!

The song details some martial strife that plagues a Pittsburgh couple (newlywed on Halloween, no less) after they festively ring in the occasion with a little Chiller Theatre marathon. After their night of Chilly Billy and chill, the husband starts acting a little peculiar.

Gorgo, Dr. X, Rodan, Willard, The Crawling Hand, Day of the Triffidsy? Even The Tingler gets a shout in their rapid-fire referential litany. Not necessarily deep cuts in ‘79, but it’s a refreshing and old school hit list in 2023.

What’s more? It’s yet another instance of The Mysterioso Pizzicato. What is it with that lick? People composing Halloween Songs love that shit.

And a plus 1 here to Baader-Meinhof, because ever since putting those 2 songs next to each other last year and talking about The Mysterioso Pizzicato, I have run across no less than 5 additional songs incorporating that tune. That’s almost as many as were on the playlist already! I’d call it synchronicity, but it’s really not at all important. Either way, you know a playlist is eminent.

For now, kick back with Dave Goodrich and Julie Holzen as they work through some monster inspired trouble in paradise with The Halloween Song.

Halloween Ball

TRACK #340:

Halloween Ball by Bitter Blood Street Theatre

Though largely unheralded, The Bitter Blood Street Theatre might just be some of the earliest Shock Rockers in the game.

Formed in 1969 by a crew of Cincinnati University kids, the Thearte sported masks, capes and S&M gear for their stage shows which took on the form of a kind of Freakshow meets Vaudeville-Gone-Berserk.

Unfortunately, no footage of those shows is known to exist. Indeed, their only albums were cobbled together in the late 70’s from whatever demos existed by band captain Tom Owen. What we do know is that they opened for Alice Cooper, and it is said that Alice may have cribbed a couple of tricks from The Theatre for his own stage show. No more Mr. Nice Guy, indeed.

Not only did they open for Cooper, but the MC5, Joe Cocker, Mountain and Dr. John as well. Apparently they were pretty big locally, but never made any waves outside of Ohio.

A version of the band reformed in the 80’s as Blacklight Braille, where they continued to evolve their unique sound. Exotic instrumentation mixed with sometimes unusual arrangements performed in kinetic fashion mark the band’s overall vibe. You’d call it Rock ‘N Roll, I suppose, but there’s definitely something else going on. Something a little more theatrical.

And hey, wouldn’t you know it, they recorded a Halloween Song! Well, something of a Halloween song at any rate, with Halloween Ball.

A celebration of the Halloween’s of Old, this ball, with all sorts of Pagan overtones.

The time is right.

The ceremony begins tonight.

On October 31 (Halloween Song)

TRACK #332:

On October 31 (Halloween Song) by Bob Hannon

So now it’s finally Halloween, but we’ve definitely already blown our Hall-load for the year and we’re 2 songs outside of a 10-slot for the big day. Where does that leave us?

Well, there’s always that old fallback, the Halloween Date Track. First and last seen on Halloween of 2018, when Acid Witches’ sinister October 31st took the holiday position.

This one reminds me of Kaye Lande’s Halloween, in that it’s set to a piece of classical music. In fact, all the Songs For Little Folks are, that was the whole point, I guess.

For Kay Lande it was Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns Danse Macbre.

In the case of Bob Hannon, it’s Evard Grieg’s In The Hall of the Mountain King, which is no stranger to being used and abused.

As far back as Fritz Lang’s M and further, and as recently as this years ad for the Bob’s Burgers movie, and countless commercials, trailers, video games, cartoons and TV shows in between, In The Hall of the Mountain King has been ringing in your ears your whole life. You know the tune.

The song is even said to have inspired the Inspecter Gadget theme, which – now that they mention it – yeah, fuckin-a it did!

But what is it?

Well, it was a piece of incidental scoring from the 1867 Henrik Ibsen play, Peer Gynt. The play is all about trolls or whatever and this dude named Peer enters their mountain abode with the Mountain King’s daughter or something. The King wants them to bang I think, which is weird, and that act will turn Peer into a Troll, which is good for the King somehow. I dunno, it was in Norwegian, Mac, I didn’t understand.

At any rate, for our final song of Halloween 2022, here’s On October 31 (Halloween Song) by Bob Hannon.

