The 10 year anniversary of Halloweenshindig.com, while largely uneventful, was certainly The Year of the Halloween Song. And rightfully so. In a normal season’s run, you might get 3, maybe 4 actual Halloween songs added to the Shindig.

Now, that sounds kind of ridiculous on paper, considering this is suppose to be a Hallowen playlist, right?

Well yes, and while there’s plenty of Halloween songs, there just ain’t enough to outfit a proper party, particularly if you don’t like 80’s Metal.

But hey, if you don’t like 80’s Metal, I might recommend finding a different Halloween Playlist. Spotify and Apple Music have tons that feature popular and vaguely spooky songs that don’t have anything to do with Halloween, Monsters or Horror movies from the likes of The Weeknd, Hall and Oats, and Imagine Dragons, if you’d like.

Hell, I even saw one with Smooth Criminal on there. What in the pumpkin fuck?

Don’t get me wrong, I like Smooth Criminal and Michael Jackson is responsible for the biggest Referential Track of all time. But what business does Smooth Criminal have being played at Halloween? Moreover, what business does the person adding Smooth Criminal have making such a playlist? There are 332 other songs here you could have chose before Smooth Criminal. Even a cursory search through you’re own goddamn database could have returned something more appropriate than fucking Smooth Criminal. And no, it’s not Toxic by Britney Spears either. C’mon people! This is Halloween, for fuck’s sake.

Look, I know this is an overlong, fairly eclectic and sometimes frustrating collection of songs that don’t always appear to have anything to do with Halloween, but there is always a reason for their inclusion. And that reason isn’t “well, dude sang Thriller too, right?“ or “I mean, they say ‘maneater’ and that’s like what a monster does, right?”

I’m aware that this playlist isn’t for everyone, or even most ones. I know that the majority of these songs don’t wanna be heard by the people at the average Halloween Party. Hell, I I’ll wager they don’t wanna be heard by most people. But, if you throw a Halloween party and your guests don’t like Halloween Shindig, then buddy, you need to find some different guests.

As a very enthusiastic Shindig listener once called in and scolded us “I’m here for pumpkins, Halloween candy, movies, masks and Heavy Metal music!”

And, if that’s not why you’re here, then I guess somewhere else is probably preferable. But you’re reading this, which is a miracle unto itself, so clearly none of that applies to you.

But I was saying something, right? Before all that unnecessary vitriol?

Ah yes, The Year of the Halloween Song!

Last year we added a total of 16 new Halloween Songs to the playlist! Hell, 17 if you count M.C. A.D.E. (which I don’t) but that’s still over half the songs we added last year. Not too bad.

But it’s a new year now, and I’m dubbing 2023 The Year of The Referential Track.

We have so many fun referential tunes lined up. Tunes that have been wasting away in the bullpen for years now, and it’s time to clean house a little bit.

We’re talking straight Monster Rally referential bangers from all eras. Mostly oldies, I’ll admit, but some less oldies too, but still probably damn oldies when you get right down to it.

We got everything here from laser-specific referential tracks to generically vague referential tunes that cast a wide net. We got Referential Title Tracks, Referentially Inclusive Tracks, Referential Monster Songs and even Referential Halloween jams. It’s all references all the time and in just about every genre to boot!

We got songs from Country to Hip-Hop and from Metal to Disco (lots of Disco) and plenty of Oldies too. It’s gonna be some top-notch, referential monster madness with the Lords of Allusions in 2023 on Halloween Shindig!

So grab a shovel and dig in!