87 Fun Facts About Halloween Songs

Who recorded the 1962 novelty hit 'Monster Mash' with a Boris Karloff impression?

Bobby Pickett was an aspiring actor whose Karloff voice in a cover of 'Little Darlin'' went down so well that a bandmate urged him to build a song around it.

Which broadcaster banned 'Monster Mash' as 'too morbid' when it topped the Hot 100 in 1962?

The BBC kept the record off British radio in 1962, so it only became a UK hit eleven years later, when a 1973 reissue climbed to number three.

Which horror actor performs the spoken-word 'rap' at the end of the title track of Thriller?

Vincent Price read lines that songwriter Rod Temperton had dashed off in a taxi on the way to the studio that same day.

What was the title of Rod Temperton's first draft of the song 'Thriller'?

Starlight was Temperton's first title, with a chorus about a 'starlight sun'; Quincy Jones wanted a stronger name for the album, and 'Thriller' followed.

Who wrote and performed the 1984 theme song 'Ghostbusters'?

Ray Parker Jr. had only a few days to write it, and said the hard part was the order to work the film's awkward title into the lyric.

Which artist sued over 'Ghostbusters', claiming its melody was lifted from 'I Want a New Drug'?

Huey Lewis settled out of court, then was sued in turn in 2001 for breaking the deal's confidentiality by talking about it on VH1's Behind the Music.

Which superstar sang uncredited chorus vocals on Rockwell's 1984 hit 'Somebody's Watching Me'?

Michael Jackson's voice on the chorus reportedly won over Motown founder Berry Gordy, who had shown little faith in the music of his son Kennedy, alias Rockwell.

'This Is Halloween', sung by the citizens of Halloween Town, was written for which 1993 film?

The Nightmare Before Christmas composer Danny Elfman wrote it and also gave Jack Skellington his singing voice, while Chris Sarandon spoke the lines.

In 'Time Warp' from The Rocky Horror Show, what comes after 'a jump to the left'?

A step to the right comes next, and audiences have long got up to follow the instructions themselves at late-night screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Who first recorded 'I Put a Spell on You' in 1956, reportedly after the producer got the band drunk?

Screamin' Jay Hawkins had planned a refined ballad before the boozy session turned it into a howl, and he was soon rising out of a coffin on stage.

In 'Werewolves of London', the werewolf goes to Lee Ho Fook's to get 'a big dish' of what?

Beef chow mein was the order at Lee Ho Fook, a real restaurant in London's Chinatown; the song grew from Phil Everly's joking request for a dance tune with that title.

Stevie Wonder wrote 'Superstition' in sessions with which British guitarist, who was meant to release it first?

Jeff Beck was promised the song in return for playing on Wonder's album, but Wonder's own version came out months earlier and went to number one.

Which composer wrote 'Night on Bald Mountain', finishing it on St John's Eve 1867?

Modest Mussorgsky never got it performed: his mentor refused to conduct it, and the familiar version is Rimsky-Korsakov's posthumous arrangement, which Stokowski adapted for Fantasia.

In Saint-Saëns's 'Danse macabre', which instrument imitates the rattling of skeleton bones?

Xylophone it is, and Saint-Saëns later poked fun at his own skeletons by quoting the tune on the same instrument in 'Fossils' from The Carnival of the Animals.

In the legend behind 'Danse macabre', what sends the dancing dead back to their graves?

A cockerel crowing at dawn ends the revels in Henri Cazalis's poem, which Saint-Saëns first set as a song in 1872 before handing the vocal line to a solo violin.

The haunted-house staple Toccata and Fugue in D minor is traditionally attributed to which composer?

Johann Sebastian Bach's authorship has been questioned by a minority of scholars since 1981; long before that, silent-era cinemas had made the piece a cliche for horror and villainy.

Which singer-songwriter wrote the meme song "Spooky, Scary Skeletons" for a 1996 Halloween album?

Andrew Gold wrote it for his album Halloween Howls; a 2013 dance remix by The Living Tombstone and pairings with Disney's 1929 short The Skeleton Dance turned it into a meme.

