As I mentioned earlier this year (or rather in 2023 when I wrote this cause it was originally slated to appear 2 years ago!), I’ve had to dig around just a little deeper to find songs lately. And sometimes those songs just aren’t readily available.
Halloween by Abstractions is just that sort of tune. No one had this streaming. No one had it uploaded to YouTube. This was a pay to play deal for The Shindig and we were glad to shell out and be able to provide this digital version to the Halloween music loving world.
Anyway, seems about a month before we posted our version to the tube, someone beat us to the punch. Wish that dude beat me to the punch when I was trying to buy this album, but hey, it’s not like it was expensive, and the album’s not a wash or anything. I guess buying an album, ripping the audio, taking nice shots of the sleeve and cutting a YouTube video is a sure fire way to make it miraculously appear on YouTube right before I post it. This sentence was in reference to The Night of the Monster’s Party from that year, the post I’m referring to above. Then, I originally had a line here about EJ Rock’s Freaky Halloween which is (thankfully!) completely irrelevant now. That was a beautiful surprise development of the 2024 season.
Either way, Halloweenby Abstractions is there now, and now it’s here too, closing out our 2025 season and our week of Hallo-Women. The lead singer of Abstractions was Joyce Martin, who co-wrote the lyrics with Rex Martin, who also wrote the music. Are they married? Are they brother and sister? Who knows? We can only speculate. I’d like to think they’re lovers. At least, I’d like to think that only if they aren’t actually related. If they are related, I’d like to think they are definitely not lovers, cause ya know, why would I like to think they were if they were? I wouldn’t like that at all. I’ll move on.
According to Discogs, Abstractionswas from Indianapolis Indiana, which is totally corroborated by the liner notes. These also contain lyrics, which is pretty cool for an LP like this. We scanned them and ran them over our YouTube Video.
It’s a moody sort of ABBA-esque and atmospheric song of loss and self discovery, all set to the Season of the Witch. Sure, it ain’t Bill Ervin’sHalloween, but not everything can or should be, right? Songs of loss and longing fit perfectly with the season. They needn’t all be trick or treating and ghosts, right? At least not literal ghosts.
So, we’re gonna leave you now for the season with this mellow rumination and wish you all a very Happy Halloween. Thanks for stopping by again this October. We’ve got some episodes of Shindig Radio in the can already that should be slowly trickling out next year and hopefully we can record a true blue Halloween episode for you to enjoy next season.
Song Poems: that wonderful intersection of predatory con artists, studio musicians just trying to make a living and average Americans with a pen in their hand and a song in their heart. The things born of this unlikely junction are works of wholly unique art that, stripped of even just one of their 3 components, would cease to be the kind of special that they are.
If you’re unfamiliar, Song-Poems were a strange sort of scam with roots that can be traced back to almost the very beginning of recorded music itself.
Unscrupulous “producers” would put ads in the backs of pulpy publications looking for the next big thing with the promise of fame and unfathomable royalties. Could that be you?
They’d solicit “Song-Poems,” a sort of a condescending shorthand for “lyrics” that they figured the unwashed masses could understand. You’d send them your “song-poem” for “evaluation” (which it would invariably pass) and then the onslaught of salesmanship would pour in. Which, of course, was followed by entreaties for money.
See, they’d have their army of highly skilled professionals record your song, and then put the weight of their aggressive marketing department behind you to make it a hit! Cause your song was just that good. All you had to do was fork over some money, which would be nothing compared to the amount of money you’d make once your song hit the top!
Only there was no top, because there was no marketing. There was just some studio, filled with working class musicians cranking out maybe 12 of these things a day as fast they could. Then they’d slap those puppies on wax and shoot ‘em your way. Now you got a song. Thanks! Onto the next mark.
It was a weird scam, because these companies actually made good with the records, which seems like it would involve far more effort than it was worth. But I guess not, because there are literally hundreds upon hundreds of these things floating around, and lord knows how many that are still undiscovered. For collectors of the bizarre, they’re like a dream come true.
And it is from this unlikely Venn Diagram of greedy but thrifty producers, talented yet rushed musicians and inexperienced and possibly batshit songwriters that these wholly unique, outsider-esque but semi-polished and sometimes tonally discrepant head-scratchers were born. And thank the maker.
As you might imagine, there’s a metric stocking’s worth of Christmas Song-Poems. There’s even a whole compilation of them that’s easily heard called Daddy, Is Santa Really Six Foot Four? Hell, some of those tunes even appear on our That’s One Weird Ass Christmasplaylist.
However, as you might also imagine, the world isn’t exactly inundated with Halloween Song-Poems. In fact, there’s only 2 that I’m aware of, thus far anyway.
You’ve got the virtually non-existent Halloween by Cinema Records’ in-house band The Real Pros. This one seems so rare that the only mention of it I can even find is the discogs page which states it’s from 1979. It has never sold, no one owns it, and apparently only 1 person other than me even wants the damn thing. And that person better be prepared for a serious fight if one finally does appear for sale.
The other song seems equally rare, but a year ago, some kind soul whom has done the world a great service, posted it to YouTube. And that song is tonight’s inclusion, Charles E. Warren’s The Halloween Queen as sung by Buddy Mix.
Now, a lot of Song-Poem enthusiasts don’t seem to have the same amount of love for the Song-Poems of the late 70’s and 80’s. I’m not sure why though, because I love ’em. Some of my favorites are from this era; AIDS Is Out, Spock and Lucifer are all fantastic. There’s something about the lifeless drum machines, synth heavy arrangements and 80’s stylings that suits the slapdash nature of these weird songs so well.