Thanks for tuning in, everybody! We’ll see ya soon with some new additions to the site, some rare finds and some new episodes of Shindig Radio!

Have a Happy Halloween!

The Night Before Halloween

TRACK #331:

The Night Before Halloween by Bill Buchanan

I often see people lament, upon hearing a new Halloween Song, that there just isn’t enough Halloween music in the world.

This is understandable. It’s definitely not as ubiquitous as Christmas music, cause radio stations and stores aren’t exactly blasting that shit the minute the autumnal equinox hits. And there’s certainly not nearly as much of it, but it’s out there. You’d never know it, cause no one plays it, but it’s around. And there’s a decent amount of it too.

I mean, we literally just cleared 330 tracks on The Shindig here. Now granted, the lion’s share of those songs are not specifically Halloween songs. However, thanks to my handy category search it’s easy to determine (unless, of course, I forgot to tag something properly and you‘re nice and patient) that a good 64 of those songs are specifically Halloween songs, give or take a couple that aren’t really talking about Halloween. But they probably say it, and hey that’s worth something, right?

And I know, that’s really a drop in the pumpkin compared to Christmas songs, and there certainly isn’t enough, I’ll agree with that. But that’s more than those people probably think there are, and there’s plenty, and I mean plenty, more Halloween songs I have yet to, or will ever, include on this playlist.

What I mean to say, which I already sort of said before I said all that other stuff I probably didn’t even need to say, is that they’re out there, you just gotta look. Or, just get on over to Halloween Shindig, cause we do the lookin’ for ya.

Take tonight’s song for example. Here we have the best of both worlds and there’s a good chance you’re not familiar with this tune. I wasn’t for many years and I run a damn Halloween music blog. It’s shameful probably, but I eventually found it, stuck it in the old bullpen, and tonight is it’s night to shine!

Because well, it’s the night before Halloween! Ya know, Cabbage Night…

or Devil’s Night, Mischief Night, Corn Night, Gate Night, Goosey Night, Beggar’s Night or whatever the hell goofball, homespun regional nonsense the town you grew up in decided to call the night before the already the night before an actual holiday.

What’s that business all about? Seriously, how far back does this shit stretch? Does the 29th get its own fuckin’ name? Is that Grabber’s Night? Or is that too close to Goosey Night? What about the 28th? Can’t it be a night too? How bout Tugger’s Night? Where does this shit end?

Whatever it is you call this night, which for some reason has it own goddamn name too, here’s a song all about it. It’s a play on the old Night Before Christmas poem, with a Halloween twist, from singer/songwriter Bill Buchanan.

Bill is probably best known for his break-in style novelty record team-ups with none other than Halloween compilation staple Dickie Goodman. We’ve yet to feature any Dickie Goodman on the playlist, but he’s actually got a song slated for somewhere in the 330’s, so we’ll be hearing from him real soon. At least in Playlist time, anyway.

This tune came before Bill ever hooked up with Dickie though, way back in 1962. The B-side to this 45 was a song called Beware, and it’s a pretty boppin’ Vampire-Halloweener in its own right.

For now though, we’re gonna keep it timely, and wish you all a Happy Whatever the Fuck Night with The Night Before Halloween.

Enjoy!

Halloween (Bill Ervin)

TRACK #330:

Halloween by Bill Ervin

So, we’ve reached a true 10-slot on this “Halloweens-til-Halloween” run, but what’s a Halloween playlist to do? We’ve just spent the last 11 days burning out potential 10-slot candidates (and some good ones too) on this ill-advised-if-I-wanna-keep-having-actual-Halloween-songs-to-write about Halloween celebration. So, what do you do, I ask?

Well, you drop the best damn Halloween song you’ve dug up all year, that’s what you do.

And that’s what we did. And this is a true new-find for 2022. This didn’t have to wait in the bullpen for even a season.

And after this many years, and this many songs, the fact that there’s still Halloween songs out there to find – and true Halloween Songs at that – and even true Halloween Songs that are this fun – is pretty crazy.

Though I will admit, after this year’s exhaustive digging, I’m pretty sure that’s coming to an end. With the exception of 2 very specific hold-outs I have yet to be able to hear, if there’s a Halloween song out there that isn’t already on this playlist, it’s probably in the bullpen at this point, or has been permanently benched.

