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In this episode, Tara and Natalie chat about their top 5 Halloween songs. Learn more about Record Store Society, your new favorite music podcast.
Creators & Guests
What is Record Store Society?
It's time to visit your favorite local record store; a place where music fans spend countless hours flipping through records, discuss the minutia of favorite b-sides, best live albums, and anything else music-related. If you have any questions, you can always find Tara and Natalie behind the counter ready to give a recommendation or tell you about a recent discovery. Join Record Store Society, a music podcast, biweekly to see what’s new or just to hang around for some music talk.
0:00:00 - Tara
Hey Tara, hi Natalie, how's it going? Pretty good. How are you?
0:00:23 - Natalie
I'm doing great because this is my favorite time of the year and I got to say this is one of my favorite record store traditions where we get to stay after hours and decorate the store for Halloween.
0:00:34 - Tara
Yeah, me too. I love fall and Halloween and Thanksgiving, all things autumn, autumnal, yep, I agree.
0:00:45 - Natalie
Yep, I'm in my prime, me too. This is my time to shine. I love it. And then we slide right into Christmas and winter my favorite holidays, for sure.
0:00:54 - Tara
Nice, I love to eat all the candy and the food. It's not even Halloween yet and I already bought myself an entire bag of Halloween candy and ate it. Oh, you're getting a head start.
0:01:04 - Natalie
Yeah.
0:01:05 - Tara
Except for I left all the banana laffy taffies.
0:01:08 - Natalie
Are you kidding? Those are the jam. Yeah, you don't like banana laffy taffies.
0:01:12 - Tara
They're fine. I just leave them to the end because they're my least favorite.
0:01:15 - Natalie
I would happily take those off your hands. Yeah, you know, you got to get a head start on the candy eating grease, the gullet, because we're going to go really hard Come to 31st.
0:01:23 - Tara
Yeah, yes, yes yeah.
0:01:26 - Natalie
Do you usually dress up? You know what Dressing up used to be my jam Strictly because I'm super crafty and it was an opportunity to make. I loved making my costume and I particularly like doing themed costumes with like a group of friends. But I haven't done that in a while. I haven't. I haven't had like the itch to get out the sewing machine and make a costume. My current Halloween tradition is just a classic movie thong, with some good Halloween films and some like cheesy B movie horror movies that's kind of my thing.
Yes, how about you?
0:01:59 - Tara
I usually do dress up and I usually do dress up as someone from pop culture and usually music. So examples of past Halloween costumes Axl Rose, nice, which is really funny. Someone from one of the ladies from Pussy Riot. I was Elton John one year. I was Shania Twain one year. Yeah, I just like to dress up as like people from pop culture, especially music.
0:02:26 - Natalie
You know what pop culture costume I'm looking forward to most this year? I've seen a lot of buzz online from people wanting to dress up as Tedros from the Idol. I don't even know who that is that crazy show with the Weekend and Lily Rose Depp that had very polarizing reviews. Oh gosh, you haven't heard about this at all.
0:02:45 - Tara
Okay, I don't know it. No, I don't think I've heard of that, but I don't know what this thing looks like, that people would dress up as.
0:02:55 - Natalie
Just imagine the Weekend looking like a off-Broadway vampire with a really cheesy ponytail pulled to the back. It was awful. The whole look was awful.
0:03:07 - Tara
I think there's like a Weekend TikTok filter or something, and I've seen people putting it on their babies and so we have like a baby in a diaper with like a giant Weekend head, that's hilarious Walking around.
0:03:20 - Natalie
That's also terrifying. That's very Halloween-appropriate. But yeah, Tedros is going to be the pop culture costume this year, I think.
0:03:27 - Tara
I don't know what I'm going to be this year and I'm running out of time. Yeah, do you have any finalists? I was thinking Blonde Ambition Tour, madonna. I feel like that could be fun. Is that the pointy bra era?
0:03:39 - Natalie
Yes, pointy bra era Nice. Do you make your costumes?
0:03:42 - Tara
No, I can't sell, I will need to. I have made costumes before, but usually it's like with pieces mostly already made.
0:03:52 - Natalie
You know what I mean.
0:03:53 - Tara
Just cobble together some stuff to make a look. Make it work. Make it work. What's your favorite Halloween movie? Or even just general Halloween movie, it's your favorite movie.
0:04:04 - Natalie
Well, the Halloween movie I have to watch every year, without question, has to be Hocus Pocus.
