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!

Howdy there fellow Halloweeners, and welcome to October on the Shindig: 2022.

Last year’s playlist additions were unfortunately stalled out by the impromptu recording of a previously unplanned episode of Shindig Radio that you never even got to hear!

Man, a big swing and a miss over here at Shindig Central in 2021, huh?

Indeed it was, but no matter, cause it’s 2022 now and we’re gonna get things back on track, or at least attempt to, anyway. And that just means picking up right where we left off, as unfestive a beginning as that may prove to be.

I think it might also be worth mentioning that this year marks the 10th anniversary of Halloween Shindig on the internet. Seriously? Boy, that feels like it went by a little too quick for my liking.

If you’ve been here since the beginning, I’d like to thank you for taking a committed interest in this strange exercise I have devoted my free time in service of. And rejoice! You’re 10 years older, hopefully a little wiser and filled to the brim with all sorts of previously unimagined Halloween and horror jams.

If you’re just discovering this business recently, I’d like to thank you as well. Welcome aboard! I apologize if it seems like you’ve missed out on the more active era of this website. But hey, it’s all still here and more accessible than it ever was back then. There’s now mini-playlists, the podcast and even fun Halloween swag. Halloween Shindig has never had more to offer than it does in this very moment, and you didn’t have to wait around for any of it!

As you might imagine, simply dragging out last year’s cast-offs was certainly not what I had in mind as a celebration of hitting the 10 year mark. Indeed, several years back I had far loftier plans for the occasion. However, here we are and I doubt any of that, whatever that may have been, will come to fruition. I’ll apologize for that as well.

But if you’re here, you’re most likely here for the tunes. Or because of some hot-linked image or gif. Either way.

So, without any further ado,  we’ll kick off 2022 with the hope of keeping this as consistent as I can while reaching Halloween with 31 new tracks added to this swelling behemoth…and maybe even an untimely festive surprise.

Happy October, everybody!