There are so many songs on the Shindig simply titled Halloween, that one appears roughly every 20 songs.
So, up at #20 is this vintage Betty Grable ditty from the 1950 film entitled My Blue Heaven.
The film, while not itself about Halloween, does feature this rather bizarre song and dance number. Stranger still, the movie is actually about a married couple (Dan Dailey and Grable) both radio personalities, that are expecting their first child. After a car accident, Grable miscarries and the couple look in adoption. Yeah, that sounds pretty light, let’s turn that into a musical. Shit, and while we’re at it, let’s throw in this completely unrelated song about Halloween!
Hey, if you’re singing about the Eve of All Hallo’s, the Shindig don’t judge, particularly when you have lines like “Hot jack-o-lantern it’s Halloween!”
If there’s a theme to rival John Carpenter’s undeniably iconic Halloween, it’s Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells, used to terrifying effectiveness in William Friedkin’s 1973 masterpiece The Exorcist.
Oldfield’s track however is an epic 25 minute sonic barrage that no Halloween partier has time for.
Friedkin uses only about the first 3 and 1/2 minutes for his eerie theme, ‘round about the time the flutes pick up, and just before the song begins veering well away from its haunting opening.
Who am I to challenge the man who made Sorcerer?
To spare weeners everywhere any horrendous knock-off Halloween CD versions, I’ve used Oldfield’s original track, and cut in the ending used in the closing credits of the movie. Enjoy.
Well, we’re almost 20 songs into the Shindig, and we’ve yet to supply any songs in the Devilish category.
What can i say? Its my least favorite category, as I don’t tend to think of the Devil or Hell as particularly Halloweeny. Yeah, the two go hand and hand, I suppose, but there’s a shit load of songs talkin’ bout the Devil, and you can’t fit ‘em all into one Halloween playlist.
But, I have a soft spot for this song, and it’s band, Grim Reaper, and I just like hearing it, and Halloween’s as good an excuse as any to get it into a rotation.
Perhaps the most ridiculous song you can imagine, sung by the most ridiculous group of dudes you can imagine, See You In Hell features one of the most repetitious choruses you’re liable to hear.
In fact, the phrase “See You In Hell” appears in the song a total of 38 times in a matter of 4 minutes. That’s an average of a “See You In Hell” every 6 and a half seconds. That’s pretty incredible. It’s probably a world record.
Ushered in with a little help from a Devilish Ned Flanders and a desperately hungry Homer Simpson, I’ll see you in hell, my friends.
Once in a while a song is not only about a horror movie, or just featured in that horror movie but it’s named after the goddamn thing too. It’s the trifecta, the hat trick, the triple threat – it’s the Title Track, and little else ever competes.
Regretfully, Title Tracks mostly appear to be a thing of the past. Maybe they seem too corny or passe to modern filmmakers. However, dig around through the 80’s and early 90’s and these fuckers are everywhere, probably more out of some ridiculous sense of cross media marketing than any real attempt to make something awesome,…unless your talking about today’s Title Track, Shocker.
Whatever your opinion of Shocker (its definitely not Craven’s finest hour and a half) its soundtrack is out of control.
A supergroup like Voltron assembles from nowhere to rock your pumpkins off.
Paul Stanley, Desmond Child and Alice Cooper show up to sing.
Vivian Campbell and Guy Mann-Dude from Def Leppard stop by to shred.
Whitesnake’s Rudy Sarzo picks up the bass and Mötley Crüe hammer Tommy Lee keeps the beat.
Add in some backing vocals by Van Halen’s Michael Anthony and Cooper guitarist Kane Roberts and you got yourself a genuine fuckin’ supergroup to end all supergroups.
What’s more, these guys got together specifically for this soundtrack and never again. To top it all off they called themselves The Dudes of Wrath, a pun I’m not sure makes any goddamn sense, but is still pretty awesome none-the-less.
So bang your head for the dearly departed Horace Pinker, nobody may ever see him again.
