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.......