Happy Halloween!

It’s officially October! That means it’s also officially the month of Halloween! Time for costumes and candy and wonderfully cool days as the year begins to wind down. So, to get us all in the spirit, let’s blast some appropriate seasonal tunes!

• Grim Grinning Ghosts

If you’re a Disney kid at heart still, like me, this song is absolutely a Halloween staple. The harmonies are wonderful and it just puts me in the mood to start decorating and turning my apartment into an appropriately spooky space filled with its own Grim Grinning Ghosts.

• This is Halloween

Another Disney classic. The Nightmare Before Christmas is a movie that I will likely watch from October right through to Christmas. It’s capable of being appropriate for the whole season of many holidays! And let’s be honest, it’s way too fun shouting THIS IS HALLOWEEN along with this song.

• Adams Family Theme Song

One of many Halloween classics that will be on this list. I’m convinced that almost everyone knows this one and will be snapping along from the moment it starts playing.

• Monster Mash

Like the Adams Family theme, this is another campy Halloween classic and it is just so hard not to dance to. Sometimes I feel like it’s maybe overplayed, but honestly, I start wanting to dance every time it comes on too.

• Time Warp

It wouldn’t be Halloween without some Rocky Horror. Like with the last two songs, this one will definitely get everyone up singing and dancing along. Really, I could have put the entire Rocky Horror soundtrack on this playlist and probably said the same thing, but this one seems to be the most well-known, even if you’ve never watched Rocky Horror Picture show (which if you haven’t, you totally should. It’s A Lot, but it’s also so fun and a great Halloween movie if, like me, you’re not a big horror movie fan).

• Werewolves of London

I’ve gone back and forth on whether to include this one on my Halloween playlist a lot because it does kind of give me mixed vibes. The riff is so strongly associated with Summer for me, thanks to Kid Rock’s All Summer Long, but the lyrics are so perfect for Halloween. I guess that disconnect also makes it kinda fit, especially as we truly transition from the official end of summer into the colder Autumn days.

• Ghostbusters

‘Tis the season for busting some Ghosts! Whether you’re venturing into a haunted house or, as I am known to do, taking a deep dive into the haunted history of your hometown, this song will pump you up and remind you that you ain’t afraid of no ghosts!

• Superstition

It’s the time of year when we all get a little superstitious. Even if you’re usually a very skeptical person, I think Halloween just makes everything seem a little more possible...or at least like you maybe don’t want to take chances that you’re wrong.

• (Don’t Fear) The Reaper

This is a less campy addition to this playlist, but I think it still hits the right Halloween vibes for me. Not too creepy, a little fun, and very fitting for the tone of the season. Plus, that guitar solo?? It’s too good.

• Jump In The Line

I absolutely love Beatlejuice. It’s one of my favourite movies to watch this time of year. Like several of the other songs on this list, hearing it just makes me want to dance, decorate, and attend a wonderfully haunted dinner party.

• Sympathy For The Devil

Okay, it might be that I just really like this song in general. It’s probably one of my favourite classic rock numbers. It reminds me of some characters that I love in fiction and some of my own tabletop roleplaying characters and finds its way onto a lot of my playlists at some point. And given this is the time of year for devils and demons, it seems only fitting that it finds its way onto this one too.

• Friends on the Otherside

More Disney. I could put almost any villain song on this playlist and it would be very appropriate, but I really like this one and calling on friends from the other side is a very seasonally appropriate activity.

• Supermassive Black Hole

I’ll be honest here, I was a huge Twihard as a teenager (and okay, maybe still am). The movies aren’t great, but come on! That vampire baseball scene with this song in the background??? I unapologetically love that scene and that combined with my love of vampires in general is what lands this song on this list.

• Met Him Last Night

Throwing in some modern pop, this song is here for similar reasons that The Reaper and Sympathy for the Devil are. It’s not a Halloween song, but it fits the vibe of embracing some dark entities, which is the Halloween vibe that I’m here for.

• Thriller

I don’t think any Halloween is complete without hearing this song several times and seeing at least one flash mob set to it. Like Time Warp, it’s so well known and has such a ubiquitous dance to it that makes a guaranteed crowd pleaser.

• I Put A Spell On You

Most people would probably go for the Bette Midler version from Hocus Pocus, but I prefer the Nina Simone version. Her voice is so wonderfully enchanting and while this playlist certainly has no shortage of campy songs, I prefer the slower, darker version of this one personally.

• Come Little Children

I couldn’t find the movie version of this one on spotify, but this cover is also very good and of the songs in Hocus Pocus, I prefer this one over their version of I Put A Spell On You. I think I just like the songs that really do sound like a hypnotic spell just work better for me personally.

This playlist will no doubt get longer as the month wears off, but this is where I’m starting the season out! Music to dance and sing to as I decorate my apartment and begin three months of almost constant holidays. Not that I’m complaining or anything, I really do love this time of year and diving into each celebration as they come.

Happy Halloween month, everyone! I hope it is as fun, scary, and exciting as you want it to be!