0:04:10 - Tara
Oh yeah, I love Hocus Pocus so much I actually, on my East Coast road trip, saw one of the houses from Hocus Pocus in Salem, nice, appropriately. I have three favorite Halloween movies. Hit me the Crow, mm-hmm. Brandon Lee.
0:04:27 - Natalie
Mm-hmm.
0:04:27 - Tara
Amazing soundtrack the Craft Nice. And lastly, and this one is the cheesy one, sleep Away, camp. Sleep Away, camp. Yeah, have you seen that I?
0:04:38 - Natalie
have never seen that.
0:04:39 - Tara
Oh my gosh.
0:04:40 - Natalie
I want to see that. I'm going to write it down. The title's not Ring and a Bell. Maybe I've seen it, but I will definitely look it up.
0:04:46 - Tara
Colt Classic. The ending will make you shriek. It is shocking, shocking, but it's 80s cheesy.
0:04:52 - Natalie
I like a good shriek, so it's a good one Okay good, I'll look that up. Yeah, so what kind of theme are we going for in the store with our decorations? I'm seeing a heavy bat influence, a lot of bat activity you know, bats are good.
0:05:04 - Tara
Bats are good. We should hang some pumpkins from the ceiling.
0:05:08 - Natalie
Yeah, that would be nice.
0:05:09 - Tara
The pumpkin, you know, pumpkin buckets, maybe some, oh yeah, I've never carved a pumpkin before what I know.
0:05:16 - Natalie
I know why not? I don't think I have. No, I don't think. So I mean I've never gotten in there. I maybe had one that was like prepared and I could cut out the eyes. But I want to get there with my hands and dig the seeds and stuff out. I've never done that before.
0:05:27 - Tara
Oh my gosh, let's see, that's another one that I kind of go all out on. I've done the Prince symbol, I've done ET. I love carving pumpkins. So again pop culture fun things I love it. I don't have a design thought out this year, though, either, so yeah, need to get that sorted Well maybe we'll get inspired tonight once we finish up the store.
0:05:50 - Natalie
Give us some ideas.
0:05:51 - Tara
True, we need to put some skeletons just doing some random things around.
0:05:57 - Natalie
Dance positions from the skeletons, maybe like a in a Michael Jackson pose Look at a shiny glove right.
0:06:05 - Tara
Yes, on it on the same page. Yeah, we should listen to some music too while we decorate.
0:06:11 - Natalie
We should. Let's get the holiday spirit going. Do you have some favorite Halloween tunes?
0:06:15 - Tara
Oh yeah, let's make a playlist. Maybe this is a good time for us to do the high fidelity game.
0:06:21 - Natalie
Oh yeah, We'll just do just the two of us and some ghostly pals who want to join us in the background. We can't talk Top five. Top five Halloween songs.
0:06:31 - Tara
Yeah, let's do it. Do you want to go first?
0:06:33 - Natalie
No, you should go first, I should go first. Ok, well, I'll kick it off with Freaks Come Out at Night by Houdini. So this is from their 1984 second album, escape. This song is just about New York's wild nightlife party scene, but at this point it's pretty much a Halloween staple. Any Halloween party or themed event I've ever been to has played this song. It's on practically every Halloween compilation album. It's just great, just off that iconic hook. The verses immediately give it away that it's not about Halloween, but nonetheless that hook. Everybody knows that song right.
0:07:19 - Tara
It's funny. I had to just now double check this, but I know Haunted House of Rock by Houdini, who is up with Houdini and all these spooky songs. I know.
0:07:29 - Natalie
Hey, it worked once for them. I just keep making Halloween songs every year, why not? It's true? Yeah, I was watching the video recently for that song and in the beginning, when the music drops, there's a kid dancing. And turns out that kid is a very, very young Jermaine Dupri. Super producer. Jermaine Dupri, it's very old.
0:07:47 - Tara
Yeah, no way, that's cool, yeah.
0:07:50 - Natalie
So I don't know that one puts me in the Halloween spirit just like the sound of the song and the beat. It's so 80s and I think for me the 80s was the height of Halloween culture, just like so many classic movies. I was a kid at the time. I was still super eager to get dressed up and go trick-or-treating. The 80s that was just the time to be alive for Halloween, right? Yes?
0:08:10 - Tara
Well, why Like? Why is the 80s so Halloween-y?