I love The Cramps, so you can believe there’s as many Cramps songs on The Shindig as I can justify within my categorization. At present, I believe that number is 5.
First one from Lux and Co. is I Was a Teenage Werewolf, a groovy garage tune with plenty of monstrous overtones.
Lead in with claw-ripping attack by a clip from the trailer to I Was a Teenage Werewolf.
Nothing you’ve ever conceived packs such a spine-tingling jolt!
Since the song The Wolfman’s Wedding Receptionby the Goofy Toons doesn’t actually exist, I figured this was the next best thing to follow such an introduction.
From the always ridiculous brain of 30 Rock’s Tracy Jordan comes this monster novelty throwback spoof, to which Jordan received a Gold Record.
It may be a sweaty premise, but i think it sustains itself just fine.
13’s a pretty horrific number. You got 13 Ghosts, 13 floors, 13 turns in a hangman’s noose, that hockey masked guy, the Knights Templar and all sorts of Lunar and Witchcraft associations. It’s also a prime number and appears in Fibonacci’s Sequence. Hell, it even has it’s own phobia – Triskaidekaphobia.
So, it was a nice coincidence to see this song pull into the 13 spot after some sample/track merging (the playlist originally had separate tracks for all the lead-ins.)
From one of my favorites sketches from one of my favorite sketch comedy shows of all time, Mr. Show with Bob and David, comes the namesake of the entire playlist, Halloween Shindig.
It’s a spot-on spoof of paranormal phenomenon shows like Sightings entitled Probings, and it poses one of the greatest questions of our times..
Now that we’ve all had a chance to gawk at Elvira (some 1000+ times) lets keep the tunes going.
You mighta heard this one on classic rock radio and not thought much of it. Hell, why would you? Damn thing don’t even got no lyrics.
Despite being largely unrelated to the actual Frankenstein , or anything horrific for that matter, it finds itself on the Shindig, and just about every other Halloween collection or list, for the same reason – It’s called fuckin’ Frankenstein.
So naturally, it tends to get a bit more airplay around Halloween. At least that’s when I remember hearing for the first time anyway. In my Dad’s car, probably 17 years ago, driving around Massachusetts on a Sunday morning, getting coffee or donuts or newspapers or something morningy and its all red, and orange and brown all over everything and this song is playing in the cold air. So now, Its just guilty by association.
But why Frankenstein? Well, to quote Wikipedia:
“The song’s title, coined by the band’s drummer Chuck Ruff, derives from the fact that the original recording of the song was much longer than the final version, as the band would often deviate from the arrangement into less structured jams. The track required numerous edits to shorten it. The end result was pieced together from many different sections of recording tape using a razor blade and splicing tape.”
Sounds legit. And as a guy cutting sounds together, especially about monsters, I like that kinda thing. Sure, I do it digitally and it’s been years since I held (let alone cut) a piece of tape or film – but the image of a mangled, spliced together, Frankenstein-ass looking piece of tape is awesome, Halloweeny, and right up the Shindig’s alley.
So let the Monster Squad test you, and get down to this stitched-up instrumental.
Coming up next on the ‘dig is a ghoul after my own heart – Elvira.
“Every tricker’s treat” has been making Halloween playlists (or more appropriately, Hallowween albums) since I was knee high to a Gremlin. In total, she has 4 different Halloween albums, and they’re all chock full of great songs, Elvira halloweeniness, and even original cuts from the Mistress herself. And number 11 is just such a track.
Not to be out-done (in any respect), Elvira comes correct with her own brand of referential novelty in Monsta’ Rap, featuring so many shout outs, its hard to imagine fitting them all into only 4 minutes. Seriously, everything from The Thing to Rodan and everyone from Christopher Lee to Barbara Steele gets put on blast here, creating possibly the most referential song on the list. And if that wasn’t enough, Elvira’s rapping it all together.
Merged here with her own introduction for some Halloweeny atmosphere. Enjoy.