And I know what you’re thinking, there’s no chance this is a good song. Ole Chef’s Salad up there ain’t instilling a whole lot of confidence in ya. I get it. Cause what the fuck is that, right? Fuckin’ Chef’s Salad? That’s about as Halloweeny as an Easter basket.

I mean, I guess the orange and green is sort of Halloweeny. That 70’s aesthetic might maybe lead one to believe something halfway listenable is laying in wait. But if you don’t like music that’s almost 50 years old, then even that line of thinking is a bust.

But trust me, this one’s a winner. It’s not one of those not really about Halloween Halloween songs either. This is a true blue Halloween jam. And it’s not one of those short and mildly irritating, sung by a weird lady or balding dude for some record that teachers were supposed to play in their classrooms in 1972 songs either. Though in fairness, I usually avoid them, but there’s a few of those that are pretty good, too. Even some classics, and there’s definitely a few waiting for their number to be called.

No, this is a real song, sung by – ok, just some guy no one really heard from otherwise, but still a dude with access to potential mainstream success. It’s a song.

The Chef’s Salad things a bit weird, I’ll give ya that. This appears to have been a compilation album released by producer Wayne Wadhams in an attempt to capture and then market the thriving music scene in Boston and New England during the mid-70’s. Since most of the acts don’t seem to have made any waves following it’s release, I’m not sure Wayne was all that successful to that end.

What he did successfully manage to do however, for some odd reason, was capture one hell of a Halloween song. Now, why Bill Ervin would compose this tune, or why even Wayne thought it was a shinning example of the city’s music scene at the time, is anyone’s guess. I mean, I’m glad they did don’t get me wrong, but it seems like an odd choice for a music sampler LP.

Interesting side note here on this song in regards to it’s placement with Pete Antell’s It’s Halloween.

You may notice it begins the exact same way Pete and Ray’s song began. You may even notice that a lot of songs around here feature this little lick. Even Heavy Metal Halloweener’s Iron Cross used it, much to Mikey’s chagrin. And beyond that, you know this little ditty. You’ve heard it a million times in various places, but what the hell is it?

Well, it’s a tune called Mysterioso Pizzicato, which is sometimes referred to as The Villain’s Theme.

It was a piece of generic sheet music found in The Remick Folio of Moving Picture Music which was published in 1914. This book was used by piano accompanists playing live music during the silent film era. It was meant to indicate the presence of a bad guy, a villain if you will, or some other such sneaky or unscrupulous bastard. And boy, did it.

At almost 120 years old, you still recognize this, that’s how ubiquitous it became over time. Even to the point of cliche, hence Mikey’s chagrin over Iron Cross.

Maybe you’re familiar with this one. Maybe it’s been a long-standing Holiday must for some of ya’ll out there. But I’ve been digging around for just this kind of thing for years, and for whatever reason, it took me this long to find this one. But I’m sure glad I finally did, cause it immediately stood out to me as a tune I couldn’t believe I hadn’t even heard before, much less didn’t have on The Shindig.

So here it is, love it or leave it (either way, we’re definitely keeping it) it’s Halloween by Bill Ervin.

It’s Halloween (Stop Look and Listen)

TRACK #329:

It’s Halloween (Stop Look and Listen) by Pete Antell

Since everyone’s all Myersed-up right now from Halloween Ends and Fallacy and since over here (a year behind) we’re still yakin’ about Halloween Kills, we thought it’d be a perfect time to drop this addition.

One of the few moments of genuine interest I experienced while watching Halloween Kills last year was the introduction of Big John. A curious tune began to play during the establishing shots of the Myers house. A tune I was unfamiliar with. Even as it played, I couldn’t quite tell if it was a bonafide Halloween oldie I had just never heard before or some new song made to sound old.

I stayed through the whole credits of that dumb movie just to find out the name of that song.

Turns out it was It’s Halloween (Stop Look, and Listen) by Pete Antell, and the answer to that question, evidently, is somewhere right in the middle.

The song was apparently written by musician and band leader Raymond “Dutch” Wolff way back in 1952. According to his daughter, Melora (who provides several bits of interesting history via the YouTube listing where this song debuted) it was a tune he used to sing to the children when they were all young.

However, the song was never actually recorded. At least it hadn’t been until Wolff’s friend, a musician/singer/songwriter and producer named Pete Antell urged him to lay down the track.