0:08:15 - Natalie
I don't know. I mean I wonder if it's just that way because we were kids, you know. But I think it's more than that. I think it's legit, like the cultural summit of Halloween, I don't know. I think the pop culture was still very campy and I don't know, I'm not so self-conscious and more willing to just kind of play around and be silly and take on a character.
0:08:35 - Tara
That's true, I think that's why yeah? Yeah, so many. I'm sure we'll go through many of them in our lists, but so many 80s Halloween songs that are still just legendary today. Actually, I wonder if this is true for other holidays, Like is there a decade for Christmas?
0:08:52 - Natalie
That's interesting.
0:08:53 - Tara
I mean, there were a lot of you know like what's his face? The guy who has all the Christmas songs, bing Crosby.
0:09:00 - Natalie
Bing Crosby yeah.
0:09:01 - Tara
What was that? 50s, 40s, 50s.
0:09:03 - Natalie
Yeah, I don't know. I would say we would go back even a couple, two or three more decades for Christmas, for its heyday. Yeah, really, I'd say so. I think we had some good ones in the 80s, like the temptations. It's just not Christmas for me until I hear the temptations, but I digress. We'll talk about that over Christmas. Yeah, that's true, but yeah, 80s Halloween belongs to the 80s for me.
0:09:25 - Tara
Yeah, I know, I agree 100%.
0:09:27 - Natalie
All right, so number four I have Somebody's Watching Me from Rockwell.
0:09:33 - Rockwell
I always feel like somebody's watching me and I love the proxy.
0:09:41 - Natalie
This was an 84. Yeah, same year as the Houdini song from Rockwell's self-titled debut album Under Motown Records, another staple Halloween party dance song that you're going to hear every single time, and the hook famously features vocals from Michael and Jermaine Jackson, which led many people to believe, including myself, that this was an MJ song, even though he's not credited on the song at his request. Well, maybe at his request. Other accounts say it was Motown that opted to not credit Michael Jackson Because Rockwell, of course, is the son of Motown CEO Barry Gordy, and Rockwell decided to secure his deal on his own to avoid the nepotism accusations and I think the label just wanted to protect themselves. They didn't want the relationship with Barry Gordy and with the Jacksons to get out. They even made him sing in that cheesy British accent. But yeah, eventually it came out anyway and there was backlash and his career kind of fizzled out after that. But somebody's watching me has stood the test of time for sure.
0:10:41 - Tara
It has, and it's a year long, a song for me. I love that song. It's a fun one but it is very. Halloween has that.
0:10:51 - Natalie
Right, right the videos. That's pretty scary. Yeah, the video's got like real psycho vibes as he spends much of it in the shower, or like walking around his place in a Towel being stalked by all kinds of spooky characters. It kind of comes off like a bit of a thirst trap. Now I'm just like why are you still nude and just go put some clothes on? He's very paranoid. He walks around freaked out by pictures and masks hanging on his wall and when, even as a kid, I was wondering why he just didn't take that shit down. Like clearly it's creeping you out every time you walk by it. Yeah, get off the wall, you'll be fine, true, I don't know.
0:11:20 - Tara
Yeah, it was like the precursor of big brother, you know? Yeah, all the cameras CCTV. Now I'm just kidding.
0:11:29 - Natalie
I imagine this one is a a mainstay in your Halloween DJ.
0:11:33 - Tara
Oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah, for sure, definitely All right.
0:11:38 - Natalie
Number three DJ Jazzy, jeff and the Fresh Prince a nightmare on my street. So this was the third single from their second album.
He's the DJ, I'm the rapper released in 1988. I love this one. I love when MCs tell full-on stories in their songs, like particularly from this time, like the 80s and the 90s, and thinking of like rap legends like slick Rick Nas goes phase biggie and, of course, the Fresh Prince will Smith, and I think that's why this song is so much fun and such a great Halloween tune. It's just a funny, entertaining story, right.
0:12:21 - Tara
Yeah, I feel like I'm not getting that from hip-hop today. The storytelling, and I miss it. I mean even Even like easy E with boys in the hood was telling a story.
0:12:33 - Natalie
Yeah, I miss that, but yeah, it's. Yeah, it's not as prevalent, I think you have like J Cole is a good example. There's still some good storytellers out there.
0:12:42 - Tara
Maybe you see that's, I just don't know it you know, I don't. I don't have the yeah, the details on the lyrics, but I was just gonna say I love this one. This one's a such a classic yeah it's.
