Thread: "Old School" Halloween Music

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Halloweiner got me hip to Kaye Starr's version of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," which has all the nostalgia of Bing's version, but with a female lead singer and an extra verse. Very cool. Here's his link: Legend of Sleepy Hollow - Kay Starr

I have also recently discovered The Moon-Rays, who fuse big band jazz and surf rock into a very cool sound under a Halloween motif. Here's a link to their latest album on iTunes: Swingin At The Seancé - The Moon-Rays. They too, have a very cool version of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," a.k.a. The Headless Horseman.

With the exception of Frankie Stein And His Ghouls or Dracula's Greatest Hits Featuring Gene Moss, most of my other Halloween music is from film soundtracks or found on Elvira-like seasonal compilations — not that this is bad, but Monster Mash and Ghostbusters have been done to death. (Ha! )

This "old school" kind of Halloween music is very fresh and cool to me, and I'd like to discover more of it. If anybody has links or shares to music that fits this category, please add it to this thread!

lmfao i think i remember seeing that The Legend of Sleepy Hollow on a halloween episode of mickey mouse show or what ever it is called

Some other great ones are "Haunted House - 20 Tracks To Make You Jump In The Night", "These Ghoulish Things" and "Halloween Stomp".

Some of my favorite "old school" albums that have not yet been listed include: Doo Wop Halloween, The Haunted Jukebox, Horror Hop, Monster Bop, The Original Monster Mash (it has a lot of other songs aside from Monster Mash), and anything by John Zacherley.
If you are looking for new-ish stuff too, just entering search words like "Halloween" into music store catalog databases can yield some interesting compilations. There are a lot of surf bands out there with a spooky vibe that call back in one way or another to the days of classic surf (perhaps the best known being The Ghastly Ones), and I bet you can find others who play different genres - like the Moon-Rays you mentioned - who do the same. There's a lot of good stuff out there. Good luck on your search!

Squirrel Nut Zippers had that one song "Hell" that would be good to add to ones own compilation too. It was used as the theme song for the old TV Reality show "Family Plots".

Here's a truly delightful little post from last year.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Halloweiner: Halloween Stomp looks promising. Trying to reserve from the library. I actually have the other two you mentioned.

Zombie Machairodont: I've seen the covers of the albums you've mentioned, and trying to track those down. The Haunted Jukebox doesn't appear under Amazon. Is that the correct title?

Dinosaur1972: That link looks cool. Downloading it now.

I think "Haunted Jukebox" might be the compilation CD I had shared on my now deleted Mostly Ghostly Blog. It came form an a ssortment of Halloween Music that a blog reader had produced, and he allowed me to share one CDs worth of his vast collection of music. I'll see if I still have it uploaded somewhere to share. I've attached images of the front cover to Haunted Jukebox and the track list. The creator had about 10 CDs worth of music compiled, but he would only let me share this one CD.

Dinosaur, thanks for posting the link to the old thread. FULL of great old songs I have never heard before!

I'm a big fan of the "old school" stuff too. That Kay Starr version of Sleepy Hollow is a favourite. Also like the Swingin' at the Seance track from Halloween Stomp.

Gene Moss... - have you heard of Shrimpenstein? It's a kids show Moss hosted in the late 60s with a damn cute theme song in the Monster Mash style... you can check it out here...
Magic Carpet Burn: Shrimpenstein Fan Club Theme Song 45!
(it's very short though) You can also find Shrimpenstiein on Youtube.

You might also check out Halloween A Go-Go on iTunes - mostly a mix of garage rock/ surf rock.

I also really like the Monotones doo wop song Legend of Sleepy Hollow (also on iTunes) It's pretty...unexpected.