Oct. 31: Jen’s Halloween playlist

A few years ago I gathered all the Halloween-appropriate music I could find and made a playlist, set it to “random,” and pushed PLAY. Then we had a party. And because the music was so awesome and took me way too many hours to put together, I’m going to share the list with you. Halloween brings out the largesse in me.

My criteria: all songs must have a scary-ish word in the title or have something to do with death or sweets or insanity or costumes or supernatural kinds of things. Some songs are from scary movies. Some just sound scary. Scary scary scary scary scary.

• Spooky (Dusty Springfield or Santana)
• You Can Do Magic (America)
• Love Song for a Vampire (Annie Lennox)
• Bad Moon Rising (CCR)
• Stayin’ Alive (BeeGees)
• Bewitched TV show theme
• In the Midnight Hour (Billy Idol)
• Only the Good Die Young (Billy Joel)
• Wanted Dead or Alive (Bon Jovi)
• I Want Candy (Bow Wow Wow)
• Werewolf in London (Warren Zevon)
• The Devil Went Down to Georgia (Charlie Daniels Band or Johnny Cash)
• Freak Out (Le Chic)
• Ding Dong the Witch is Dead (from The Wizard of Oz)
• Do You Believe in Magic (Shaun Cassidy—heh heh—or The Lovin’ Spoonful)
• She’s Freaky (Pitbull)
• Spirit in the Sky (The Eagles or Norman Greenbaum or Nitty Gritty Dirt Band)
• Devil in Disguise (Elvis Presley)
• That Old Black Magic (Frank Sinatra)
• Midnight Train to Georgia (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
• I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor)
• Crazy (Gnarls Barkley)
• Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door (Guns ‘n Roses)
• I’m Your Boogie Man (K.C. & the Sunshine Band)
• Beetlejuice theme (Danny Elfman)
• Munsters TV show theme
• Supernatural (Raven)
• The World is a Vampire (Smashing Pumpkins)
• Addams Family TV/movie theme
• One-Eyed, One-Horned Flying Purple People Eater (Dr. Demento)
• I Just Died in Your Arms Tonight (Cutting Crew)
• Jaws movie music
• Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin)
• Dead Man’s Curve (Jan & Dean)
• Devil with a Blue Dress (Little Richard)
• Little Shop of Horrors theme
• Die Another Day (Madonna)
• Men in Black (Will Smith)
• Thriller (Michael Jackson)
• Sugar Sugar (The Archies)
• Love Potion #9 (The Drifters)
• Monster Mash (Big Bopper)
• I Put a Spell on You (Nina Simone or Ray Charles or CCR)
• Magic (Olivia Newton John)
• Friend of the Devil (Counting Crows)
• Ooogie Boogie Song (Danny Elfman, from The Nightmare Before Christmas)
• Psycho movie music
• Vampire Heart (HIM—funniest drummer name: Gas Lipstick)
• Crazy (Patsy Cline)
• Live & Let Die (Paul McCartney & Wings)
• Candy Girl (Jackson 5)
• Toccata & Fugue in D (Bach, used in Phantom of the Opera and every creepy movie ever made)
• Let’s Go Crazy (Prince)
• Some Call it Magic (Raven)
• Witch Doctor (Ray Stevens)
• Superfreak (Rick James)
• Somebody’s Watchin’ Me (Rockwell & Michael Jackson)
• This Magic Moment (Roy Orbison)
• The Candy Man (Sammy Davis, Jr.)
• King Tut (Steve Martin)
• Strangers in the Night (Frank Sinatra)
• Tainted Love (Soft Cell)
• Magic (The Cars)
• The X-Files TV show theme
• Ghostbusters (Ray Parker, Jr.)
• They’re Coming to Take me Away, Ha Ha (Dr. Demento)
• Get Your Freak On (Missy Elliott)
• Very Superstitious (Stevie Wonder)
• Weird Science (Oingo Boingo)
• Go Away Little Girl (Donny Osmond)
• Witchy Woman (The Eagles)
• YMCA (The Village People—best costumes EVAR!)
• Nightmare on My Street (DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince)
• Halloween (Dave Matthews Band)
• Jeepers Creepers (Billie Holiday)
• Suspicious Minds (Elvis Presley)

Have a great Halloween! Boo!