Science Fiction/Double Feature by Richard O’Brien & Richard Harley
Back in the day, VH1 used to play Rocky Horror on Halloween Night. This is probably because they really didn’t have access to much else, besides maybe Thriller, that would fit the bill.
Before I was old enough to actually comprehend what the hell was going on (if I’m even at that age yet) the strange sounds and imagery flickering wildly on the screen stuck with me. In later years I was able to catch more than just a passing glimpse and fully appreciate The Rocky Horror Picture Show for the many splendored experience it was.
To this day, anytime I watch Rocky Horror, it feels exactly like Halloween, and exactly like Halloween should.
Number 10 on the Shindig is that amalgamous, retro wonder Science Fiction/Double Feature, admittedly my favorite song from the film. Its 50’s sci-fi referencing is enough alone for it to make the cut, but with all that Halloween nostalgia on top, there ain’t even a second thought.
Chances are your party’s not gonna have a 22 day gap between songs 8 and 9, so since everyone will still be busy screaming to ward off The Tingler, let’s scream again with the help of Amen Corner.
If you’ve never heard of Amen Corner don’t feel bad, I don’t think anyone has. Hell, I wouldn’t have either had I not been watching Scream and Scream Again a few years ago. They’re performing this tune (a Title Track,…more on that later) in a weird British nightclub. I said, “Hey this song kind of grooves. It would go great right after Homer tells Bart to take out the garbage.”
So that’s where I put it and there it’s stayed. Plus, it’s also a Vincent price flick, so that’ll make a nice two-fer.
If you’ve never seen Scream and Scream Again, I wouldn’t sweat it. Mostly you’re missing a largely incomprehensible mishmash of ideas and images, dumb cops, weird murders and a bizarre subplot of puesdo-nazi that never really pays off.
It has some good moments though, plus it’s one of 2 films featuring both Vincent Price and Christopher Lee (Peter Cushing is in there too, but not for long.) However, there’s a lot of other stuff I’d put ahead of it on a gotta see list.
Despite all that, this song still makes a nice retro addition to any Halloween playlist. Enjoy.
Yeah, I might just say that too, cause I know what you’re thinkin’, “Newfits? For real? You haven’t even posted any actual Misfits songs yet, and you’re coming with some Newfits bullshit?”
All I can say to that is, I like the actual Misfits more, so they’re buried deeper in the playlist, for when everyone’s good and sauced up and the stragglers have had time to settle in. And don’t worry, there’s no shortage of classic Misfits tracks on Halloween Shindig.
Say what you want about this secondary incarnation of The Misfits, they had some good tunes. Tunes that are kind of hard for a Halloween playlist to straight up ignore. Tunes like today’s track for instance, entitled Scream!
Despite its (perhaps) misleading name, the song is actually an ode to William Castle’s wonderful 1959 classic The Tingler, about a terrible creature living inside all of you, which feeds on fear, and grows up your spine and into your brain! A creature that can only be stopped by the sound of screaming!
It’s a great premise, and it makes for one hell of a bizarre and imaginative film. Castle, master of the in-theater gimmick, made it even more fun by rigging some of the seats with vibrators to give certain audience members a special jolt at the right moment. 3D? Fuck all that shit, this is Percepto!
The lead-in for this is none other than Williams Castle’s own introduction to the film. Oh, and that’s Bart screaming at the end from Treehouse of Horror IV’s “Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace” segment. Enjoy!
At #7 comes a band with plenty of representation on the Shindig; perennial monster-rockers Blitzkid.
When every album’s track listing reads like a “Gory Horror Movies from the 80’s” category on Netflix, your band is kind of hard to ignore if making a Halloween playlist.
First cut from these guys? Motel Hell, which details the goings-ons of Farmer Vincent (the wonderful Rory Calhoun) as he minces up out-of-town lodgers at his Motel Hello (its neon sign, of course, has a blown out O.)
He stores and cultivates these lodgers in a garden out back, like some kind of nightmarish cabbage patch, then uses their bodies to make assorted meat products for the locals, whom all love Farmer Vincent’s treats.