Rainbow Records seem to be the leading purveyors of such song-poems, cranking out as many as 24 Hollywood Gold albums, each boasting roughly 16 songs a piece. Now that’s somewhere in the vicinity of 400 songs, from just one label, during just the 1980’s. At least I think it’s the 80’s. Sounds like it would have to be, but those damn records ain’t got no dates on ‘em. Go fig.
Buddy Mixhere is featured on most of the early installments. All the Hollywood Gold albums have the same art and are differentiated by a strange 3 digit number code. This one’s HG-504. It seems like they started at 500, but 500 and 501 appear to be unaccounted for on the American Song Poems Music Archives. I have HG-548, which is also not present on the archive, but that page hasn’t been updated in over 10 years, so I’m not sure how definitive that discography is any longer.
Between the different records he appears on, Buddy’s got roughly 30 of these things under his belt, and that’s not too shabby.
Here, he lends his vocal stylings to a song about a stripper from San Francisco. At least I think it’s a stripper, anyway. One can never be too sure, and there’s room for interpretation here, I think. What the hell that has to do with Halloween exactly, I couldn’t rightly say, but man do I think I love it more for that fact.
I suppose you could suggest her role as a stripper (or even perhaps as a woman) is a disguise – her costume if you will – and doing that every night to earn a living could very well make her a Queen of Halloweening. Then again, there’s maybe a more compelling argument that The Halloween Queen is in drag, or even trans perhaps, adding an extra and fairly compelling layer of complexity to the whole affair. Maybe I’m reading too much into Charles E. Warren’s writing. Maybe I’m offending him. If so, I apologize. Whatever’s going on, it’s turning his flame up higher than he’s ever seen.
Seriously though, I have written far too many words now for what amounts to a weird song written by some guy who thought maybe it might be a hit cause some fast talking producer convinced him it could be. Or who knows, maybe he just wanted to hear it recorded and had an extra couple hundred bucks laying around. Either way, we win with Charles E. Warren’s The Halloween Queen.
So, thank you Chuck, Buddy, all the session musicians over at Rainbow and whichever producer decided this one…ya know…“made the cut.” Without y’all we wouldn’t be able to count a Song-Poem amongst the ranks of Halloween Shindig, and what sort of an wannabe all-inclusive musical compendium would that make it?
Our next proclamation for the Queen comes from a male subject of the court, a one Mr. Bily Snel. And short of being a Monster Rap performed by a Lil Bow Wow in a witch hat, this is about as diametrically opposed to Acid’sHalloween Queenas we can get.
From that watershed year of Monster Rock, 1958, comes this rockabilly hit from a guy who never released another one after. There’s a b-side to this one called One Too Many Heads, which is hedging on a Monster song, but doesn’t take the full plunge. Other than that, Bily’s out.
Now, most folks with a lone record to their name don’t tend to have lots of information floating around the internet about them. That’s doubly true if the record in question is some random novelty song about a Halloween lady. Some will have a Wikipedia blurb maybe, or something scrawled on Rate Your Music perhaps, but little in the way of sourced, reliable information. Bily, on the other hand, has a very curious entry on a page called askART.com, because evidently, Bily was much better known as a painter than as a singer.
Bily has a lot of mix-media pieces to his name, but largely his portfolio consist of clown illustrations like that one pictured here. He even published a book called My Musical Coloring Bookin 1963, that had a clown on the cover. Guy liked clowns, I guess. Seriously. Type in “Bily Snel Painting” and you’re gonna get a ton of clowns.
Anyway, I said the entry was “curious” because, well, because it exists, but also because the information it presents is a little inconsistent. Being born in 1925, William Scott Snell it says, is listed as White on his 1943 draft card and in a 1930 and subsequent 1940 US census. They then proceed to present us with a photo that’s essentially Christoph Waltz and sure, why not. Here’s that.
Now, later on in his biography it suggests that Bily is black. Wait, what? Didn’t you just suggest his draft card and 2 different US Censuses identify him as White. Didn’t you show me a photo that looks like he’s from the East German All-Stars? I mean, one can not 100% assess a person’s race simply from photographs, sure, and certainly not from a single and very old photograph, but, am I crazy? The guy in this photo doesn’t seem even the slightest bit black to me.
Now, several other art outlets , auction or archive, claim Bily Snel is, in fact, an African American illustrator and the man responsible for the Queen of Halloween record. Ok, cool. But I have some questions for askART.com then.
Are there 2 Bily Snel’sbeing conflated together here? Is Bily Snelthe painter of clowns the same Bily Snel that’s cutting this record? This seems like a real specific way to spell both Bily and Snel for there to be 2 different Bily Snel’s. Is Bily Snel, the singular, a white guy, or is he an African Amercian? Is this picture on askART actually him, or someone else? What the hell is going on here and who the hell’s got the right info about Bily?
Race is obviously of no concern around here, particularly when it comes to dropping one of the oldest Halloween Songs known to the playlist. I just got real confused when that askART biography claimed both races and then fed me a picture of the whitest looking dude I’ve ever seen.
Whatever race Bily is, he’ll forever be enshrined in our block of Hallo-Women for his trailblazing 1958 single Queen of Halloween.
Our next 3 songs of the season are roughly the same kind of song told in 3 distinct musical styles.
Now they are for sure different songs, thematically, but they each speak on a kind of festive royalty; a Halloween Queen.
