With Halloween on the horizon, there will be many parties.
And where there are many parties, there usually is lots of music.
Which lends itself to the question: Guess which reporter will be there if there is a plethora of tune-skis?
You got it - it's your friendly music reporter who plans to bust out his 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles outfit for one night only. Therefore, I present to you the top 10 songs of Halloween. Some tracks are scary, some are fun, yet indicative of the "holiday," and some are downright silly.
The Top 10: Halloween Songs
10. "The Star-Spangled Banner," pick any artist - It's true. This bad boy makes the list as an ode for all the turds who gave me pennies when I went trick-or-treating as a child. What better way to honor Lincoln's currency than with the national anthem? Is it really that costly to purchase a $3 bag of bite-size candy at CVS Pharmacy? I'm talking to you, Penn Theater in Plymouth, Mich.
9. "Black Magic Woman," Santana - It's a nice little song, which, on the surface, plays on the supernatural. "You got your spell on me, baby/You got your spell on me, baby/Yes, you got your spell on me, baby/Turnin' my heart into stone/I need you so bad/Black Magic Woman/I can't leave you alone."
8. "Somebody's Watching Me," Rockwell - Here's the obligatory '80s song on my list. The song featured references to the Twilight Zone and how the song's central character was growing crazier by the minute.
7. "Wannabe," The Spice Girls - Ahhhhhhhhh! Enough said.
6. "This is Halloween," Danny Elfman (from "Tim Burton's 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'") - Not often does one get to clump two holidays together in one of my selections, but here is that rare occasion. Plus, the song has vampires, corpses, the man under the stairs and the creature under the bed all in one song!
5. "Purple People Eater," Sheb Wooley - It came out in the '50s, but it must be good if I can still remember it. Sing along, you know the words: "Well I saw the thing coming out of the sky/It had one long horn and one big eye/I commenced to shakin' and I said oo-wee/It looks like a purple people eater to me/It was a one-eyed one-horned flying purple people eater/Sure looks good to me."
4. "Thriller," Michael Jackson - He's as scary now as he was back in this song's music video, albeit for different reasons. He was the bomb-diggity back in the early '80s. The man had style and the "Thriller" music video - which was an elaborate production directed by John Landis and featuring a horde of dancing zombies - has been critically acclaimed since it emerged from Jackson's creative womb. The video has become as much as a perrenial treat as bags of candy.
3. "Monster Mash," Bobby "Boris" Pickett - Whenever one hears this song, he or she has to think of Halloween. It's withstood the test of time as one of the all-time greatest pumpkin day melodies.
2. "Ghostbusters," Ray Parker Jr. - "Who you gonna call?" OK, so it's not scary at all - but it is one of the essential songs of spook. When it plays on the radio or someone's boombox, it's time to get up, dance and pay your respects to Slimer and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
1. Pretty much any instrumental song from the movie "Psycho" - It's amazing, because some of the songs don't even have any words, but they are the most popular horror flick tunes of all-time. You can't tell me you've never grabbed a knife and pretended to stab someone (or actually done it) while uttering "Nee Nee Nee Nee."
Kristofer Karol is The State News music reporter. He can be reached at karolkri@msu.edu.
