A Collaborative Halloween Playlist on Spotify

This year for Halloween, my teenage daughter and I are planning a Halloween party with our circle of people. (All vaccinated). The guests are all family and close friends. Aunts, Uncles, siblings, grandkids, teenagers, young adults, gen-Xers, and baby boomers. A multigenerational melting pot, or should I say, cauldron. We have the best time when we are together, and this party will be no exception.

Fall comfort food is on the menu, with everyone bringing something-chili, zombie meatloaf (Meatloaf shaped into a head and wrapped in bacon with onion eyes and teeth), homemade mac and cheese, and all the snacks that go along with a get-together. We will talk and catch up, have some drinks. The stoners will go for a few “walks”. We do some dancing, especially group dances. For the most part, we are all into a mix of music, and the playlist I created on Spotify reflects that. Here’s what I started so far, the bones of the playlist if you will. You can find my Spotify playlist here.

In a throwback to my elementary school years, I’ve started the playlist with a few songs from the Halloween parties we had in school. We would all dress in our costumes, parade around the outside of the school for our parents, and then have a party back in the classroom. These first few songs remind me of donut holes, apple cider, and those awful plastic costumes with plastic masks.

“The Munster’s Theme”, The Great TV Crew

“Monster Mash”, Bobby “Borris” Pickett

“Main Theme: The Addams Family”, Vic Mizzy and His Orchestra

“Love Potion No. 9”, The Searchers

We had outgrown those plastic costumes by middle school and junior high, and we were now into gory monster makeup. We were allowed to trick or treat with a group of our friends and no adults! It was a different time then. I have included the following few songs as a shout-out to that time.

“Thriller”, Micheal Jackson

“Somebody’s Watching Me”, Rockwell

“A Nightmare on My Street”, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince

The following few songs on my playlist are for the Rock and Metal lovers at the party! My brother played in a metal band for years, and my mom and I love classic rock. Come to think of it, everyone who will be at our party has a little metal in them!

“Crazy Train”, Ozzy Osbourne

“Zombie”, The Cranberries

“(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”, Blue Oyster Cult

“Highway to Hell”, AC/DC

“Enter Sandman”, Metallica

Hopefully, by this time at our party, everyone has eaten and had a drink or two. This is when the fun starts. Dance music! Our guilty pleasure is group dances, so I picked out three for this playlist so far.

“Time Warp”, Rocky Horror Picture Show

“Cotton Eye Joe”, Rednex

“Cha Cha Slide”, DJ Casper

Now that people are up and dancing, the playlist continues with upbeat, fun music from over the years. Not necessarily spooky or Halloween-themed, they still work in a Halloween playlist. I am a child of the ’80s and ’90s, so there are a couple of songs from my homecoming and prom days.

“Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”, Eurythmics

“Bad Romance”, Lady Gaga

“Stayin’ Alive”, The Bee Gees

“The Humpty Dance”, Digital Underground

“The Monster”, Eminem and Rhianna

“Wild Thing”, Tone-loc

“Push It”, Salt N Peppa

“Uptown Funk”, Mark Ronson, Bruno Mars

"Fireball", Pitbull, John Ryan

"Honey I’m Good", Andy Grammar

“Hey Ya!”, Outkast

“Can’t Hold Us”, Mackelmore and Ryan Lewis

This last section of my playlist is for when the party is over, and it’s just you and your Boo. Slower-paced and a little sexy.

“Witchy Woman”, The Eagles

“I Put a Spell On You”, Annie Lennox

“Wicked Games”, Chris Isaak

So there it is, the playlist I created for the party. Here’s the fun part- I want you to add to the playlist too! Click on the playlist link here. It is set, so if you have Spotify, you can click “Add Songs”. Let’s keep it PG-13ish and have fun with it! It will be pretty cool to have different people in different places using this playlist for their Halloween Party.

Happy Halloween!