In Sheb Wooley's 1958 hit 'The Purple People Eater', the creature comes to Earth to do what?

Join a rock 'n' roll band is the alien's ambition; its squeaky voice and the tinny horn solo were both made by recording slowly and playing the tape back fast.

Bauhaus's 1979 debut single, called the first gothic rock record, is named after which actor?

Bela Lugosi, star of the 1931 film Dracula, gives the song its title; the band cut all nine minutes in a single take at their very first recording session.

AC/DC's 'Highway to Hell' is said to be named for a road past Bon Scott's favourite pubs in which city?

Perth's Canning Highway led to the Raffles, a rock pub Scott frequented; Angus Young has also called 'highway to hell' his name for the band's gruelling tours.

Which singer co-wrote Rihanna's 'Disturbia', originally planning it for his own album?

Chris Brown and his writing team finished it for a reissue of his own album, then decided it suited a female singer better and passed it to Rihanna.

Which Irish band wrote 'Zombie' in protest at a 1993 IRA bombing?

The Cranberries' Dolores O'Riordan wrote it after the Warrington bombing killed two children; since her death in 2018, Irish hurling and rugby crowds have adopted it as an anthem.

Which Talking Heads member supplied the French lyrics in 'Psycho Killer'?

Tina Weymouth had spoken French at home with her Breton mother, so drummer Chris Frantz suggested she write the bridge for David Byrne.

Santana's 1970 hit 'Black Magic Woman' was originally written for Fleetwood Mac by which British guitarist?

Peter Green wrote and first released it with Fleetwood Mac in 1968; Santana's cover, sung by Gregg Rolie, climbed far higher and became the version most people know.

Why is Ozzy Osbourne's 1983 album Bark at the Moon unusual in his catalogue?

He is the only credited songwriter, yet guitarist Jake E. Lee and bassist Bob Daisley both say they wrote most of it and went uncredited under agreements signed at the time.

Which New York band released the 2009 dance-punk single 'Heads Will Roll'?

Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer Karen O said that if the band was going to write a dance song, it should be about heads bouncing on the floor; an A-Trak remix then took it into clubs.

In 'Ghost Riders in the Sky', what are the damned cowboys doomed to chase across the sky forever?

The Devil's herd is their eternal quarry, and the song's cowboy is warned to change his ways or ride with them; park ranger Stan Jones wrote it while working in Death Valley.

Which Scottish singer-songwriter released 'Season of the Witch' on a 1966 album?

Donovan recorded it in Hollywood for his album Sunshine Superman; a dispute with his record company then kept it out of British shops until 1967.

Which classic Halloween film's soundtrack features Bette Midler's version of 'I Put a Spell on You'?

Hocus Pocus has Midler's witch Winifred take over the stage at a Halloween party and use the song to bewitch the adults into dancing until they drop.

Which Hollywood film director made the music video for 'Thriller' in 1983?

John Landis got the call after Jackson saw his An American Werewolf in London; in 2009 the result became the first music video chosen for the US National Film Registry.

Which Rocky Horror Picture Show character, a singer of the 'Time Warp', is played by the musical's creator, Richard O'Brien?

Riff Raff, the hunchbacked butler, was O'Brien's own part on stage and screen; he had written the musical one winter as an out-of-work actor in London, to keep himself busy.

Which filmmaker directed both the 1984 film Ghostbusters and the 'Ghostbusters' music video?

Ivan Reitman packed the video with celebrity cameos, John Candy among them; none of the stars was paid, and they appeared as a favour to him.

Rob Zombie's 1998 single 'Dragula' takes its name from a drag racer in which sitcom?

The Munsters gave Grandpa a coffin-bodied dragster called DRAG-U-LA; Rob Zombie opens the song with Christopher Lee's voice, sampled from the 1960 film The City of the Dead.

Oingo Boingo perform 'Dead Man's Party' on screen in which 1986 Rodney Dangerfield comedy?

Back to School has the band play it at a college party, and frontman Danny Elfman also wrote the film's score, an early step in his move from rock singer to screen composer.