One is pretty much just “you’re far out and spooky and man that really turns my gears.” The second is essentially “Sheskinda repulsive and badass and that’s awesome.” And the 3rd? I dunno really. I guess it’s a different flavor of the first one. But we’ll cross that (very wordy) bridge when we get to it.
For now, let’s kick this off right. The first up stylistically, is Heavy Metal. Thematically, it’s the I’m ugly and awesome and fuck you and this song is definitely all 3.
From Belgium speed metal pioneer’s Acid comes Halloween Queen, which can be found on the band 3rd and final studio release, 1985’s Engine Beast.
Acid formed in 1980 as Precious Page but quickly changed their name to Acid and released their first single in 1982. Soon they were releasing full LPs and shredding across Europe with for the likes of Sabbath, Venom and Motörhead. Non-heinous!
Not only were they pioneers in the speed/thrash scene, they were one of the first metal bands to be fronted by a female singer. Her name was Kate De Lombaert and she’s a total badass, a Halloween Queen even, though she is singing in 3rd person her, so maybe this is not exactly autobiographical.
Here she is rocking a Dracula cape and lookin mighty dangerous. Definitely non non-non non-non-heinous.
What better way to wrap up of week of Hallo-Women than with a run of Halloween Queens, and what better Queen to lead the charge than a Halloween Queen herself.
There was no shortage songs featuring female performers waiting in the bullpen that could have easily taken the lead-off spot here for our Hallo-Women block.
But there was one Hallo-Women I had in mind when I cooked up this run. One very specific and overlooked Hallo-Woman in particular. And that woman, is Jan Terri.
We original featured Jan’s Halloween anthem Get Down Goblin in 2020 on our Halloweird episode of Shindig Radio. The intention was to put her on the playlist the following season, but every year since, Jan has gotten unceremoniously pushed, shushed, blocked and bumped each time. Well no more! Because if we’re gonna celebrate Hallo-Women and not include Jan Terri again, well then you can just pull the plug on this whole damn thing.
But why wasn’t Jan Terri and Get Down Goblin already on the playlist before that? Well, it’s a damn fine question.
Some of you listeners may know Aaron Matthews. He’s a pretty big Shindig fan and a friend of ours from way back in the Monessen, Pennsylvania days. In fact, I’d wager to guess he was right there when the very first CD which bore the name “Halloween Shindig” was spinning in the Academy Arts building. So he’s an OG of the highest order.
Well, back in 2020, he sent me this song and asked me if it was gonna be making the playlist that year. I had to inform him that, in fact, it was not, because it was literally the first time I was even hearing the song. He couldn’t believe it. And after I had a listen, I couldn’t believe it either. How had I never heard of Jan Terri? This had been a massive blind spot the whole time. I promptly squeezed Jan onto the Halloweird episode that year, but the playlist was already laid out. All the above transpires, and here we are.
Now, if you’re unfamiliar with Jan Terri, or only know her songs but not her story, here’s a small bit of history to bring you up to speed.
Jan Terri is a bit of a Chicago legend. When she was young, she was in a jug band her mother, while her dad used to perform a black face act called Black Elvis at local bars. Whoa, ok then. Both of her parents were also an accomplished ballroom dancers, if that somehow cancels out the black face for you. In the highly likely event that it most certainly does not, I can somewhat confidently say Jan herself was not part of that act, nor has (to my knowledge anyway) performed in black face herself. Phew!
When Jan was older, she worked as a limo driver in the Windy City. Around that time she began recording songs and shooting backyard videos. She used to hand these tapes out relentlessly to her limo clients hoping one of them, or someone they knew, could help her hit it big.
And it worked! At one point one of these clients tossed one of these videos at a young Marilyn Manson, and the rest, as they say, is history. She would even end up opening for him in the Chicago area in the late 90’s. Talk about a weird lineup.
When The Av Club asked her if she wrote Get Down Goblin for kids Terri said…
“No, I wrote it because the only major [Halloween] song that I remember was “Monster Mash,” and there wasn’t another one if you don’t count “Thriller,” which I don’t really count. There was not another Halloween song, and that’s why I wrote “Get Down Goblin.” That’s why I wrote [“Rock And Roll Santa”]. All the other artists were just redoing other songs. There weren’t any really cool Christmas songs out there when I was writing.”
Now, we’ll forgive Jan for not realizing there was literally dozens of other Halloween songs, because if she knew that then maybe we would never have been blessed with this Halloween song, and we’re all better off for it. I know The Shindig is at least.
For an extra bit of festive joy, I highly recommend the Get Down Goblin video to everyone listening, because it is great.
So, let’s finally welcome Jan Terri off the Halloweird playlist and onto the Playlist proper. C’mon, it’s October 25th, and Halloween is less than a week away! Get Down Goblins!
Exactly 50 songs ago, when another Disco Block was coming to an end, I lamented that there weren’t any true-blue Halloween Disco songs.
But I did name drop a band called Number One Ensemble and alluded to them getting their day on the playlist. Well, we’re at the end of another Disco Block and that day is today.
Number One Ensemble was an Italy Disco/Italo-Disco band from the late 70’s and early 80’s. And it’s true, they have a decidedly Disco-enough sound to be considered as such. Unfortunately, their ode to the holiday, simply titled Halloween, does not seem to have that same disco sound. It’s plays more like a standard sort of early 80’s rock song, honestly, not that that’s a bad thing, it’s just maybe not what you wanna end a Disco Block with. But, as mentioned, this is pretty much it for Halloween specific “disco” songs, from what I can tell anyway. I’d love to be treated one day to an awesome, previously unaware to me Disco Halloween banger.
