Spooktacular Songs & Stories for Halloween

I wanted to take a few moments to focus on something different, Halloween songs. I have an ever evolving Halloween Youtube playlist (link at the end of the article). Whenever I find things I like, I add to it. I also like vintage Halloween and horror stuff, stuff that, thanks to the internet, is waiting for discovery and for your enjoyment.

I have ten Halloween songs and five Halloween stories and a link to the full playlist.

A note about the music on the full list. I made this list for me and my musical tastes, and I’m an omnivore music fan. In the full list there’s everything from the whimsical to Diamanda Galas screaming into a microphone, and if those last couple of words don’t mean anything to you, they soon will.

Regardless of your music tastes, I guarantee there’s something here for you. I tried to create a true mix: of styles, genres, moods, decades. There’s rap, rock, country, vintage stuff, rockabilly, avant garde. Point is, feel free to skip anything you don’t like.

In the full playlist, there’s songs about ghost trains, murderers, necrophilliacs, zombies, vampires, werewolves, and so much more.

10 Halloween songs

“I love the Dead” by Alice Cooper is an eerie song from the point of view of *checks notes* a necrophiliac. In the 70s, nobody was doing horror songs better than Alice Cooper.

“Bo Meets the Monster” by Bo Diddly is one of many songs in the fine tradition of Halloween novelty songs. I think I speak for all of us when I say Halloween novelty songs.

I mean, isn’t “Dead Man’s Party” by Oingo Boingo just the ultimate Halloween party song? (Yes, the answer is yes)

With “We Got a Date”, Hasil Adkins gives a masterclass in creepy vocal stylings.

The chorus to “Hush, Hush, Hush Here Comes the Boogeyman” by Henry Hall & His Orchestra will get stuck in your head. Guaranteed.

“What’s He Building in There” by Tom Waits is a creepy spoken word piece that uses the creak and gravel of Waits’ voice to great effect. Who’s worse in this tale, the guy in the house or the narrator?

How do you pick just one Siouxsie and the Banshees song? You don’t. You cheat and pick two. Here’s “Halloween” and “Voodoo Dolly”

The only way to follow up Siouxsie and the Banshees is with another group that was goth before goth, Bauhaus. And for this list, only “Bela Legosi’s Dead” will do.

The way that Gin Gillette sings “Train to Satanville” you’ll want to take the ride to the end of the line with her.

“Rockin’ in the Graveyard” by Jackie Morningstar is exactly the song you want to hear when you walk past a graveyard and the inhabitants don’t think anyone is watching.

“The Haunted House of Rock” by Whodini has a fun, almost novelty vibe to it.

5 Vintage Halloween/horror stories

There’s a bunch of great recordings of actors reading horror stories, folk tales, and other creepy/spooky tales. The audience for much of this stuff when they were released was children. But this stuff is to good to leave to the kiddos.

Christopher Walken reading “The Raven” and Iggy Pop reading “The Tell-Tale Heart” from the album Closed on Account of Rabies

William Conrad reading “The Merry Night of Halloween” (full album is also on Youtube)

Vincent Price reading “Harp Notes in the Mist”. (There’s a wealth of Vincent Price recordings on Youtube. Search out “The Goblins at the Bathhouse” and “To Raise the Dead” to get you started.)

Peter Cushing reading The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires

Terry Allen’s Torso (told in four parts, the first is below), unlike the other stories here, isn’t for children. This is a spoken word piece about a film treatment for horror movie. It’s a gruesome bit of body horror and imaginary grindhouse cinema.

Here’s the full play list on Youtube.