0:12:55 - Natalie
It's funny. It's the video's base. It's basically a spoof of nightmare on Elm Street where will is terrorized by Fred, who doesn't look anything like Freddy Krueger in the video. He's more of a cross between Max headroom and Andrew Dice Clay and his finger blades are like just tone arms in the cartridges, which is funny.
0:13:12 - Tara
Oh yeah, that would make such a good Halloween, that one right are you feeling inspired?
0:13:17 - Natalie
I would love that, yes, yeah, so the first prince is having this nightmare, and then he wakes up to find his sheets are all shredded up, and so he calls Jazzy Jeff to warn him not to fall asleep, but he's too late. Fred is already there and slashes them up. And my favorite part is when Fred takes the phone away from Jazzy Jeff and says I'm your DJ now, princey, which is just the silliest thing ever.
0:13:38 - Tara
I love it. How old was Will Smith when this came out, I wonder, because I also, as a kid, when this was out, I felt like he was making music for me, you know, and parents just don't understand. They were just like a fun kid factor to these songs.
0:13:54 - Natalie
Yeah, that's why I like Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince just in general. You know like, regardless of the trends happening in hip-hop, it was kind of moving more towards gangsta rap and everything. They were just content to have fun and be silly and party it up and I like that.
0:14:08 - Tara
Yeah, they were just in their own lane. Yeah, it was fun.
0:14:10 - Natalie
Yeah, some interesting history with this video. Originally, this song was considered to be featured on the soundtrack for a nightmare on Elm Street 4, and they were gonna produce this music video with New Line Cinema, but the studio instead went with the track Are you ready for Freddy from the fat boys, which is also a great song. Well, bmg, jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince label they released the video anyway and it aired a few times on MTV before New Line Cinema sued them and won, at which point the video was pulled and its copies destroyed. Oh no, yeah. So for like 30 years, the video just didn't exist. It's just gone until 2018, when someone uploaded it to YouTube right before Halloween. Very low quality. There's even a couple of seconds of an episode of growing pains taped over it. That clips in, yeah, but a month later a cleaner version was uploaded and now it's back for all of us to enjoy that's hilarious.
Yeah, growing pains, all right number two I put a spell on you by Screamin J Hawkins. I put a spell on you because you're mad.
So there's a clip from 1966 of Screamin J Hawkins performing on the Merv Griffin show and it's Outrageous and intense and I love it. It's just he's wearing a cape and holding a tambourine and a staff with a skull in the end just Captivating, going nuts. There's like a little, a little poof of smoke on the stage for drama His arsineal. So this is even crazier. He's got the the bone in the nose and he's just such a phenomenal all-in performer and it's funny too because you see him get tickled out himself in places and holding back his laughter. He's just great. He's a great comedian and he had that incredible operatic voice. I just I think the song is so cool. You can really see how he inspired a lot of these big shock rockers, you know, with the face pain and over-the-top stage antics. I think, like Marilyn Manson and Alice Cooper types. You know, I really think Screamin' Jay Hawkins was the blueprint for that kind of thing.
0:16:25 - Tara
Yeah, I love the spooky laugh he does.
0:16:30 - Natalie
Oh yeah, there's just like maniacal screams that he has in the song yet it's like when he's like speaking in tongues and just babbling it's, it's spooky and funny and I don't know. He's just he's such a good performer. Yeah, I want to give a shout out to some of my favorite versions of this song. Of course, nina Simone does a really cool version of it. Also, the animals the Alan Price set I really like that version. And, of course, the version from, again, my favorite Halloween movie, hocus Pocus. I love that one.
And there's another cool version from a young, young singer named Angelina Jordan. She, I think she was originally on Norway's Got Talent but she's got this really mesmerizing voice. You know, you see these kids who have these these kind of old soul vocals and you're like, where is that coming from? Yeah, she has a really good voice and she recorded a version of the song that I think captures that big crazy drama of the song, just like, aside from the fact that she's a kid, I think she really she really puts in a good performance. It's, it's kind of fascinating, but yeah, it's a great song. There's equally some terrible covers of the song, a lot of people who try to sing it who probably should stay away from it.
0:17:39 - Tara
Like who, I don't think I'm hurting any of the bad covers.