But that’s ok though, this song doesn’t really need to be an out and out Disco tune for our purposes here, and besides, I like this song! It’s been available our our YouTube page for a few years now and it’s been hanging out in the bullpen for what seems like forever, so here it comes.
Plus, it’s a good way to kick off the next Block’s theme, which is Hallo-Women! We’ve got an 11 track run coming at ya of songs either performed by women (8) or specifically about spooky women (the other 3.)
I’m pretty pumped for this upcoming block, as it contains my favorite addition of the season, 2 awesome title tracks, 1 Halloween mistress we haven’t heard from in years, several long suffering benchwarmers and the first Song-Poem to hit The Shindig!
I’m running a little behind schedule this season, but we’re gonna try to slam all of these in before the big day. So let’s drop the needle of Number One Ensemble and get this thing going, cause we got 7 days to clear 11 songs before Halloween!
Seems we haven’t heard from Shindig All-Stars Acid Witch in like 3 years. What? Is that even real? How can that be? That doesn’t sound right.
But it’s true, and what’s more, last time we didn hear from ’em it was when we hit 300 tracks, of all occasions. Weird.
Well, we’ve now hit 400 tracks and though we didn’t give the boys the hundred spot, 401 with that lead in ain’t too shabby.
After 400 songs though, with my own energy waning for this endeavor, Acid Witch’s I Hate Halloween seemed like an appropriate flag to place at this important milestone. After 13 years, all this Halloween has gotten to me. I’m sick of all this spooky bullshit! So much orange! Too many skeletons! More fuckin’ songs about Dracula?! Enough of this shit! I wanna start a blog about 4th of July music, or write too many sentences about four-leaf clovers, or line my walls with vintage Valentines Day cards.
I jest. I mean, I am starting to get a little tired of all this, but I obviously do not hate Halloween. I mean, at least not as much as the Christian Fundamentalist dick bag featured in tonight’s song.
See, Glenn is a liar. He’s certainly not the only one in the Pagan Invasion Series, and gems definitely not the only one in that volume, but he may be the biggest. But that’s how the Satanic Panic rolled, innit? Make wild baseless claims about some wild ass life you lived prior to being saved by Jesus and just trot that shit out like you’re talking about how you used steal candy bars from Cumberland Farms. You did what? You drank blood and got ritually abused!? Cool! Now you’ve got a testimony so unimaginably insane and scary ain’t no Grandma in the congregation second guessing that shit.
Thankfully, critical thinking exists for the rest of us heathens who aren’t taking that claptrap at face value. Heathens like Kerr Cuhulainor Cassidy McGullicuddy that absolutely second guessed that shit, and bless their hearts.
Like take Glenn here, who fully admits to murdering a little girl. Like, murdering her, with an M. He says this shit, on video, that he murdered another human being. Of course he was just a child and someone kinda made him do it and that was after some ritual sexual abuse they both received as members of the Satanic cult into which they were born. Oh yeah, I totally believe you Glenn, you seem like a real straight shooter.
What do you mean you murdered her? What about once you found Christ? Did you tell anyone else about this shit, I mean other this interviewer? Was there was no investigation? No police? No parents behind bars for these heinous acts?
Oh, that’s just some shit that happened before, but you’ve since moved on from all of that cause you got saved and that little girl was bred in secret so no one knew she even existed, so no one even she knew she was missing? Oh, ok. I got it now. Makes sense. What’s the statute of limitations on murder? Oh, never? Yeah, that’s what I thought.
But the petrified pearl clutchers that would be watching this thing in earnest were just eating it up. I’d love to say this was only possible because the internet didn’t exist yet and calling people out for their bullshit was a bit trickier. But nowadays all sorts of people, elected fucking officials even, just blast all kinds of lies right on the goddamn timeline and nothing comes of that shit. It’s 2025. Nothing really matters past a 10 day news cycle. Telling dumb shit fundamentalists you used to be a werewolf or sacrificed a small girl on Halloween at the height of the Satanic Panic was like giving candy to a Trick or Treater.
Glenn was too late though. That same Satanic Panic was winding down by the time he jumped the gravy train. He had to pack it up and go be an actual preacher, which he did in the 2000’s at the Lake Elisinore Christian Center in California. And wouldn’t you know it!? He’s had sermons talking about his family and not once does him seem to mention being a Generational Satanist. Damn Glenn, that seems like that would be a pretty formative piece of your childhood to just leave out of the sermons now, wouldn’t you say? Doesn’t murdering a small girl for Satanists seem relevant to your congregation? Oh well, I guess. That was a long time ago.
Or let’s see, you got Mike Warnke’s totally not at all fake book The Satan Seller, Michelle Smith’s even more not fake book Michelle Remembers , or hell Lauren Stratford Satan’s Underground, an account so extra legit Lauren Stratford isn’t even her real fuckin’ name! Or who could forget Beatrice Sparks, who doubled down on her preternaturally genuine Go Ask Alice, with 1979’s Jay’s Journal, also extremely not hogwash. Then you’ve got everyone involved in the McMartin Preschooland Little Rascals Daycare scandals, and god knows how many other examples one could scrounge up. It’s a lot of bullshitters doing a whole lot of bullshitting, all in the name of…I dunno. Money? Notoriety? God? Their own sense of purpose? Who knows?