So, they all set about recording it, getting the old band back together as it were, with Pete on vocals and Ray himself firing up the sax. They then released the track in 2012 on YouTube, where it stayed, mostly under the radar, for almost 10 years until it magically appeared in David Gordon Green’s Halloween Kills.

Then, it blew up. Thousands upon thousands of views and hundreds upon hundreds of comments demanding the song be released later, Pete and company dropped a digital single onto streaming platforms within a couple of weeks.

Curiously though, they changed the name of the song to Stop Look and Listen, It’s Halloween for its official release. I’m not sure why exactly, and I rather prefer it’s original title, but hey, it’s their tune.

Pete is kind enough to pop into his own YouTube comments thread at times, but most of his responses are terse and lack elaboration. Trust me, I read through all 800 and whatever of them just to try to dig up information on this track.

And though I’m sure you’re aware, I’d just like to say here, a YouTube comments section is an awful place to spend any amount of time.

Pro-tip for young YouTubers reading: no one gives a shit why you’re there watching a video, or even that you are. Please refrain from wasting peoples time and bandwidth with the unnecessary and tiresome “Here cause of Halloween Kills.” Yeah, no shit.

Oh, and I’d like to double that sentiment for the even more annoying “POV” prefaced “no one was watching this video until Halloween Kills.” Again, no shit, jackass. And that includes you, nimrod. Just watch the video, thumb it up and move the fuck along. Yikes.

My apologies. I just felt particularly stupefied after wading through that insipid thread for nuggets of information that were few and far between. Back to the tune!

So, though it was recorded only 10 years ago, this number has all the Hallmarks of a jazzy tune written in 1952. It’s a little piece of nostalgia that taps right into the heart of an old time Halloween, cause that’s where it originated. And I doubt I’m in the minority when I say that this, not even this scene, but exclusively this song, is the best thing Halloween Kills has to offer.

So we’ve peppered it with some H43 samples and used the original title here, as it is listed in the film, cause old or not, you got a bonafide inclusive Halloween track on your hands now.

Lead in by hometown hero Willy the Kid, on WURG, Haddonfield’s home for rock, which makes a sneeze and you’d miss it appearance there in Kills. You can expect to hear a little more Willy next year, cause you know there’s nothing we like more around here than Horror movie DJs. And Halloween Ends put Willie right in the drivers seat, as he opened up that whole shitshow with the Halloween monster party playlist staple and Shindig bullpenner Midnight Monster Hop by Jack and Jim. Which, true to the precedent set by its predecessor, is the single best part of that whole movie.

We got kind of a Halloween thing happening here right now, so we’ll just have to leave that ditty in the pen for one more year.

Until then, stop look and listen…it’s almost Halloween!

Halloween (Fallacy)

TRACK #328:

Halloween by Fallacy

For our third and final Heavy Metal Halloween melter from 1986, we’re coming back stateside with this rare and low-fi demo from Las Vegas’ Fallacy.

It’s not uncommon for heavy metal bands to write a song about Halloween. Indeed, The Shindig is littered with them. It’s also not uncommon for those bands to just go ahead and name that song “Halloween.” Fallacy’s tune will bring the grand total of literal Halloween heavy metal tracks to 9. And don’t worry, cause there’s more in the bullpen.

What’s also not uncommon, but certainly less not uncommon, if for those bands to directly tapped into John Carpenter’s classic theme. Wasted, Fondlecorpse, and Warhammer are all culprits, and you can add Fallacy to the pile, cause they bring that sinister 5/4 theme right out the gate. They veer off ultimately, but even a lick is good enough for us.

Fallacy wasn’t long for the world, and not much info is floating around for them except some posts trying to clear up the (no surprise here) common confusion of them with a band named Fallacy from Michigan. In addition to the rare cassette-only 1986 demo Fall and Remain (which can be heard in poor quality on YouTube) they appeared to have only have one other release. It’s a live cassette of show from the same year which features these and a few other tunes. Check out this dope flyer. I’m not sure if that tape is from this show, but who cares:That’s metal as fuck, and 6 buck? Not bad for a night of thrash.