0:17:42 - Natalie
It seems like everybody tries to cover the song, but it's like you can't have any reservations when you perform a song like this. So a lot of those songstresses who are, you know, really concerned about their evening gowns and looking a particular way it just doesn't?
it just doesn't come across the right way. It gets cheesy. Yeah yeah, you got to be willing to just let it all hang out. Yeah, yeah, okay. This is my number one. I'm pretty sure you can guess it it's Thriller, of course. Of course it's Thriller. Tara is going to be a while, if ever, until another Halloween song can surpass the cultural impact of this song. It's just 100%. It's great. To this day, I don't think I've seen like a marketing push as genius and effective as Thriller. It was a worldwide event. I remember when it premiered, right Because?
0:18:42 - Tara
they, they aired that. I don't remember when it premiered, because I think I was like four.
0:18:46 - Natalie
So, yeah, well, still I remember it. I remember because they aired that making of documentary thing before the premiere, and I remember sitting on the floor in the family room as close to the TV as my mom would allow, because I just didn't want to miss any of it. It was just so cool seeing, like John Landis and Vincent Price and Ole Ray and all the makeup and all the effects. And then the video itself is like 14 minutes long. It was. It was huge, huge.
0:19:12 - Tara
Yeah, I mean yeah. To this day I could sit and watch that video and I've seen it a million times. Oh yeah, I can I love that video so much it's like watching it for the first time every single time.
0:19:24 - Natalie
It's awesome and it has such awesome like horror movie references in it. It's it's the quintessential Halloween song for sure, even the like break dancing zombies.
0:19:33 - Tara
It's, it's. How do you manage to make that look?
0:19:35 - Natalie
cool.
0:19:36 - Tara
Right, like it's not cheesy at all. I mean, I actually maybe some people do think it's cheesy, but for us again, like we've talked about this before, are we like a certain type of cheesy, and I think this is what maybe one of those.
0:19:46 - Natalie
Oh yeah, Chef's kiss on this one. Do you know the dance routine? You better know the dance.
0:19:50 - Tara
I don't.
0:19:51 - Natalie
I know little giant pieces of it but okay, anytime this song breaks out, I'm doing the full routine. I don't care who's around, I don't care who's watching, I'm doing it, it's a must.
But it's amazing how even the dance routine is something that people from many different generations are continually just learning and doing whenever they hear the song and like still referencing, like you see, people hit some of those moves and you just you know, that's it, thriller it's really cool. Yeah, did you know that the original title of the song was Starlight? Yes, the hook was Starlight, starlight, sun, and Rod Timperton, the writer, originally wanted to title the album Midnight man. Right, but then, of course, he slept on it and when he woke up, the word Thriller just popped into his head, and the rest is history.
0:20:35 - Tara
I never realized until recently that the whole album was kind of dark in a sense and thinking about, like his paranoias and anxieties. Do you want to be starting something?
0:20:49 - Natalie
beat it, oh man, this album is so good.
0:20:53 - Tara
It's so good.
0:20:54 - Natalie
It's so good it wasn't like nearly every song. I think the two was a single.
0:21:00 - Tara
Yeah, the two being, oh, honestly, probably just one the lady in my life, because I think I think the girl is mine as a single right. Yes, paul McCartney, how can you not have a single from Paul McCartney? And Michael Combo saw and PYT.
0:21:18 - Natalie
Oh my god, that's like my ultimate Michael dance track. What a great album. Okay, okay, okay, that's amazing. A lot of thriller love going on, of course, yeah, so honestly, I don't know if Halloween in general like we were just talking about 80s being the peak of Halloween culture. I don't know if Halloween is big enough these days to spawn another thriller music moment.
0:21:42 - Tara
No, I'm trying to think of, even like, what is something that has happened even really recently, similar? No, there's nothing, usually nothing, yeah.
0:21:52 - Natalie
I don't know.
0:21:53 - Tara
I mean there's more modern Halloween songs like, for example, dracula's Wedding from Outcast or the Boogie Monster Narls Barkley Dracula by Gorillaz.
0:22:06 - Natalie
I think there are a lot of like dark kind of creepy songs that get labeled for Halloween, kind of after the fact. I think of, like even Rihanna, something like Disturbia and stuff like that. Oh yeah, totally.
0:22:20 - Tara
Yeah, I just, I don't know, but that doesn't count, that doesn't count. Yeah, I feel, yeah, I know you mean it's like. Well, I mean, if you have a song called Dracula's Wedding, yeah, it's not the same as like Disturbia, but but I'm saying I hear that too a lot during Halloween.