So, is Halloween all evil and shit? I dunno, probably. I mean, look at it. It’s way more likely that it is than it isn’t. But I don’t rightly know. What I do know is that all these didos who ran around in the 80’s crying bloody Satanic murder about it were all completely and verifiably full of shit. Charlatans, the lot of ’em, that in some cases actually did harm to people. So, fuck ‘em.
Well, here we are, 400 tracks. It’s wild to think that this playlist has made it to 400 songs. If you had asked me back in 2012, when I first started writing about these songs on Tumbler, if I’d still be doing this in 2025, I’d have said you were nuts. I wouldn’t have been surprised that there were 400 songs (there’s always been too many songs to talk about) but I would have been surprised I had actually kept up the practice consistently enough to make it to 400.
So, this one should probably be a special kind of addition. And though after 399 songs you might imagine we’ve exhausted the reserves, I think we have just the right creepy old tune to ring in the occasion; a tune that’s been sitting patiently in the bullpen, waiting for the right moment to arrive and I think 400 is just that moment.
The name Oscar Brandmight not be immediately familiar to some readers, unless of course those readers happen to be pretty big fans of Folk music. Cause Oscar was an incredibly influential cornerstone of the folk music scene of the mid-20th century. A Canadian by birth, Oscar moved to at the United States at a fairly young age. Despite that, he played extensively in Canada throughout his career and even hosted the Canadian Television program called Let’s Sing Out in the mid 60’s. which gave the world their first views of artists like Joni Mitchell, Dave Van Ronk and Phil Ochs.
While Oscar was an accomplished musician in his own right and his television show was a big hit, his most enduring contribution is without a doubt his radio program, Oscar Brand’s Folksong Festival.
For 70 years Oscar hosted this New York AM radio program, the longest running radio program with a singular host in the history of American broadcasting. The show ran from 1945 until Oscar’s death in 2016 and was hugely responsible for ushering in the folk era of American Music. It was this show that introduced America to practically every singer/songwriter you can name. Interviews with Woody Guthrie, Dylan, Peter Paul and Mary, Joan Baez, and Peter Seeger (among countless others) were all broadcast to the country first by Oscar on WNYC-AM 820.
However, the most incredible aspect of the program was that Oscar did it as a complete labor of love. He received no payment for the entire run of the show. In an effort to keep it an uncensored bastion of free speech, safe from disingenuous attack, he ran it exclusively as a public service, even forgoing payments to the artists that appeared.
This freedom would become incredibly important as Oscar’s show grew up during McCarthyism, where many of the folks singers Oscar interviewed were being considered “Communist.” Oscar provided a platform for blacklisted artists to speak out without fear of financial repercussions because there weren’t any purse strings that could be used to pull him. That didn’t stop the House Un-American Activities Committee from branding his program “a pipeline to communism” for essentially providing Americans the ability to exercise their first amendment right.
Though he released over 60 albums since 1949, it is his 1979 release Trick Or Treat: Hallowe’en Celebrated In Story And Song that brings us here tonight. This full blown Halloween record featuring songs and stories for children makes for great vintage holiday listening. It’s like what The Old Gray Goose’s album might sound like if Goose was an accomplished folk singer and a more disciplined storyteller that didn’t have such a thick accent. I know that sounds 100% less awesome than The Goose (and it is, to be sure) but it definitely makes for a much more, shall we say, reasonable album.
Out of all these songs and stories, our selection for the evening and our 400th track has got to be Hallowe’en, Hallowe’en. Oscar attempts to tell some visiting trick or treaters a Halloween story, but when they show absolutely zero interest and beat feet, he decides we need to hear it instead. A bit presumptuous to just assume we wanna hear this shit if the kids didn’t, you ask me. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t.
So let’s sit back this October evening and let a folk legend tell us a spooky story about the origin or our haunted Holiday.
Making sure we remain Hard Til Halloween is Texas thrashers Juggernaut with All Hallow’s Eve from their 1986 debut album, Baptism Under Fire.
Despite releasing 2 full studio albums back-to-back on Metal Blade Records, opening some shows for King Diamond and having the kind of talent that would later go on to outfit acts like Machine Head, Spastic Ink, S.A. Slayer, Halford, Fates Warning and Sacred Reich, Juggernaut itself never really found its groove and disbanded within 7 years of their debut release.
Which is a shame, cause this kind of mid-80’s speed metal really warms a certain corner of my heart. It’s what I think metal sounds like when I imagine it, and as such, it’s what I want metal to sound like when I hear it.
Thankfully for us, like any metal band at the height of the Satanic Panic, they delivered a face melter all about the Eve of All Hallows. In fact, they went so far as to call it All Hallows Eve.
Unless, that is, you’re looking at the center label for Baptism Under Fire. That one simply lists the song as All Hallows. The back says Eve, and the record even has a pull out sleeve with lyrics, and that says Eve too. So I’m not really sure what the deal is there. Maybe just a misprint?
What I do know is that this song rules and I was glad to dig up yet another 80’s metal All Hallows, Eve or not.
The main bumpers here are courtesy of the Tales From the Darkside installment Cutty Black Sow, a particularly ruthless Halloween episode that happens to feature a couple of cool Halloween masks, including this shot of our favorite Helloween evoking Be Something Studio’s all-star, Fang Face.
