Here Are the ‘Big 4’ of Halloween Rock Songs

There’s a lot of music out there that scares us. But some was even meant to.
Halloween is not a holiday associated with music on the scale of, say, Christmas, but there have been some treats amidst the trickery that goes with the music.

Usually it’s by association — Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells,” say, after its effectively eerie use in The Exorcist back in 1973. And, of course, any song about a creepy creature – be they “Werewolves of London” or a “Bat Out of Hell” — that could be a Halloween costume is fair game.

Funny, though — that doesn’t work for princess or cartoon character outfits.

So amidst the ghosts, ghouls, freaks, maybe a geek or two…there’s a playlist to be head. And these are the four songs that should lead any musical background for All Hallow’s Eve…

Read More: 11 Famous Halloween Rock Concerts

“I Put a Spell on You”
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, 1956

The theatrically minded Hawkins was one of rock’s scariest creatures, using shock-rock props and gothic attire long before Alice Cooper and his pals started playing Yardbirds covers in Phoenix.

Co-written with Herb Slotkin, “I Put a Spell on You” was intended as a love ballad but morphed into something completely different when Hawkins added some blood-curdling screams to his delivery. (His first wife, Anna Mae Vernon claimed she actually wrote the song but let Hawkins take credit.) Hawkins put “Spell” out twice — a 1955 version that did nothing and the following year’s rendition for Okeh Records, with a B-side called “Little Demon” – which turned out to be the black cat’s meow.

Nina Simone had even greater success with “Spell” as the title track of her 1965 album and one of her signature songs. the Animals‘ Alan Price recorded and released it the following year with his Alan Price Set, while Creedence Clearwater Revival included it on its self-titled debut album in 1968.

Eurythmics‘ Annie Lennon has a Hot 100 hit with her version in 2014, and it’s also been recorded by the Crazy World of Arthur Brown and Bryan Ferry. Jeff Beck’s rendition, sung by Joss Stone on his 2010 album Emotion & Commotion, was nominated for a Grammy Award.

“Monster Mash”
Bobby “Boris” Pickett, 1962

The king of ’em all, really. Pickett — a singer, songwriter and comedian from Massachusetts — got the idea for “Monster Mash” after leaning into a Boris Karloff-style monologue while his band the Cordials performed a rendition of the Diamonds’ “Little Darlin.'”

He wrote “Monster Mash” with bandmate Lenny Capizzi, working in the lab on the sound effects-laden track during May of 1962 with local musicians dubbed the Crypt-Kicker Five. It was released during August on producer Gary Paxton’s Garpax label and topped the Billboard charts two months later, during the week before Halloween.

“Monster Mash” also inspired its own mythology, including denied accounts that the Ventures’ drummer Mel Taylor and Darlene Love both performed on the track. The song re-entered the Billboard charts during August of 1970 and May of 1973, the latter when it was certified gold. It was also banned by the BBC early on for being “too morbid” (?!)

Pickett continued to ride the Monster horse, with a Christmas adaptation, “Monster’s Holiday,” in 1962 and a “Monster Rap” in 1985. Rush, meanwhile, sampled “Monster Mash” for the instrumental “Limbo” from 1996’s Test for Echo. Pickett passed away from leukemia in April of 2007, and as of 2023, the song was still generating $1 million in royalties per year, according to Billboard.

“Haunted House”
Jumpin’ Gene Simmons, 1964

A decade before another Gene Simmons helped make things hotter than hell, Morris Eugene Simmons, a rockabilly singer from Mississippi, sang a song about one man’s unwelcome discovery about home he’d just purchased. Bob Geddins wrote “Haunted House,” first released by Johnny Fuller in 1958, then by Domingo Samudio (aka Sam the Sham), before Simmons turned it into a No. 11 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.

Simmons was already a known commodity in the music world by then; born in Tupelo, he toured as an opening act for Sun Records bandmate Elvis Presley and sang for the Bill Black combo.

Simmons, who died during August of 2006, also co-wrote “Indian Outlaw,” the 1994 first hit for country star Tim McGraw. “Haunted House,” was also recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis, Ray Stevens, Ace Cannon and Roy Buchanan, among others, while Bruce Springsteen performed it once, during his Halloween night show during 1980 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, emerging from a coffin at the center of the stage before starting the song.

“(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”
Blue Oyster Cult, 1976

The misunderstood classic penned by guitarist Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser was sealed into Halloween lore thanks to its inclusion in John Carpenter’s 1978 slasher hit called…surprise!…Halloween. The, yes, haunting guitar pattern and melody is heard while friends Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and (Nancy Kyes) are driving to a babysitting gig, stalked unknowingly by unkillable villain Michael Myers.

That was enough to cement the song’s association to the holiday, even though Roeser has long insisted that, despite dark interpretations, “Reaper” was meant to be a positive message about losing one’s fear of death rather than something to creep us out — or make us crave more cowbell. He doth protest too much; the Halloween inclusion gave “Reaper” a second bump two years after it hit the Top 15 in 1976, and director David Gordon Green brought it back as the end credits song for 2022’s Halloween Ends…or, did it?