It’s time to face a scary reality: your Halloween playlists are getting vampire-level old. We mean no disrespect to “Rhiannon”, “Don’t Fear The Reaper”, and “Season Of The Witch”. But if you’re looking to bring your Halloween soundtrack back from the dead, we’d suggest adding these four songs, too.
“Sisters Of The Moon” by Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac is an obvious pick for any soft rock Halloween playlist, but let’s be honest. Haven’t songs like “Rhiannon” and “Dreams” become a little too predictable? “Gold Dust Woman”, too on the nose? Might we suggest “Sisters Of The Moon” from Fleetwood Mac’s highly divisive—but nonetheless enduring—album from 1979, Tusk. The album was a follow-up to the band’s magnum opus, Rumours, which features many Halloween favorites, including “Dreams” and “Gold Dust Woman”. If you’re in the mood to get even weirder, you should also add the title track, “Tusk”, for a dark, tribal feel.
“The Raven” by The Alan Parsons Project
The Alan Parsons Project released “The Raven” in 1976 as part of Tales Of Mystery And Imagination. Most bibliophiles likely already clocked the Edgar Allan Poe reference, and indeed, the entire debut album of the group revolves around Poe’s scary stories and poems. No one did moody and scary quite like Poe, the author of iconic works like “The Cask Of Amontillado”, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Fall Of The House Of Usher”, and, of course, “The Raven”. Boring old Halloween playlists that feel as stale as a mummy’s breath? Quoth the Raven, nevermore.
“Ghost Song” by Jim Morrison & The Doors
After Jim Morrison’s untimely death in 1971, the remaining members of The Doors took audio of Morrison reciting poetry and set it to music. This culminated in an incredible album called An American Prayer, which features “Ghost Song”. From the first “awake” that Morrison delivers in soft, trance-like vocals, the song takes the listener on a psychedelic journey that feels like running down a moonlit beach under a big, bright full moon. There’s a relatively jarring section toward the end of the song in which Morrison revisits a traumatic childhood memory about witnessing a car crash that he often incorporated into his writing. But hey—that only emphasizes that this is a Halloween playlist.
“Spooky” by Classics IV
If you’re not already in the know, then now you know. One of the greatest Halloween songs of all time wraps up this list: “Spooky” by Classics IV. This 1967 track is technically before the time that “soft rock” became popular, but it maintains enough elements of the genre that we’d say it deserves a spot on the list. The song is melodic with a steady groove, and although it does break out into some minor psychedelia in the instrumental section, it remains more vibey than vigorous. We’d also like to give an honorable mention to Dusty Springfield’s version, which is also worthy of inclusion on any good Halloween playlist.
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