Turns out, if you gotta song called Trick or Treat, there’s like a 60% chance that shit’s got nothing to do with Halloween. And those are Shindig numbers. You take that game over to Apple Music or Spotify and you’re probably lookin at closer to 80%. Pretty damning numbers.
I’m not sure what it is about Trick or Treating that inspired so much non-festive music, but here we are. I guess it’s just a phonetically pleasing phrase that’s helpful in any number of non-holiday related situations. It does the heavy lift for you and conjures up all kinds of imagery on its own. Now, I’d argue that that imagery is exclusively Halloween based, but apparently it can mean a lot of different shit a number of (and specifically sexy) contexts.
Even King Diamond, Mr. Halloween himself, wrote a song called Trick or Treat that is not only not about the holiday, but doesn’t even reference Trick or Trreating beyond the use of the iconic phrase.
Should we be surprised then that Diamond Head, the band that asked the world if they were, in fact, evil, has a song called Trick or Treat that’s basically “women be shoppin” ?I’m not, I can tell you that much.
But of course, like Witchfynde, Fastway or even the Actual King of Rock ‘N Roll himself, Mr. Chuck Berry, the song still rocks the house. And for a band like Diamond Head, exceptions can and will be made.
Besides, sometimes just saying Trick or Treat is enough, even if you aren’t evil. But if you are? Well, that kinda changes everything.
On several occasions now I have spoken about a hard to find or incomplete song, and that has somehow seemed to simply manifest that song into availability.
The first instance was with the woefully truncated Title Track to Aerobicide. This one took years, but was finally uncovered and restored to its full glory by Giles Nuytens. Thank him. Hit like and subscribe and all of that. He’s out there in these streets doin’ the Lord’s work.
The second instance wasBit Bizzare’s Freddy Krueger rap Freddie’s Groove, a rare Hip-Hop single which also existed in an incomplete form on YouTube and was hard come by on vinyl. Shortly after our Freddy’s Rap episode and posting it to the Freddy’s Raps playlists, two different copies of the 45 suddenly presented themselves. One of these now has a permanent residence in the Halloween Hole and has thusly been uploaded to YouTube and the Freddy Raps playlist.
Similarly, the 3rd occurrence was with another Freddy Rap entitled He’s Back from LA’s own Triple Scoop. Shortly after expressing my disappointment about not being able to include that song on the same playlist, a copy not only appeared on Discogs, but some kind soul uploaded it to Youtube as well. Thank the maker.
So now, rather than avoiding tonight’s song again for yet another year, I’m just gonna let her rip, in hopes that whatever synchronistic hoodoo is going on around here can maybe work it’s magic once again.
Because for many, many years now, this song has been the Holy Grail of Halloween Shindig.
Freaky Halloween? An Electro Rap tune from 1987 specifically about Halloween? Are you kidding me? Any rap song specifically about Halloween is rare enough, but something of this nature, from this era? It had to be great.
But alas, years and years passed and I had yet to come across a single copy for sale. Only 2 registered users on Discog even owned it. 42 other users wanted it, and yet not 1 has ever sold on the platform in its 22 years of existence.
It is a song so elusive, I didn’t even know what it sounded like…
See, this guy not only recorded it through what sounded like the microphone on his cellphone, but he only uploaded a minute’s worth of the song! What kind of sick joke is this, sir?! You have, in your possession one of the rarest Halloween songs known to man, and a YouTube channel, and the wherewithal to upload the track, and this is the treatment you afford it?
I suppose we should be grateful that we have it at all. And I am, please don’t misunderstand me. But, in a way, it’s almost worse now. See, when I didn’t know what it sounded like, it was still a mystery. It still had the chance to be whack. But it’s not whack! It’s fantastic! And now curious desire has been replaced with desperate need. Desperate need that can not be satiated.
And look, I begged him. He’s in Brazil, I believe. I used multiple accounts to request he upload the full song. I even pleaded with him in Portuguese to give this song to the world, fully. But at present, he has not acquiesced.
This playlist will never be complete in my eyes without this song. This full song.
If anyone reading this post has this 45, I will pay handsomely for it. If you can not part with it, I completely understand. But could you please make a decent rip of this song and send it to The Shindig. I’d pay just as handsomely for that. Even if you don’t own it and just have access to it – please! Access it for the team, champ!
The Shindig needs this song. You need this song. The World needs this song.
Please help Halloween Shindig make this and all future Halloweens, freaky.
Until then, let us bask in what little exists of Ernest Jordan’s electro-rap masterpiece Freaky Halloween.
Now, this is all you would have read and heard, had I posted this last year when it was supposed to post. Indeed, it’s all you would have read if I had posted this 3 weeks ago…
Because that is when the hoodoo apparently worked it’s magic yet again. Just sitting in the draft folder for almost 3 years, this post stirred the spirits. And like some summoned Halloween miracle, the very same guy on YouTube, DJTuta from Brazil, posted his 45 for sale on Discogs. Get right outta town.
Of course, he posted it for an absolutely unconscionable amount of money. Well, at least for a price that was completely unjustifiable to me. The dream was shattered.
So I began to soothe myself, “C’mon. No one is gonna pay that much for Freaky Halloween. It’ll sit there unsold, he’ll eventually mark it down, and then you can rush in! It’s yours, just be patient.”
But what if it didn’t just sit there unsold? Was that a risk I was willing to take?
After a few days went by with no one purchasing the record, I was feeling reassured. But I started getting paranoid, too. I had been down this road before with other rare items. If something, even something rare, is available and every time you check on it it’s still available, you can become complacent and you drag your feet. But then bam! All of a sudden and before you know it, it’s gone. You have to just accept you had a chance and you squandered it and now you’re waiting again. What if that happened here?
