Holloween How-To

Oct. 26, 2008

Yes, Halloween merry-makers, you can go with the obvious - “Thriller,” the song from Ghostbusters, and that CD of “Sooper-Frightening Halloween Sound SFX!” that you picked up at your local mega-mart; but, wouldn’t it be far cooler to make your own mixes of more unusual and unexpected Halloween-themed tracks? Ah, yes. We thought so. So here are several options to make your 2008 Halloween a frightfully memorable one - mwah ha haaa!

HIP TO BE SCARED
Looking under the radar is a great place to go for Halloween-themed tracks that you’re not likely to hear at another party or in an elevator somewhere on October 31. Start with the Squirrel Nut Zippers, that is, the retro-swing band that put out the horn-filled, sassy underground hit “Hell,” and then add in a little Echo and the Bunnymen — their cover of The Doors’ “People Are Strange” is perhaps more strange than the original and definitely cool in its own way. The Cranberries’ “Zombie” and Beck’s “Devil’s Haircut,”are two more must-listens, as are a pair from influential ambient-rock master Brian Eno, namely “Late October” and “Shadow.”
More modern-day Halloween-ish efforts include groundbreaking animated band Gorillaz’ track, “Dracula,” Ted Leo and the Pharmacists’ “I’m a Ghost,” Howie Day’s “Ghost” and Eels’ “My Beloved Monster”. And, if you just want to stick with the direct approach, there are not one, not two, but three indie-rock songs titled “Halloween,” one each by Matt Pond PA, The Misfits and Sonic Youth.
If you want to go old-school without dragging out “The Monster Mash” for the umpteenth time, there’s a fresher option there, too – try keeping your musicians retro, but a little more obscure. A few that spring to mind are Frank Sinatra’s “Witchcraft” (most recently used on the soundtrack for the movie “Bewitched”), Bo Diddley’s 1964 tune “The Mummy Walk ” and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ bluesy “I Put a Spell On You.”

MONSTER MOVIES
Movies are a terrific place to look for mood-setting Halloween music. Composer Danny Elfman’s work is included on several soundtrack albums that also make for perfect Halloween listening.
The “Beetlejuice” soundtrack album includes everything from the distinctive main title instrumentals to the spooky “Sand Worm Planet” and a couple of tropical-turned-underworld tunes from Harry Belafonte. Elfmans work for the animated pic, “Corpse Bride” is loaded with Gothic organs and vocal contributions from Albert Finney, Helena Bonham Carter and the movies “Bonejangles and His Bone Boys,” who bring a New Orleans-style Devil’s Night jazz feel to the set. Also by Elfman are the soundtracks for Sleepy Hollow, which features plenty of suspenseful mood music, from “Into the Woods” to “Evil Eye” to “The Windmill”.
Other than Elfman, you might want to check out these mostly-instrumental soundtrack albums to set that frightful Halloween mood - try Hans Zimmer’s Batman works, which also include plenty of dark (k)night moments; the spooky soundtrack to Pan’s Labyrinth by Javier Navarrete; Michael Giacchino’s suspenseful instrumentals that were composed to accompany the equally suspenseful Lost (okay, we cheated. it’s a TV series, but still); James Newton Howard’s work on the movie, “The Village”; Bernard Herrmann’s score for “The Day the Earth Stood Still;” and the eerie Mark Snow compositions from the soundtrack for The X-Files: I Want to Believe.

CLASSICAL CREEPIES
Sometimes, the spookiest sounds are those that are lyric-free – we’re referring, of course, to classical works that embody the spirit of Halloween simply in musical form, whether they meant to or not.
There are some classical pieces that quite obviously lend themselves to Halloween listening, with an immediacy and forboding feel that encapsulates the occasion extremely well: Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King”; Mussorgsky’s “A Night on Bald Mountain” and “The Hut on Fowl’s Legs”; Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor”; and – no lullaby here – Brahm’s “Hungarian Dance No. 5 in G Minor” will spookify your party quite nicely.
The second round of classical music are those that, appropriately, sneak up on you, gathering their instrumental stealth around themselves like a vampire’s cloak and jumping from a darkened alleyway when you least expect it. Try Mozart’s “Requiem Dies Irae”; Webern’s “Variations Op. 27 Ruhig Fliessend”; Bela Bartok’s “Out of Doors, BB 89: No. 3 Musette”; Shostakovich’s “Symphony No. 10” (particularly Movement 2) or “Symphony No. 2”; and Penderecki’s “Symphony No. 1”. While they all look quite refined on paper, their scareability-level is anything but.

POP GOES THE POP
And finally, if you like your Halloween tunes on the lighter, more humorous side of things, a good place to start would be a few of the Halloween compilation discs in the pop genre that are already out there. but, instead of playing ‘em all the way through (expected), pull tracks off of various mixes, add in your other findings from the lists above and voila! you’ve got your own unique Halloween mix (and an expected one - which, of course, is always scarier.)
A few additional single pop tracks that’ll pep up your October 31 with minimum fright include Bow Wow Wow’s “I Want Candy”; Oingo Boingo’s zippy “Dead Man’s Party”; Talking Heads’ “Burning Down the House” and “Swamp”; and DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince’s campy “Nightmare on My Street.” And, although it’s technically a song about a beach party, The B-52’s “Rock Lobster,” with it’s lyrics about attacking piranhas and stingrays, is another one that’ll keep everyone on the dance floor.
Now, all you need is to find an equally scary pair of dancing shoes and you’re set for this year’s Halloween...