As fall continues, here’s some songs to add to your playlist that fit the essence of fall and Halloween
When it comes to holiday songs, the number between Christmas and fall/halloween is giant. During Christmas time, there are thousands of songs on rotation, as well as covers and parodies. Around Halloween time, there are significantly less songs. Maybe it’s because Christmas is a jolly and happy time and Halloween is about horror and fear.
A very classic fall themed song is “The Great Pumpkin Waltz” from It’s ”The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.” This song evokes the feeling of Thanksgiving, Halloween and even Christmas making it perfect for several playlists.
A lot of fall songs come from Charlie Brown andSnoopy movies. These films embody fall and autumn. For example “Snoopy and the Leaf” which is also from “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown,” is a jazz composed song that gives fall feelings and calm ambiance.
Moving out of the Charlie Brown realm and into folk music, Noah Kahan does a great job of getting you into your feels whilst also being in a cabin in the woods. His song “Halloween,”talks about how he’s haunted by a ghost of someone he used to know and them being captive in his mind. This isn’t necessarily a halloween song but it plays with themes of being haunted and his folk style is fall feeling.
Another talented folk artist is Hozier, his song “Unknown/Nth” gives late October vibes. This song is about betrayal and feeling unknown and not understood in a relationship. While this song doesn’t scream “this is a halloween or fall song,”it does have a folk sound to it and encompasses autumn‘s sound.
Chance Peña released a new album recently, called Ever-Shifting, Continual Blossoming. This album is a lot about the outdoors, personal growth and understanding your value. His song, “The art of putting people in their place” has a feeling of fall but it additionally goes through the emotion of not taking on people’s pain as your own and creating boundaries for yourself.
Now that we have gone through the weeks before Halloween, let’s get into the actual spooky season music.
The first song is a classic Halloween tune, “Thriller” by Michael Jackson. This song becomes intensely popular around the season of Halloween, especially due to the music video of them all being zombies and in a graveyard. This is such a Halloween party staple.
The next song was featured in a movie called “Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark.” It’s “Season of the Witch” by Lana Del Ray. This song is a typical Del Ray fashion, spooky feeling about it and that the season of the witch. The meaning behind this song is about those who go against the status quo and challenge the preconceived notions about who they are.
If you want more of a goth vibe add the band The Damned song “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. This song talks about the story of Jekyll and Hyde, a tale about the duality of humans. The legend goes thata scientist wanted to try his hand at a side of science that is more dark to bring out his second nature. The song tells a little bit of that story.
If you want more light hearted Halloween music from your childhood, “Put a Spell on You” by Pattycake was featured in Hocus Pocus and sung by the Sanderson sisters. This is definitely a Halloween song by the fact it talks about spelling a person but still adds some fun by having it be fitting for a Disney movie.
Another great Disney Halloween song is “Calling all the Monsters” by China Ann McClain. This song was on ANT Farm for the Episode that aired around Halloween time. It’s a fun,lighthearted song about having all the monsters hang out and have a fun time together.
While those are newer songs to add to your playlist, it almost feels wrong to not add the very classic and played on repeat Halloween songs, so here is a brief list of those beloved songs.
“Monster Mash” by Bobby Picket is a recognizable one. “Flying Purple People Eater” by Shep Wooley is a silly song. “Spooky Scary Skeletons” and “Addams Family” are both by Andrew Gold and not hearing these songs on Halloween would be scary. In high school this song was played at every Halloween event: Rockwell’s “Somebody’s watching me.”
If you want other classic songs from movies there are “Ghostbusters” by Ray Parker Jr. as well as “This is Halloween” by Marily Manson. If you like really strange and uneasy movies, try “Time Warp” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Check out these songs and add them to your playlist for your next fall adventure, or for your getting ready playlist for Halloween.