Courtesy: ClipGid
The Addams Family Theme Song
They’re the original goths, making black and white suburban-chic and weekday-names cool. Set the mood while twisting on your vampire fangs with this little diddy. At number one, with a bullet, is the spookiest theme song of all time.
Fantomas – Rosemary’s Baby (Theme Cover)
Mike Patton, originally from Faith No More, did an album with his side-project, Fantomas, made up entirely of film theme music. This cover of the theme from Rosemary’s Baby, an objectively terrible movie made slightly better by this song, is a pitch-hitter for setting a Hallows Eve mood.
Devendra Banhart – Insect Eyes
If you’ve ever seen the movie The Hills Have Eyes 2, you’ll understand why this is creepy.
Tom Waits – What’s He Building
More of a story than a song, nothing is scarier than industrial sound effects, footsteps, and Tom Waits’ traipsing, gravelly, smoke-riddled voice. If there were a better spoken-word piece for Halloween, it would be on this list. But it isn’t, because nothing beats Tom Waits.
Ministry – Everyday Is Halloween
With industrial bass lines, 80’s synths and fraught with dancing opportunities, you can’t miss this track off Ministry’s new wave album Early Trax. If you’ve any taste at all, this is the only album of Ministry’s you’ll listen to.
Marilyn Manson – This Is Halloween (Danny Elfman Cover)
Many have attempted to cover Danny Elfman’s classic Tim Burton movie tunes, but none have succeeded to the extent that Marilyn Manson has in this perfectly-produced track. True to the original and accentuated by Manson’s hoarse sizzle of a voice, you can’t go wrong with this cover of the opening song from The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Electric Hellfire Club – Belo Lugosi’s Dead (Bauhaus Cover)
It’s a dance-y tune about the greatest actor to ever play Dracula. What more do you want?
Groovie Ghouls – Graveyard Girlfriend
If you love punk and your girlfriend, play this and go forth in your ill-conceived “Salt and Pepper” couples costume. Then again, if you like this song your taste isn’t terrible enough to do that, so enjoy Halloween in your Vince Vega and Mia Wallace coordinating Pulp Fiction costumes.
The Misfits – The Monster Mash (Bobby Boris and The Crypt-Kickers Cover)
It’s The Misfits. It’s The Monster Mash. If ever there were a collaboration that further epitomized Halloween, it has not been discovered. Feel the punk-rock tunes and silly lyrics in the marrow of your dancing bones.
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Heads Will Roll
A New York City band with a powerhouse front-woman and disco-death sound is all you need to get your costume party started this Halloween.
Favorite lines: “Dripping with alchemy/Shiver stop shivering/The glitter’s all wet/You’re all chrome”
“Off, off with your head/Dance, dance ’til you’re dead/Heads will roll/Heads will roll/Heads will roll”
The Horrorpops – Walk Like A Zombie
The Horrorpops are the perfect band to rock and roll with all over the rockabilly-Halloween spectrum. Whether you’re dressing as sordidly sexy corpse-creator or a ravishing serial killer, you can murder the dance floor to this aptly named tune.
Blutengel – Cry Little Sister (Gerard McMann Cover)
Another Halloween staple, Cry Little Sister is the best song from the best teen-vampire movie, The Lost Boys. Vibrating with a German accent, industrial sound and sickly gorgeous beats, this is exactly the kind of cover you’d hear in a vampire bar. Or Blue Monday.
Nan Vernon – Love Hurts (Nazareth Cover)
If you haven’t noticed, covers are the backbone of a great playlist. This cover of Nazareth’s Love Hurts from Rob Zombies’ Halloween 2 remake is the ultimate cover. Since many 80’s lyrics are lost in the synthesizers and roaring voices of their original performers, stripped-down covers like this spooky lamentation by Nan Vernon come as quite a shock. It’s slow and purposeful, delving into the lyrics of a heart-breaking jeremiad that had previously been lost in the big hair of the 80s. Perfect for the post-Halloween walk of shame.
Favorite lines: “I know it isn’t true / I know it isn’t true / Love is just a lie / Made to make you blue / Love hurts”
You’re only as good as your last Halloween costume. Or your last playlist. Now you can’t go wrong with either.