Which Ramone is said to have written the 'Pet Sematary' lyrics in an hour in Stephen King's basement?

Dee Dee Ramone was handed the novel on a visit to King's home in Bangor and came back with the lyrics an hour later, the story goes; the song plays over the 1989 film's credits.

Which band reached the US top ten in 1972 with 'Witchy Woman'?

Eagles drummer Don Henley wrote the words while feverish with flu and reading a biography of Zelda Fitzgerald, over a minor-key riff Bernie Leadon had brought in.

'Grim Grinning Ghosts' is the theme song of which Disney park attraction?

The Haunted Mansion has it sung in the graveyard scene by five marble busts, voiced by bass singer Thurl Ravenscroft and four other vocalists.

Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells became a horror staple after its opening was used in which 1973 film?

The Exorcist used the opening piano figure, and the film's success turned a slow-selling instrumental album by a 19-year-old into a worldwide hit.

Which band's instrumental 'Frankenstein' topped the US Hot 100 for a week in May 1973?

The Edgar Winter Group got the title from drummer Chuck Ruff, after the track had to be spliced together from many pieces of tape cut out of a long studio jam.

The tolling bell of 'Hells Bells' opens which AC/DC album, made after Bon Scott's death?

Back in Black opens with a one-ton bronze bell the band had cast and then recorded inside the foundry; the album's all-black cover was a tribute to Scott.

Before Classics IV added lyrics, 'Spooky' was a 1967 instrumental led by which instrument?

Saxophone led Mike Sharpe's original, which stalled at No. 57; once lyrics were added, the Classics IV version climbed to No. 3 a year later.

Alice Cooper performs 'Feed My Frankenstein' in concert in which 1992 comedy?

Wayne's World was meant to feature 'School's Out', until Cooper's manager talked Mike Myers into using the new song instead.

What overdubbed instrument on '(Don't Fear) The Reaper' inspired a 2000 SNL sketch?

Cowbell credit is disputed: bassist Joe Bouchard says his brother Albert played it, while producer David Lucas and singer Eric Bloom have each claimed the part.

Which Russian novel, a gift from Marianne Faithfull, inspired 'Sympathy for the Devil'?

The Master and Margarita, in which the Devil turns up in Moscow, had just appeared in English; Keith Richards then pushed Jagger's folk-style draft towards a samba.

In 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia', what does the Devil wager against Johnny's soul?

A fiddle of gold is the Devil's stake; Charlie Daniels came up with the song late in the sessions, on realising the finished album had no fiddle tune on it.

Who narrated the 1993 sequel 'The Devil Comes Back to Georgia'?

Johnny Cash narrates while Marty Stuart sings Johnny and Travis Tritt the Devil; Charlie Daniels, who sang the original, only plays the Devil's solo this time.

Kirk Hammett's 'Enter Sandman' riff was inspired by an album by which band?

Soundgarden's album Louder Than Love sparked the riff; James Hetfield's first lyric was about crib death, before he rewrote it around a child's nightmares.

Which group first recorded Leiber and Stoller's 'Love Potion No. 9' in 1959?

The Clovers had the original hit; the Searchers' cover climbed higher, and the song later lent its title to a 1992 Sandra Bullock romantic comedy.

The man behind the 1958 hit 'Witch Doctor' went on to create which virtual band?

Alvin and the Chipmunks followed later that year, using the song's trick: Ross Bagdasarian sang slowly into a tape recorder running at half speed, then played it back at normal speed.

Which studio sued over DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince's 'A Nightmare on My Street'?

New Line Cinema's suit forced the label to destroy the music video, and vinyl copies of the album gained a sticker disclaiming any link to the Elm Street films.

Fan edits of a dance scene from which Netflix series sent Lady Gaga's 'Bloody Mary' viral in 2022?

Wednesday's dance was actually filmed to The Cramps' 'Goo Goo Muck'; fans on TikTok re-cut it to a sped-up 'Bloody Mary', an album track from 2011.