Motel Hell is a great piece of early 80’s horror that’s funny, sometimes startling and always a blast to watch. Any movie where a dude wearing a pig’s head gets into a chainsaw fight with another dude that also has a chainsaw is some must-see shit. In fact, if you haven’t seen Motel Hell, you should,…right now.
Since we’re already stomping, let’s stomp some more with a little help from The Ghastly Ones, a monster surf outfit from Van Nuys, California.
I love surf music, but on the whole it doesn’t lend itself terribly well to Halloween, unless you’re talking about The Ghastly Ones that is; oozing as they are with model kit and Shock! Theater imagery. Their drummer, Norman Cabrera, is even a special FX artist, and they were originally released on Rob Zombie’s Zombie-A-Go-Go label. Now that’s all pretty Halloween if you ask me.
And if that’s not enough, this track in particular amps up the Halloweeniness a couple notches with its harpsichord and theremin sounds; all the spookiness to take our Shindig in decidedly ghastly direction. Keep stompin’!
The Sinister Stomp by Bobby “Boris” Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers
Alright, so we got a theme, a bumper, a genuine Halloween song, and a track from a horror movie; sounds to me like it’s time for a good ole fashion monster song.
While The Monster Mash is probably the likely choice, we’ve got some time before cracking that chestnut. However, Bobby “Boris” Pickett and his Crypt Kickersare gonna get some early respect here just the same. From The Original Monster Mash album (a fun Holiday album all around. Hell, there’s even a Christmas song on that fucker for christ’s sake,) comes The Sinister Stomp.
I’m not exactly sure what the hell Yanush is suppose to be (a zombie, a ghoul?) but he’s definitely the focal point of this song, having tripped Boris one night in a graveyard causing him to invent the titular dance, which I believe just involves Boris repeatedly stomping his heal into this thing’s back. An act which somehow manages to keeps him alive, yet also makes him a more efficient employee apparently. Oh, and run.
Yeah, the logic isn’t the easiest to follow, but it’s pretty damn Halloweeny all the same, featuring the usual ghouls from Igor to Frankie, plus it’s got a catchy Runaround Sue style beat, which I enjoy a great deal.
So, c’mon, do The Sinister Stomp. It’s good for the soul.
Now it’s party time, literally. We’ve established it’s Halloween, now commence the rocking.
Fourth in line is the first of many selections from possibly the finest horror movie soundtrack ever – Return of the Living Dead.
Apparently the original version of this song was actually about a 5 year old whom is raped and abused by her family. Now, I don’t know if that’s more Halloweeny, but it’s definitely more horrific, that’s for sure.
Needless to say, the producers asked Dinah Cancer if she could rewrite the lyrics to make it a bit more relevant to the film, and a bit less, well, rapey.
The result? Our first official crossover song, and one of the most ass-kicking tracks from a kick-ass soundtrack.
So, do you wanna party? It’s not a bad question, Burt.
With the first 2 tracks simply serving as atmosphere, the the unofficial start to Halloween Shindig is here. And what better herald is there than King Diamond to usher in our festivities? Halloween (or our Shindig) doesn’t truly begin until King Diamond fucking says so.
But to King Diamond, every night is Halloween, and he looks damn prepared for it…always. Check it out.
Anything anyone who looks anything like this 90% of the time has to say about Halloween is probably true, so we should just listen.
But, I’m not sure how that works exactly. If Halloween is just constantly occurring, what’s all the fuss about? What are any of us doing here? Why is there a party, and why do you need music for it?
That’s because, in deference to whether King gets his sack out and goes trick-or-treating every night, Halloween is still Oct. 31st, and you’ve got a party to host. A partyKing Diamondwill most likely not be attending…at least not physically anyway.
So, in the true spirit of Halloween, the eve of the dead…..crank it up, and let the spirit of King Diamondmake an appearance at your Shindig.
Here’s the first of many bumpers found on Halloween Shindig. Being the first, this one is comprised largely of clips about Halloween itself, setting the mood and leading into our third track.
