Halloween Hits: "Dark Lady" Cher (1974)

Halloween Hits: "Fire" The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown (1968)

When I was a little kid, this song's opening used to scare the crap out of me.

Long before Insane Clown Posse, before Marilyn Manson, before King Diamond, before Twisted Sister, before Motley Crue.

Before Kiss, before David Bowie and even before Alice Cooper, there was Arthur Brown in 1968. He originated the kabuki makeup look in rock n' roll - LONG before everyone else.

Shaggy 2 Dope and Violent J....Meet your GRANDDADDY!

With the scary makeup and declaration at the beginning of this song, as corny as this song is, it still got banned off many radio stations in the Bible Belt.

Arthur Brown also has the distinction of being the first rock artist to explore fear as a main topic of his albums, also LONG before all the other kabuki-coated imitators that followed him.....

Halloween Hits: "Mr. Sandman" The Chordettes (1954)

Another nifty little gem from Cadence Records, this song was heavily featured in the original Halloween movie series in the '70s and '80s......

Halloween Hits: "The Beauty Of Poisin" Specimen (1983)

Specimen were an early UK goth rock band. I remember this song from it's airplay on influential early Seattle alternative rock station KJET. But in order to get a copy, I had to special order it. It was only available then as a UK import. (Boy have we come a LONG way!)

Halloween Hits: "The Mummer's Dance (Radio Single Version)" Loreena McKennitt (1997)

It's amazing how so many people get Loreena McKennitt mixed up with Enya. And contrary to widespread urban legend - and one of my pet peeves when talking to the utterly CLUELESS about the song - Enya NEVER sang backup on the chorus on this radio single remix. That was just an overdub of Loreena McKennitt's voice in a different key. I have the radio promo CD and nowhere on it does Enya's name pop up ANYWHERE.

"The Mummer's Dance" hit #14 on the Top 40 radio charts in 1997.

So what's a mummer and why is it dancing?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummers_Play

Loreena McKennitt also had another creepy earlier Canadian hit single "All Souls Night" (1991)

Halloween Hits: “The Witch” The Sonics (1965)

The Sonics were several years ahead of everybody. Compared to everyone else in 1965, they were most likely the very first American hard rock band. They didn't have any fancy name to call their music other than rock n' roll....

And that alone suits it perfectly.......

Halloween Hits: "The Goo-Goo Muck" The Cramps (1981)

Halloween Hits: "The Bells" James Brown (1960)

Undisputedly the Godfather Of Soul's creepiest record.......

Halloween Hits: "Voodoo" Godsmack (1998)

Halloweeen Hits: "X-Ray Vision" Moon Martin (1982)

Here's a lost early MTV classic....... 

Indeed upon his release from the aliens, John Denver was never the same again.........

Moon Martin was a journeyman songwriter and scored some hits for others, namely "Bad Case of Loving You" for Robert Palmer in 1979. "Rolene" from his 1979 album Escape From Domination. was his biggest solo hit.  

Halloween Hits: "Something In My House" Dead Or Alive (1987)

From the follow-up album  to their 1985 super-smash Youthquake, which features the '80s party classic "You Spin Me 'Round (Like A Record)" . This album didn't do as well as Youthquake, but it had a few lesser hits on it, including this song and "Brand New Lover"

However, for sheer terror value, NOTHING can top what Dead Or Alive's lead singer Pete Burns has done to his face in the years since.....

Pete Burns, 1985

Pete Burns, 2010

Halloween Hits: "The Rockin' Ghost" Archie Bleyer (1956)

Archie Bleyer was the founder of Cadence Records, a semi-major '50s independent record label which scored major hits with The Everly Brothers, The Chordettes ("Mr. Sandman") and a young Andy Williams. This was his biggest solo hit.

Halloween Hits: "Boris The Spider" The Who (1967)

From their 1967 album A Quick One, this song influenced countless death metal bands with Juhn Entwhisle's growl of the song's title in the chorus.

A Quick One was released in the US as Happy Jack.

Halloween Hits: "Return Of The Spiders" Alice Cooper (1970)

From his second album Easy Action, "Return Of The Spiders" is some pretty nice early speed metal......

Near mint copies of the rare original Straight label copies of this can fetch over $100

Near mint copies of the  SUPER rare original Bizarre/Reprise label copies of this can fetch over $1,000. 

Halloween Hits: "Alien" Atlanta Rhythm Section (1981)

OK, I'm not sure if anything else beyond the title of this song qualifies it for a Halloween playlist.

This song went to #29 on the Top 40 charts in 1981......