'Cry Little Sister' was written as the theme for which 1987 vampire film?

The Lost Boys had not been shown to songwriter Gerard McMahon when he wrote the theme, which is why its lyrics never mention vampires.

'(Every Day Is) Halloween' was a 1984 B-side by which industrial band?

Ministry issued it as the flip side of 'All Day' in their synth-pop years, and Al Jourgensen went back to re-record it in 2025 for the album The Squirrely Years Revisited.

Gounod's 'Funeral March of a Marionette' became the theme of which TV show?

Alfred Hitchcock Presents gave the march a new life as its theme; Gounod had written it in 1872 for a piano suite he never finished.

Which effects wizard, creator of Jurassic Park's dinosaurs, directed the 1996 music film 'Ghosts'?

Stan Winston directed it from a story co-written by Stephen King, with Michael Jackson playing five roles, among them the mayor who wants the hero run out of town.

Grieg wrote 'In the Hall of the Mountain King' as incidental music for which play?

Peer Gynt's troll scene embarrassed its composer: Grieg wrote that the piece so reeked of cowpats and 'ultra-Norwegianism' that he could not bear to hear it.

Which King Crimson guitarist plays lead on Bowie's 'Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)'?

Robert Fripp, who had played on 'Heroes', was brought back for the sessions in place of Adrian Belew; Bowie sings the song in a broad Cockney accent.

Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique ends with the artist's vision of what?

A witches' sabbath ends the opium dream of an artist sick with unrequited love; Berlioz drew it from his obsession with the actress Harriet Smithson, whom he married in 1833.

The title song of the 1958 film The Blob was co-written by which future pop hitmaker?

Burt Bacharach wrote it with Mack David years before his run of pop hits, and the 'Five Blobs' who sang it were really one singer overdubbed five times.

Steve Miller said 'Abracadabra' was inspired by which singer he met on Hullabaloo?

Diana Ross had shared a Hullabaloo bill with him in the 1960s; four decades after the hit, Eminem borrowed its hook for his 2024 single 'Houdini'.

John Entwistle wrote 'Boris the Spider' after drinking with which Rolling Stone?

Bill Wyman and Entwistle, both bassists, were making up funny names for animals over drinks; Entwistle then wrote the song in six minutes, by his own account.

Alice Cooper's Welcome to My Nightmare follows the nightmares of a child with what name?

Steven's nightmares run through the whole album, Cooper's first after his original band broke up; he returned to the story in 2011 with a sequel, Welcome 2 My Nightmare.

Which ska band's 'Ghost Town' topped the UK chart in 1981 as riots broke out in British cities?

The Specials were falling apart as they made it: it was the last single by the original seven members, three of whom soon left to form Fun Boy Three.

Kanye West's horror-themed 'Monster' features a breakout verse from which rapper?

Nicki Minaj said nobody else's verse was on the track when she wrote hers, and she recorded it before her own debut album had even come out.

Which group howled its way to No. 2 in 1966 with 'Li'l Red Riding Hood'?

Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs sing it as the Big Bad Wolf, who turns the fairy tale around by delivering the 'what big eyes you have' lines to Red herself.

John Zacherle re-recorded a tamer 'Dinner with Drac' in 1958 at whose request?

Dick Clark found the grisly limericks too gory for American Bandstand; the label then issued both takes on one single, as parts one and two.

Billie Eilish sings 'Bury a Friend' from the perspective of what?

A monster under the bed is the narrator, Eilish has said; the voice that speaks her name at the start is a rapper friend who sent her a phone recording.

Dukas's 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' is based on a 1797 poem by which writer?

Goethe's ballad left German a stock phrase about summoning spirits you cannot get rid of; Dukas followed its story closely, long before Mickey Mouse took the part in Fantasia.

Echo & the Bunnymen's 'The Killing Moon' sets the tone for the opening of which 2001 film?

Donnie Darko opens with it in the 2001 cinema cut; Ian McCulloch said he found the chords by playing David Bowie's 'Space Oddity' backwards.

In Beetlejuice, possessed dinner guests dance to 'Day-O' by which singer?