0:22:34 - Natalie
Yeah, you know what I'm just saying?
0:22:35 - Tara
Yeah, for sure, okay, but nothing is like or Zombie by the Cranberries, Right exactly.
0:22:39 - Natalie
There just happens to be a Halloween adjacent word in the song and suddenly it's a Halloween song, Right, yeah, I just. I don't know if we're going to get another thriller anytime soon. I'd like to see somebody try.
0:22:50 - Tara
That's for dang sure I'm ready for some creativity. Who do you think could?
0:22:53 - Natalie
pull it off Like who has the star power Beyonce, beyonce, taylor Swift definitely is having a moment.
0:23:00 - Tara
Yeah, but I don't know she's that creative.
0:23:04 - Natalie
Sean's fired.
0:23:06 - Tara
Maybe Rihanna could actually.
0:23:08 - Natalie
That's funny. That's another conversation. Yeah, a challenge. We're issuing a challenge. We need someone to talk to Bruno.
0:23:16 - Tara
Mars.
0:23:16 - Natalie
Yeah, maybe Bruno Mars. Bruno Mars definitely has the theatrics to do it. I don't, yeah, maybe, maybe I don't know if his profile is globally big enough to do that, but maybe I don't know, that might not be right to say either. Because this last thing, what is this project he's been doing with Poc Anderson, Poc Silk Sonic? That's it, Silk Sonic. Yeah, I feel like Silk Sonic has the creativity and the they could bring the drama to do something kind of in the same vein. I don't think so.
0:23:46 - Natalie
I don't know. I think Silk Sonic is super fun. I disagree.
0:23:49 - Natalie
They're not going to be Michael Jackson, but I think they could hit us with a really fun campy, 80s reminiscent kind of Halloween track. I think they could do it.
0:23:57 - Tara
Yeah.
0:23:58 - Natalie
All right, well, that's it. Those are my five Halloween songs, your turn?
0:24:02 - Tara
They're great, they're all legendary songs. Excellent list Classics. I kind of threw in classics, went a little goth, threw in like a more, like one newish or not new, but newer compared to the others. But yeah, okay, I'll just jump right in. Number five from 2013 is the song Evil Eye by Franz Ferdinand. This one is just such a fun, spooky indie dance song. I just feel like if you put this on a Halloween playlist, it's probably one of the coolest, coolest Halloween songs. It's produced by Todd Terje. I mean, how cool can you get? It was released as a third single from their fourth studio album called Right Thoughts, right Words, right Action, and it came out on October 28th 2013. So right before Halloween and perfect timing. And also the video is just this montage of gross footage from horror movies blood squirting, spewing everywhere, people getting butchered, throats being slashed and then the singer, alex Capranos, having this cheesy dirtback mustache.
0:25:23 - Natalie
But it's such a fun song. The video's madness Wasn't there a face in a tummy like a big man? And there's a face in his stomach. I just remember that from the video.
0:25:34 - Tara
I don't remember that.
0:25:36 - Natalie
I don't remember that, but yeah, I like this track very danceable. Franz Ferdinand had some a lot of danceable tracks. I remember doing a lot of grooving to their music in LA in my young club days.
0:25:48 - Tara
I don't think I would categorize this song as one of those, like the Rihanna Disturbia that would just show up on a Halloween playlist, because it sounds like one of those classic old Halloween songs Dun dun, dun, eh, it's got the organ.
You know, yeah, it has this evil feel to it. It feels made for Halloween and it's called Evil Eye and of course, like I said, the video has horror moments to it. It's perfect for Halloween. Yeah, that's a good modern one, all right. Number four is Bella Lugosi's Dead Undead. Undead by Bauhaus 1979. It was released as their first single in 1979, and it's often considered the first gothic rock record. It's like nine minutes long and yeah, it's just creepy, it's awesome.
And of course, the name is inspired by horror film star Bella Lugosi, who was the title character Dracula, in the 1931 movie, and the cover art is actually from, as a still from the movie the Sorrows of Satan, which is a horror movie that came out in 1926. So all parts of this is like perfectly creepy Halloween goth culture. Oh and I read this bit, which I thought was perfect that Bella Lugosi's Dead would have just been another piece of post-punk experimentation had it not been for the lyrics which depicted the funeral of the Dracula star, with bats swooping and virgin brides marching past his coffin. The effect was so irresistibly theatrical that dozens of bands formed in its wake, so many, in fact, that goth quickly became very codified musical genre. That was actually written by the Guardian, basically saying like Bauhaus invented goth music and it was pretty much thanks to Bella Lugosi's Dead. Nice, all right. Number three three, ray Parker Jr, ghostbusters, oh yeah, strange in your neighborhood.