It’s a shame they never got a clean album recorded, cause Fall and Remain rips. I’ll say the vocals could be stronger, but the band (particularly the drummer) are just mowing these songs down. I certainly wouldn’t mind having a cleaner cut of this song, that’s for sure. I eq’ed some of the wildly excessive bass outta that YouTube copy, but I’m no mixing engineer, and it’s still a pretty ragged recording. My apologies. If i ever run across a better rip, I’ll definitely update the playlist.

Since the boys from Fallacy seem to be directly referencing Halloween 2 here, and that one never got a proper Heavy Metal Halloween tune of it’s own, we’re headed back to Haddonfield, Illinois on Halloween Night of 1978, for more of the night he came home.

So grab a service revolver and buck 6 shots…and then for sure tell everyone that excessively for the rest of the night, so much so that reporters can overhear you and then immediately jam that information into radio news updates about the ongoing search for Michael Myers.

Here’s Fallacy with Halloween!

Halloween Night (Fortress)

TRACK #327:

Halloween Night by Fortress

It’s time to feel the steel with our second Samhain shot, a song that also happens to be from 1986.

This ones hails from traditionally neutral Switzerland, and takes aim at our Hallowed Eve via brute force and a stern warning. It’s Fortress and their track Halloween Night.

Unfortunately, not much seems to be known about this band, and the tune comes from their lone release, the 4-track EP Take the Night.

So little is this band discussed that only 1 image of the album even appears to appear online. It’s pretty low rez and it’s the album cover you see above, which I snatched from discogs.

Where did Fortess come from? Where have Fortress gone? Why are there so many other fuckin bands named Fortress? Seriously.

Encyclopedia Metallum lists 20 bands in total with the name Fortress. Are you kidding me? It took me 5 minutes just to determine which Fortress was this Fortress, only to discover they didn’t have any damn information about them anyway. Beautiful.

Well, since we don’t know anything about Fortress, we’re just gonna talk about this now I guess, because…fuckin’ Fortress? Really? That’s the band name that’s getting into double digits? It’s not even a good band name! I mean, it’s alright, but it don’t sound nearly as tough as all these dudes seem to thinks it sounds.

It’s 1 word with 2 syllables, and that’s always a solid move for a band name. Straight to the point and harsh. Slayer, Vemon, Krokus, it just works. So I’ll give them that. But while it does have the upfront punch of “Fort,” that double S at on the back end really weakens up the whole affair.

So why are so many groups clamoring for this name? Cause it’s strong and keeps out invaders? Cause it can’t be penetrated? What’s the allure? Cause it can’t be the phonetics of this thing.

I’m not sure, but for 20 bands, spanning 3 decades, Fortress connected. And from all across the globe too! Hungary, Bavaria, Poland, Australia, even the Netherlands, all have Fortresses. Hell, the US accounts for almost half of them with 8 different Fortresses!

You wanna tell me one or two, sure. Bands unwittingly named each other the same shit all the time, particularly in the days before the internet.

But the The Metal Archives at Encylopedia Metallum have been around since 2002, people. Almost half the bands using this name came into existence after 2006. What?

Any band naming themselves post-2002 has no fuckin’ excuse. You come up with a some generic-ass nonsense like Fortress, you cross reference that shit with The Metal Archives, see if anyone else has already used it. Chances are they have, because you’re not that creative and Metal’s been around for over 40 fuckin’ years.

Maybe one other band used it 25 years ago and no one’s ever heard them. Fine, keep Fortress. Wait, there’s 17 other bands named fucking Fortress? Put that one back on the shelf, fellas. The world doesn’t need another Fortress. It’s not that great of a band name to begin with.

The first instances of Fortress seem to appear in 1980, with one glamy lookin outfit from LA (unsurprisingly) and another in Kansas. Germany pumped one out shortly after in 1981, and then our boys from Switzerland appear in tandem with another LA band in 1983.

Now, those 2 LA acts need to check the flyers outside the Rainbow Room or some shit and get their acts together. You’re probably using the same goddamn rehearsal space on Cahuenga, for christ sakes. The rest of ya’ll early 80’s guys, I’ll cut some slack. You late 80’s Johnny-Come-Latelys have a little more latitude but not a lot, and any of you clowns from the 90’s shoulda better known better. After that, you got high speed cable internet and a fuckin’ google search bar. Use that shit. Acting like you got a real unique one on your hands and not looking that shit up is just arrogant.

