Top Three Halloween Songs
Posted by terrepruitt on October 30, 2017
Not many holidays or occasions have a plethora of music associated with them. New Year’s has one song, Auld Lang Syne. Any love song might be attached to Valentine’s Day, but I can’t think of a specific song that comes to many-a-mind for the occasion. Easter has the one song about Peter Cottontail and his bunny trail. I can’t think of ONE Fourth Of July Song nor does any song come to mind for Thanksgiving. But Christmas and Halloween have a lot of songs. Christmas has songs written just for the Holiday itself AND the surrounding season. Halloween might have a few written just for it, but it seems like most songs that are associated with Halloween just got that way because they mention monsters. Additionally, songs that mention the devil, witches, pumpkins, ghosts, ghouls, the moon, werewolves, and anything “Halloweeny” seem to get lumped into the Halloween Song category. Ha, if it mentions candy, some might put it in the pile of Halloween songs . . . thinking specifically about Bow Wow Wow’s I Want Candy – even though that song has NOTHING to do with the sweet confection known as candy! It is my opinion that there are, presently, three main songs that the majority thinks about when they think about Halloween songs. Of course, I am not saying that there are not a lot of other songs, but I am just talking about the top three – what I think of as most people knowing and thinking of when they think of Halloween.
I think the top three are – and this is not in order of popularity or in order of which I think people think of them:
Thriller. Michael Jackson’s Thriller has scary sound effects. The video has monsters in it and then there is a cool dance associated with the song. I believe this is how it earned its place as one of the all time Halloween songs. Surprising to me, Thriller only made it to number 4 on Billboard Hot 100. It got to number two on the Billboard Hot Digital Singles Chart in 2009, after Michael Jackson died.
Then there is This is Halloween. C’mon it is stating that it is Halloween. I think ever since 1993, when the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas came out, that has been a top Halloween song. The song was written by Danny Elfman and recorded by the cast of the movie. In 2006 Marilyn Manson recorded for a special release of the movie’s soundtrack. This is Halloween has not been around as long as Thriller, but I think it is here to stay.
And then there is the Monster Mash. This song has been around the longest. The Monster Mash was released in 1962. I am not sure if it has been a Halloween hit for 55 years, but I know that it has been a Halloween hit for as long as I can remember. In 1962, this song was number from October 20 to October 27 on the Billboard Hot 100. It has hit the charts again twice, once in August of 1970 and once in May of 1973.
So that my opinion regarding the most popular Halloween songs. Again, I am not saying that there are not others that are super popular, but I just think that these three are the ones that the majority think about.
What about you? What do you think? What song come to mind when you think of Halloween?
Terre Pruitt's Blog 
Frank Hubeny said
For me it is Monster Mash.
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terrepruitt said
Monster Mash is definitely a top Halloween Song. I bet it always will be because it is just so fun and silly!
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