Harry Belafonte's hit is a call-and-response work song of Jamaican dock workers; the 2024 sequel, filmed just after his death, brought it back sung by a choir.

Danny Elfman wrote 'Weird Science' in his car after a call from which director of the 1985 teen comedy?

John Hughes had only described the spirit of the film; Elfman said the song arrived in his head on the drive home, and it became Oingo Boingo's highest-charting single.

Which singer's 'Witchcraft' was up for Record and Song of the Year at the very first Grammy Awards?

Frank Sinatra went into that first ceremony with six nominations and came away with a single award, for the cover of his album Only the Lonely.

Jace Everett's 'Bad Things' became the theme of which HBO vampire series?

True Blood rescued a single that had missed the country chart in 2005; once it became the show's theme, it charted in Britain and Scandinavia.

Which Beatle voted Elvis's 'Devil in Disguise' a 'miss' on Juke Box Jury in 1963?

John Lennon said Presley had become 'like Bing Crosby'; the record went to number one in Britain anyway.

Which singer introduced Fleetwood Mac's 'Rhiannon' on stage as a song about an old Welsh witch?

Stevie Nicks found the name in Mary Leader's novel Triad, and only learned years later that the Rhiannon of Welsh legend was no witch but a mythological queen.

Which producer made the 2010 EP 'Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites' on a laptop in his apartment?

Skrillex sold the EP only through the dance-music store Beatport at first; it went on to win him two Grammys.

Which future pop star co-wrote Eminem and Rihanna's 2013 hit 'The Monster'?

Bebe Rexha wrote the hook during sessions for her own debut album and hoped to sing it herself, before it went to Eminem and the chorus to Rihanna.

Olivia Rodrigo's 'Vampire' was the lead single from which 2023 album?

Guts was led off by a single that starts as a piano ballad and swells into what Rodrigo called her 'version of a rock opera'; the clean edit swaps its swear for 'dream crusher'.

Which rapper's theme for 1991's The Addams Family won the Razzie for Worst Original Song?

Hammer, who had dropped the 'MC' by then, opens the video pleading with the two Addams children not to use their guillotine on him; it was his last US top-ten hit.

Johnny Mercer wrote the lyrics to 'That Old Black Magic' with which singer in mind?

Judy Garland and Mercer had been lovers, though she had married another man by the time the song came out; it was Glenn Miller's band that took it to number one.

The spiritual 'Dem Bones' draws on a Valley of Dry Bones vision from which prophet?

Ezekiel sees a valley of dry bones join together and rise at God's command; brothers James Weldon and J. Rosamond Johnson turned the vision into the song.

'Release the Bats', a 1981 goth-rock touchstone, was recorded by which Nick Cave band?

The Birthday Party meant it as a send-up of the gothic image being pinned on them, and it became one of the genre's touchstones anyway.

Which System of a Down member sang Blue Öyster Cult's 'Godzilla' for a 2019 monster film?

Serj Tankian's cover was recorded for Godzilla: King of the Monsters; when the 1998 Godzilla film left the song out, members of the band hit back with a parody version mocking the movie.

The novelty song 'Zombie Jamboree' began in 1953 as a song in which Caribbean musical style?

Calypso singer Lord Intruder introduced it as 'Jumbie Jamberee', named for the jumbies, spirits of Caribbean folklore, which later versions swapped for zombies.

China Anne McClain's 'Calling All the Monsters' came from which Disney show's soundtrack?

The 2011 electropop track about dancing with monsters topped the Radio Disney Top 30 Countdown.

Golden Earring's 'Twilight Zone' was inspired by which spy novel, not the TV show?

The Bourne Identity gave George Kooymans his hunted secret agent, and the video has singer Barry Hay cornered by henchmen played by his own bandmates.

Bernard Herrmann's shrieking score for Psycho is written for which kind of ensemble?

Strings only was Herrmann's answer to a cut music budget and to Hitchcock's wish for jazz; he said a single tone colour gave a 'black-and-white sound' to match the photography.