However, since our boys here were pretty early adopters and all the way over in the Swiss Alps just shredding up avalanches like they were in goddamn Blood Tracks, we’re gonna let them off the easiest. They’re the the only ones with a Halloween song anyway, so they’re clearly the only one’s deserving.

But seriously, no more fuckin Fortresses, alright everybody?

Night of the Hallowe’en

TRACK #326:

Night of the Hallowe’en by Touched

We’re gonna leave the 80’s behind and set a course for an old timey Halloween. But before we do, we’re gonna take a right turn outta the discotheque, head down Mundhra Road toward High Pike Farm and make a quick stop at The Quarry. Cause we’re lookin for a little rock over here and they got all the rock we need. So, here comes a triple-barreled blast of 80’s Halloween Metal to power our trip even further back in time.

This first shot is coming at you from all the way across the pound, with the UK metal molesters, Touched, and their 1986 album Death Row.

The glam-rock stylings of Twisted Sister team up with the NWOBHM sound of early Maiden to produce the sufficiently heavy but not necessarily intimidating, Night of the Hallowe’en.

There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of info floating around about Touched, but I will say, it’s an odd band name. Not necessarily tough, now is it? Certainly not in a metal context.

I suppose they could mean like “touched,”like you might say of someone who is particularly imbecilic or perhaps even crazy. That’s sort of tough-er I suppose, but not terribly. Just kind of offensive, really. Unless they’re directing that toward themselves, I guess.

Or, they could mean this in like a “you got touched” way. But not in the good way that you’d want to be touched, but in the bad way that no one wants to be touched. But thats weird right? To name your band that? Fuckin-A right it is.

Which I guess just leaves “touched” in the good way. And that could either be physically or emotionally. Like perhaps one feels after they watch We Bough a Zoo, or Mac and Me.

But that’s decidedly not tough. In fact, it might just be the opposite of tough.

The physical (and let’s just assume sexual) connotation of “touched” is the only thing that’s really left, and even that don’t make sense as a band name. But, hey, Touched it is I guess.

And that’s before we even get into this song’s title. Cause it’s not Night of Hallowe’en, It’s Night of THE Hallowe’en.

That’s weird. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anyone put a “the” in front of Halloween. Personally, I kinda like it. It’s makes Halloween itself sound like a monster that’s gonna get ya, or an evil entity unto itself that you better watch the fuck out for.

But I had to double check the album sleeve on that one, cause dude doesn’t even say that shit in the song! And I think that would be cool. But nope, just the title. Odd move.

So, it looks like we gotta whole lotta question here with Touched and not a whole lotta answers. We’re just gonna have to leave it at that I suppose. At least for now.

But that’s ok, cause we’ve just arrive at The Quarry, so let’s wake the neighbors, and get Touched by The Hallowe’en!

Note: I realize the audio on this one’s a bit greasy. There’s 2 versions on YouTube right now (already not a great place to get the song) one that’s real low quality and another that skips a couple times. I caught and corrected one but missed the other completely. However, I have this LP en route to The Halloween Hole as we speak, so I’ll update the track here, and even give YouTubers a better option after the season wraps. So if you dig this tune, stay tuned!

Halloween (Dance Version)

TRACK #325:

Halloween by Run feat. Michael Heart

Since we’re apparently knee deep in some sort of weird shoot-out for most straight up 80’s sounding Halloween song ever, we’re gonna let the “ band” Run make their case to close us out.

Now, I’m not sure who the clear winner is, but Run definitely puts up a solid argument for themselves here, with the help of Michael Heart, who apparently arranged, wrote and provided the vocals for this track.

I guess Michael Heart is a pseudonym for Italo-producer and composer Bruno Kassar, who had a string of aliases under which he released all kinds of music. Is Run one of those?

Damned if it know, as this appears to be their sole release. The only other thing I can dig up on them is this business with Michael Heart. Since he’s a known pseudonymist, producing all sorts of shit under aliases, perhaps Run really is just another one for the fire.

That’ll have to be a Shindig mystery for another time, it seems. For now, let’s give the floor to The Phoenician himself, Mr. Michael Bruno Firefly 5 Heart Kassar with the exceedingly 80’s Halloween (Dance Version) by Run.

Halloween Shindig

The Horror Fans Halloween Playlist

halloween song