Only 47 (apparently 5 more people had expressed interest in the last 2 years) other people “wanted” it on Discogs, and that’s not that many. But it was still 46 chances for someone to swoop in and scoop it up. What if this was our only chance? What if it got purchased and hoarded again and we never got to even really hear it?! What if someone else out there decided they needed Freaky Halloween more than Halloween Shindig needed Freaky Halloween?!!
Well, fuck all that business. No one needs Freaky Halloween more than Halloween Shindig, goddamn it! And The Shindig will democratize its availability and make sure that the whole world receives it, uncut and clear! This was what this site was made for, and this is what needed to be done.
But that price. That goddamn price. We simply couldn’t pay it. It was just completely unjustifiable.
But…
There’s always another “but.” We wouldn’t be talking about this still if there wasn’t another “but,” right?
Because that’s when I remembered – The Shindig coffers! Of course!!
See, there’s a specific PayPal account where all the Redbubble, TeePublic, Zazzle, Ko-Fi and Shindig Shop sales just deposit to, and it’s not my main PayPal account. It’s an account I hadn’t actually looked at in almost 4 years. And holy shit. It was possible.
Why, if not for this very reason, was there even an account? Why, if not for this express purpose, had people ever supported this foolish endeavor of ours? Why, if not to make that which is unobtainable to one, accessible to all through the power of many?
If you have ever purchased a die-cut, a sticker, a Title Tracks T-Shirt, a Shindig Radio dog blanket, a throw pillow with Kyle’s face on it, or simply given us a few buck just for the fuck of it – then this is for you. This super rare and almost unobtainium piece of Halloween music exists on this website, in its complete form and for the entire world to enjoy, because of you. All of you.
My endless gratitude goes out to each and every person who has ever contributed anything to this fund. You have made this Halloween aspiration – an aspiration you were not even aware existed – come to fruition, in the clutch, when it was absolutely needed the most. And for that, I thank you.
And you should thank each other. Because of you all, this Halloween, and every Halloween hereafter, will be a Freaky Halloween.
PS: Oh, and the song? C’mon, that synth bass? That chorus? This horn bag slangin’ it to this chick on Halloween? It’s a straight up Halloween sex song, and it’s incredible. Count Dracula, who sucked me dry? Get the fuck outta here. I love this shit. It’s so much more than I could have hoped.
Hard ‘Til Halloween. Hashtag it. It can be a thing. People can take that in any direction they want, too. Let’s put some creative shit on that tag. I don’t wanna see a bunch of boners either. A few is fine, it’s unavoidable. But let’s not have another #erectfest incident, ok? Cool.
So yeah, Heavy Metal Halloween. It’s a phrase we’ved use a lot around Halloween Shindig. Hell, our Halloween episode of Shindig Radio in 2019 was literally called A Heavy Metal Halloween.
That episode featured songs exclusively called Halloween performed exclusively by 80’s Metal bands. In fact, our last track was very much one of them. There was enough of those bastards to populate an entire episode, and we still found even more after the fact! There’s a couple in the Bullpen even, if you’ll believe that. Hell, there’s another on coming in like 10 days. It’s crazy.
So, I was pumped to stumble across this song literally called Heavy Metal Halloween. I wish it had been featured on that episode, but hey, we can’t have it all. But we can have it ring the bell for our Hard ‘Til Halloween countdown.
There is some solace in the fact that I found this after 2019 though, and that’s that despite being called Heavy Metal Halloween, this song isn’t exactly the most Metally, nor Heaviest, song we’ve ever featured. And it’s certainly not played by an aging 80’s metal band from Europe either. I think these guys are from Rhode Island in the 90’s, so it’s really just as well that it wasn’t featured.
It is performed by Great Whyte Lyin’ Snake, which, if you’re a keen-eared Metal fan, will song like a fun portmanteau of Great White, White Lion and White Snake.
The band seems to be the jokey product of performers from a variety of punk bands including Sleigher, Vague Perception, Beer and Suckface.
Oddly, the song hails from their album Great Whyte Christmas, which features a lot of fun and silly tracks including the Misfits Last Caress turned into LastChristmas. It honestly sounds a bit like Deck My Balls to me and if I didn’t know any better I’d accuse Mikey and the Crypt Keeper Five of lifting this entire concept wholesale from The Snake. This is such a weird and rare little album though, I seriously doubt that’s the case.
I might end up posting the whole thing up on YouTube, as I had to grab a hard copy to ad this song, but I’m not sure. Until then, let’s kick out this block and get Hard ‘Til Halloween with Great Whyte Lyin’ Snake’s Heavy Metal Halloween!
2022 saw no shortage of Heavy Metal tunes. I think there were 8, by my count. Not a bad showing.
But in 2023, we completely ignored metal altogether. I’m not entirely sure if that was intentional on my part. I have a sort of master list that ebbs and flows and sometimes that doesn’t always jibe with how the seasons break out. Either way, 2023 was metal-free. What a Samhain bummer.
So, for the 2024 season we’re bringing it back. We’re goin Hard ‘Til Halloween. We got Heavy Metal Halloweeners, Referential Metal and Inclusive Metal all on the docket and we’re gonna keep your head bangin’ til the costumes are hangin. And if it ain’t quite Metal, it’ll still be hard, guaranteed.