But you had to admire ARS's sense of compassion towards aliens. Especially after we've already seen this.......

Halloween Hits: "D.O.A" Bloodrock (1970)

This is another super creepy song and a heavy metal classic. Single handedly inspiring countless classics such as "Detroit Rock City" Kiss and "One" Metallica. With a lead singer whose voice and style of singing was an irrefutable template for Ronnie James Dio's '80s career.

"D.O.A." is a song written from the perspective of someone dying in a horrific plane crash, inspired by an actual event the band's guitarist witnessed when he was 17. "D.O.A." was Bloodrock's biggest hit (and the song was released as a heavily edited - and sucky - single version) So here it is in it's full 8:25 album length glory. This is from their album Bloodrock 2.

Bloodrock broke up in 1975. 

Halloween Hits: "Timothy" The Buoys (1971)

Without a doubt, "Timothy" The Buoys is one of the CREEPIEST songs to EVER make the Top 40.

The Buoys were a pop group fronted by Rupert Holmes (you might know Rupert Holmes better for the super smash at the end of 1979, "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)" and it's follow-up single, the lesser charting lost pop classic "Him".) In 1971 however, Holmes was a struggling 20 year old songwriter desperate for a hit.

Scepter Records (then label home of Dionne Warwick and B.J. Thomas) offered him a deal. They would release a song from him. But they wouldn't promote it.  Holmes was a house songwriter for Scepter and this might have been way for Scepter to release a song from one of their house songwriters without any hint of payola.

Top 40 records need a LOT of promotion. Hundreds of new pop songs glut the airwaves every year and the ones that become the BIGGEST hits usually have a full blown record company promotional campaign behind them. No (or little) promotion means no hit and the kiss of death behind countless failed pop acts. 

Rupert Holmes knew this nightmare scenario. But he happened upon a brilliant idea: Make a song that WILL intentionally get banned off the radio. Following the old saying "There is no such thing as bad publicity", Holmes wrote the lyrics of this song:

Trapped in a mine that had caved in
And everyone knows the only ones left
Was Joe and me and Tim
When they broke through to pull us free
The only ones left to tell the tale
Was Joe and me

Timothy, Timothy, where on earth did you go?
Timothy, Timothy, God why don't I know?

Hungry as hell no food to eat
And Joe said that he would sell his soul
For just a piece of meat
Water enough to drink for two
And Joe said to me, "I'll take a swig
And then there's some for you."

Timothy, Timothy, Joe was looking at you
Timothy, Timothy, God what did we do?

I must have blacked out just around then
'Cause the very next thing that I could see
Was the light of the day again
My stomach was full as it could be
And nobody ever got around
To finding Timothy

Timothy, Timothy, where on earth did you go?
Timothy, Timothy, God why don't I know?

Timothy...

Well, you get the idea of what happened to poor old Timothy.....

The song was wrapped in a nice, bubblegum coated Osmonds-like musical arrangement and the song was sent out to radio. And radio began playing the song.

At the same time, Scepter Records was promoting their new star, Beverly Bremers who had a new single "Don't Say You Don't Remember" Yet somehow, this strange song the label never promoted was getting an awful lot of airplay.  And a lot of requests from young males at a time when such songs were requested mainly by young females.

The story from here takes a fork in the road. It's been said a Scepter A&R guy desperate to get the Beverly Bremers hit on the radio pulled a radio programmer aside, and mentioned what the "Timothy" song was actually about. Another goes the programmer tried to figure out what was the buzz behind this song and almost crapped himself when he heard the lyrics.

The song however was still selling briskly as a 45 RPM single, so not wanting to upset that applecart, Scepter quickly released a press statement claiming the Timothy in the song was actually a mule.

NOBODY bought that one. 

Regardless, the song was quickly removed off many Top 40 playlists (and replaced with the more genteel Beverly Bremers song.)

Nevertheless, this song became one of the biggest hits of 1971. And the radio hasn't played it since....

Halloween Hits: "Monster" Fred Schneider & The Shake Society (1984)

1984 Original Cover

1991 Reissue Cover

Often miscredited to The B-52s, this was a solo single from Fred Schneider. From his 1984 album Fred Schneider & The Shake Society. It was repackaged and re-released on Reprise (try saying that 10 times fast) in 1991.

The music video, as you can imagine was one of the first ones banned by MTV.....

Halloween Hits: "Spooky" Classics IV (1967)

Halloween Hits: "Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman" The Tubes (1981)

From their 1981 LP The Completion Backward Principle.