0:28:12 -
Who you gonna call Ghostbusters? If there's something weird and it don't look good, who you gonna call?
0:28:21 - Tara
Ghostbusters, ghostbusters, ghostbusters it was written for the movie. Ghostbusters came out in 1984, and it actually got to number one. Well, I just want to say this came out in 1984,. Like I said, thriller was what? 1983? What did you? You said um Nightmare on my Street was 88 and Houdini was 1984. This is like such a short period of time with just like the most epic Halloween songs ever. Oh and Rockwell was in 1984 also one year after.
Thriller yeah, I mean, if that, but definitely close. After Ray Parker Jr was approached to create a theme song for the movie and he only had a few days to do it and he was watching late night television and saw a cheap commercial for something and it reminded him of a similar commercial in the film and so that inspired him to write this pseudo advertising jingle that the business could have commissioned as a promotion almost, and I think that's it's so perfect. Honestly, you know it fits that whole cheesy vibe that even the movie Ghostbusters had with Egon, and you know everybody.
0:29:30 - Natalie
Yeah.
0:29:31 - Tara
And it was actually nominated at the Academy Awards for best original song but lost to Stevie Wonder's I just called, say I Love you. And of course we all know about the lawsuit that occurred between Parker and Huey Lewis, and that was basically Huey Lewis sued Ray Parker Jr for plagiarism. They claimed that they copied the melody and especially the baseline from I Want a New Drug. So let's just hear a clip of that to compare ["Sing it Out To You"]. But the case was actually settled out of court in 1985 for an undisclosed sum and a confidentiality agreement that prohibited discussion of the case. But then later Parker was able to sue Huey Lewis for breaching that confidentiality agreement in 2001 when he was telling the world in VH1's Behind the Music that Parker stole the song. Oh, come on, ray. So he said he was like I got a lot of money out of that one, right, he caught me slipping.
0:30:37 - Natalie
Yeah, caught him slipping.
0:30:38 - Tara
That's so funny. Also, the video is really fun and has a lot of cameos from celebrities like Chevy Chase, irene Cara, john Candy, just to name a few. And none of the actors were paid for doing so, it was just as a favor, which is nice. But yeah, the video is basically features a young woman played by actress Cindy Harrell. She's haunted by a ghost, portrayed by Ray Parker, roaming this house with all these neon designs and very sparse architecture, and then the woman finally decides to call the Ghostbusters and then, of course, in the end of the video is like Ray Parker Jr. He's with all the stars from the movie and they're in their full Ghostbuster costume garb dancing down the streets of New York, and basically they do this same thing in the closing of the credits for the real Ghostbusters cartoon series.
Yeah, I love it yeah anyways, just some fun cheesy Halloween related pop culture. I love it.
0:31:42 - Natalie
I love that clip of them just walking down New York and dancing, doing that cheesy little dance that they do. It's adorable.
0:31:49 - Tara
So good I miss the 80s. All right. Number two is Susie and the Banshee's Halloween. Trick or Treat, Trick or Treat.
0:31:59 - song
The bitter and the sweet. Trick or Treat.
0:32:03 - Tara
Trick or Treat the bitter and the sweet Halloween is a song included on their album called Juju from 1981. And they were saying it's kind of like a concept album. They realized that they were drawing on a lot of darker elements and it wasn't preplanned, but they saw a thread running through most of the songs and it became this narrative and it was another very influential album to goth and darkwave musical genres. So that's really all I have to say about this one Classic Halloween jammer. They're so cool, they're so cool, nice. So, yeah, that was my number two. Number one drum roll Brrr, it's thriller. Yeah, of course.
0:32:49 - Michael Jackson
There's no escaping the jaws of the alien inside and this is the end of your life, I would have not be.
0:33:01 - Tara
That'd be so bad if it was you know if it wasn't. It has thunder, it has creaking doors, it has Vincent Price, it has wolf howls, the song. I'm still just talking about the song, not even the music video.
0:33:13 - Natalie
Right. The song was scary to me, that Vincent Price part. When I was a kid it spooked me.