Setting off this block is a dusty old fucker you might be familiar with. See, we featured this tune on Shindig Radio’s Heavy Metal Halloween back in 2019, and I could have sworn it was already on the playlist. But it was not! So, we’re gonna set the record straight and get this straggler on the roster tonight. It’s none other than Halloweenby Avenger.
The German Power Metal Band Rage was known, for a very brief period of their prolific career, as Avenger. Seems there was a British band by that name as well, so they went ahead and changed their name to Rage.
But not before they released their first album, which incidentally includes tonight’s Shindigger, predictably called Halloween.
Like their German brethren Helloween, Avenger takes a few minutes to wail away for us about the Eve of All Hallows, taking the stance that the night is inherently evil and linked to Satan.
For the record, I’d just like to state, I am not a Devil worshipper. Nor am I a Satanist, Luciferian or otherwise. I pledge no specific allegiance to Satan, Bel, Baal, Baphomet, Set, or any creepy fuckin’ Owl gods. I’m not entirely sure a being of such report exists, nor do I think any of us are. At least, I’d like to hope none of us are aware anyway.
But assuming a sentient being representing all evil with whatever powers, attributes, motivations and intent the old books of lore (or berobed weirdos in the woods of Mendecino County) have assigned upon it does actually exist, I wish not to align myself with them.
Now, the pious might argue that by simply having a blog and a room dedicated to a day not set aside for the Lord All Mighty, I am implicitly doing exactly that. Or that in creating an entire playlist of songs that not only fail to glorify Jesus, but it most cases represent a direct affront to him, that anything else I might say on that matter would be complete and utter horseshit. Hell, they might even be right. I’m not really sure how all of that works.
But if an all-powerful and omnipotent being stands as the antithesis to such an evil being, I imagine it knows full well about my post here and is hopefully noting my rejection of any and all actual creatures it stands in opposition against. But again, probably not how all that really works. At least, not if these righteous folks are to be believed anyway.
Look, I just like the color orange and think spooky monster stuff is pretty neat. I enjoy detailed and cartoonish representations of those monsters. In particular, I love old Halloween decorations. I like hazy blow-molded lights and creased cardboard die-cuts and honey-combed tissue paper shaped like bats. I like plastic Jack O’Lanterns and Ben Cooper masks and whatever the hell that stuff is they make stretchy cobwebs out of.
I like it when the leaves turn and crunch under the feet. I like the sharp sensation of breathing a lungful of cool autumn air. I like harvest foods like apples and corn and man, pumpkins with faces carved into them sure look cool.
I like the smell of latex masks and that shitty colored hair spray. I like candy and the communal spirit of the night. I like that it is a neighborhood-centered holiday rather than a family-centered one. I have fond memories of Halloweens past, trick or treating in the crisp air and watching Halloween TV shows and scary movies after.
Perhaps I am naive. Perhaps I’m unwittingly praying to Satan everyday through these activities. I’d sure hope not, and would like to go on record as such not being my intention. And that’s because that’s just not what Halloween means to me. It means the acknowledgment and honoring of death as one season of life gives way to another. This is not evil. Nature doesn’t understand that concept. Nature just is.
But maybe that’s that naïveté. Maybe it’s not about what it means to me, or what I ignorantly think it means. Maybe there’s something entirely more sinister at play here. But I dunno. That sounds like a whole lot of self righteous, puritanical Christian bullshit to me. But maybe that’s just the devil hard at work again, manipulating me with lies.
Now, should you go the other way with this concept and think that yes, Halloween is inherently evil and fuck yeah that’s exactly why you like it and my declaration of non-allegiance to Satan seriously offends you as a reader, cause man doesn’t it seem like some pussy ass shit over here at Halloween Shindig right now, I thought they were down – then shit, I dunno.
I’m not sure what to tell you, in that case. If that’s the sort of thing that you and your Master do not particularly appreciate, then I guess I’d apologize. But what do you need that for? You’re all fuckin evil and shit, right? What do you care what I say or think? Shut the fuck up, be fuckin evil and get the fuck down on this Hard ‘Til Halloween shit, will ya?!
Our next Frankenstein adjacent track is the best kind of track; an 80’s Monster Rap.
This is a pretty rare tune it seems, and I had to ante up to catch this one. It wasn’t terribly expensive, but did take some waiting. Why this song isn’t in heavier rotation or found in more places online is beyond me.
So, we posted it up onto our YouTube channel DigTV a couple years back, as we wanted to get a clean copy out into the world asap.
But those things are fragile. Anything can get taken off YouTube at a moment’s notice and Lord knows I’m just waiting for Shindig Radio to get slapped with a cease and desist. So, we’re finally committing this one to the playlist, where it can hopefully have a second and long digital life, cause awesome vintage Monster Rap like Igor At Midnight, needs preserving.
This super referential and festive Electro Rap drops the names of everyone you’d expect, makes a reference to Halloween, and even includes a shout out to Thriller, a clear inspiration here for Cagé. I dunno bout that Darth Vader reference though, that one’s a little weird and random, but we’ll take it.
Once again, a huge shout out goes Werner Von Wallenrod and his Humble Little Hip Hop Vids for hipping me to this tune and sending me on the hunt.
From 1987, here’s the only release from Cagé (Drac. E. “D”), the extra halloweeny Igor At Midnight.
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’sHalloween (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.
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.
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 wasCharles-Camille Saint-SaënsDanse 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!
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 alreadythe 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.
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 Ervinwould 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 Crossused 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) 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!
