Top 5 of my FAVORITE Halloween party songs. Anyway, let's go.
5. "Monster Mash," Bobby "Boris" Pickett. Older than all of us and still the first song on the playlist.
4. "A Nightmare on My Street," DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. Freddy picked the wrong house.
3. "Somebody's Watching Me," Rockwell. The most paranoid hook ever made, and you know exactly whose voice that is.
2. "Ghostbusters," Ray Parker Jr. You cannot hear the question without yelling the answer.
1. "Thriller," Michael Jackson. The dance, the jacket, the laugh at the end. It was never close.
Halloween lands on a Saturday this year, which means somebody is throwing a party and somebody is in charge of the music. If that somebody is you, here is the story behind every song on this list, so you can be the person who knows the facts while everybody else is fixing their costume.
5. MONSTER MASH (1962)
Bobby Pickett was an aspiring actor who did a Boris Karloff impression in his band's act. He and bandmate Lenny Capizzi turned the bit into a song about a mad scientist whose monster starts a dance craze. "Monster Mash" hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on October 20, 1962, just in time for Halloween, and it has come back around every October since. It is goofy, it is easy to sing, and grandma knows the words. That is why it makes the list.
4. A NIGHTMARE ON MY STREET (1988)
Before he was saving the world in movies, the Fresh Prince was running from Freddy Krueger. "A Nightmare on My Street" opened DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince's 1988 album He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper. It is a whole horror movie in one song: a night at the theater, a strange voice downstairs, a nightmare that turns out to be real, and a phone call to Jeff that does not end well. Storytelling rap at its funniest. Put it on and watch the whole room do the voices.
3. SOMEBODY'S WATCHING ME
Rockwell is Kennedy Gordy, son of Motown founder Berry Gordy, and "Somebody's Watching Me" was his debut single on Motown. The secret weapon is the hook, sung by Michael Jackson, with Jermaine Jackson on backing vocals. The song climbed to number 2 in the United States in early 1984, at the same time "Thriller" was on the chart. We call it the song that made you check behind the shower curtain.
2. GHOSTBUSTERS (1984)
Ray Parker Jr. was asked to write a theme for the movie and had only a few days to do it. The problem was fitting the word "Ghostbusters" into a song. His fix: ask "Who you gonna call?" and let the crowd shout it for him. Genius. The song spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1984 and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. It lost to Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called to Say I Love You," which is a pretty good song to lose to.
1. THRILLER
Rod Temperton wrote it, Quincy Jones produced it, and horror legend Vincent Price delivered the spoken part and that laugh. John Landis, who made An American Werewolf in London, directed the video, and Michael turned into a werewolf and danced with a crowd of zombies. The single reached number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, the seventh top ten hit from the Thriller album, and it climbs back onto the chart around Halloween. Every party, every year, somebody tries the zombie dance. Let them.
HONORABLE MENTION
The Ghostbusters movie itself, which opened in June 1984. If the party winds down early, you already have the movie for the end of the night.
What is on your Halloween playlist? Drop your Top 5 in the comments.
PLAY THE QUESTION
Whose voice sings the hook on Rockwell's "Somebody's Watching Me"?
A. Lionel Richie · B. Michael Jackson · C. Prince · D. Ray Parker Jr.
Answer: Michael Jackson, with Jermaine Jackson on backing vocals.
PROVE IT
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