0:33:18 - Tara
Let's just hear that part or part of it, I guess, for no mortal can resist the evil of the thriller. Ha ha, ha, ha ha. And also there's such a buildup, there's such suspense in the song the zombies, Michael Jackson himself becoming a zombie, the girl at the beginning even getting chased, and then turns out that it's like part of the movie and it's just so good. I mean, they really thought about everything.
0:33:53 - Natalie
You know what part of the Vincent Price monologue that really spooked me? And it's when the it's like the right, when the eerie theremin comes in. And it's in the video. It's when the zombie comes out of the grave and Vincent Price is saying the foulest stench is in the air, the funk of 40,000 years. That line that's when I would start to get like kind of nervous Greasly cool, it's so cool. Man. And of course, the course, the way he says the evil of the thriller, and he does that laugh.
0:34:22 - Tara
The evil of the thriller. Yes, so good. This song enters the Billboard charts regularly every Halloween season. I mean not every Halloween season, but often during Halloween.
0:34:33 - Natalie
Isn't that so cool. It's like a Brian Carey. All I Want For Christmas is just a guaranteed hit Again and again, and so is that song.
0:34:42 - Tara
It's just a fun holiday song that is so catchy. I love it yeah.
0:34:47 - Natalie
I'm not mad at that. Of course, thriller was going to be number one.
0:34:50 - Tara
Yeah, all right, let's go through our short lists. I'll go first. Oingo boingo, dead man's party. It's a dead man's barter Time warp, I mean you have to have the time warp, you have to do the time. Warp. The monster mash is a perfect Halloween song. Agreed, that's a good one. The Beatles of London, the world of London. I also had Screamin' Jay Hawkins on my short list, ministry, every Day is Halloween and I included a really, really, really old song on here just for funsies. Louis Armstrong, jeepers, creepers.
0:35:25 - Natalie
Oh yeah, that's a good one. Okay, what about you? Well, you named some that I had on my list as well. Let's see if there are any ones that you didn't name. Well, I put Mike Oldfield Tubular Bells because it's the Exorcist theme and it's creepy. That's a very creepy song. I think you kind of named all the other ones I had. I think I had one from the Nightmare Before Christmas the soundtrack from that. There were a lot of soundtrack songs like Nightmare Before Christmas, yeah, and also from Rocky Horror Picture Show. There's some songs in there that could have been thrown on.
0:35:58 - Tara
Time warp. I said time warp. Yeah yeah yeah, halloween has so many fun I don't want to go down to the basement by Ramones or Petsimitary Petsimitary, that was another one. Those are really fun. Dead Kennedy's Halloween, the Cramps I was a teenage werewolf. Otis Redding has a song called Trick or Treat. And of course, we mentioned Dracula's Wedding by Al Cast.
0:36:19 - Natalie
Yeah, Fun Times. Alice Cooper has Feed my Frankenstein.
0:36:24 - Tara
Oh yeah, oh, that's honestly. Alice Cooper has so many Halloween songs. I know, I know.
0:36:29 - Natalie
I was like I don't even know if this counts, because like his whole Stilo is pretty much Halloween.
0:36:33 - Tara
About Alice Cooper, his live show. If you ever get a chance to see him live, you have to go. He still got it. I mean, every song is a jam. I'm not every song, Even the ones you don't know you'll have fun, but especially the ones you know it's really fun. He cuts his own head off as part of the show in a giant guillotine. Okay, yeah, it's very entertaining.
0:36:56 - Natalie
I have to see how that works.
0:36:58 - Tara
Yeah well, somehow he like moves his head and then it slams down and there's this like wig with a head attached to it.
0:37:05 - Natalie
That's hysterical. I love it. It's very fun. I love the theatrics. Yeah, cool.
0:37:09 - Tara
All right, well, I'm gonna need your help stringing this very annoying fake spider web stuff around the store.
0:37:16 - Natalie
So yes, let's focus, let's get to work. We've got our playlist. Let's get it going. All right, cool, all right. Well, happy Halloween.
0:37:24 - Tara
Happy Halloween, bye, bye.
0:37:40 - Tara
Record Store Society is hosted by Natalie White and Tara Davies. If you'd like to contact the show, visit our website at recordsstoressocietycom, or you can find us on all your favorite social media sites with the handle at recordsstoressociety.
Transcribed by https://podium.page