# Harry Behn - Halloween Song?



## tomanderson

Send me a PM--I do recall singing the song, and I think I have a version recorded somewhere.


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## GreenYamo

tomanderson said:


> Send me a PM--I do recall singing the song, and I think I have a version recorded somewhere.


What ever happened with this? I was looking for it online, and it brought me here. I definitely remember singing it, and there being a recorded version. This would have been in 1987-88ish


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## Nocturnaloner

GreenYamo said:


> What ever happened with this? I was looking for it online, and it brought me here. I definitely remember singing it, and there being a recorded version. This would have been in 1987-88ish


I got the mp3 from him, and made my own version of it, and made a video around it:






Tom's mp3 is yet a little different than how I remember it. His is a Joan Baez style folk singer, whereas I remember a kids choir, but then again I was in the kids choir, and 40 year old memories are not 100% reliable to say the least.

I had fun with it!


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## kprimm

Now I Have it also. Thank you for sharing.


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## Charlierock

Nocturnaloner said:


> I got the mp3 from him, and made my own version of it, and made a video around it:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Tom's mp3 is yet a little different than how I remember it. His is a Joan Baez style folk singer, whereas I remember a kids choir, but then again I was in the kids choir, and 40 year old memories are not 100% reliable to say the least.
> 
> I had fun with it!


We sang it in music class in the 70s. I remember it being spooky in the spirit of / though faster tempo of The Alfred Hitchcock show.


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## Wnnipooh

Nocturnaloner said:


> I got the mp3 from him, and made my own version of it, and made a video around it:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Tom's mp3 is yet a little different than how I remember it. His is a Joan Baez style folk singer, whereas I remember a kids choir, but then again I was in the kids choir, and 40 year old memories are not 100% reliable to say the least.
> 
> I had fun with it!


Thank you so much for this.
Every year it seems I look to find this song. I have been singing it ever since the 70s. I sing it every year. I have my children singing it. And now I sing it for my preschool class. This made my day


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## troel87

Thank you so much for this thread- I, too, sang this in elementary school, circa 1992 and have thought about it annually ever since, without ever finding it. I agree that the version posted here has the wrong melody - but I was able to find the one that I remember... as a music teacher now myself, I will be sharing this with my students! ENJOY!


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## Furywolf916

This is a song that we sang in music class in elementary school.


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## atticDUMMY

still searching the internet for any original version of the old recordings of this song, been looking since 1998 , they will one day pop up, I know of two different recordings of this song, somewhere out there are the school records that music teachers of the 70's and '80's had. first one I heard in an elementary music class in 1978 while stationed in Europe (Dods school system) it was a bit spooky and ghostly , second version I heard in 1980 in the American south , another elementary music teacher had the song but it was a bit more xylophone "Boney" sounding than the first version I had heard. Both versions are out there somewhere for there were music books that went with the record. one I heard in '78 had the lyrics and an illustration of a pumpkin headed man or scarecrow with a tattered smock on the page that accompanied the record song. the second version I heard in 1980 had a book as well , the illustration that went with the lyrics was a strange head or mask made up of pieces of fruit and vegetables and other objects, slightly Quay brothers style but pre-Quay era.


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## Pierre Clarke

Nocturnaloner said:


> Does anyone remember singing the Halloween poem by Harry Behn, in school as a kid? I know I'm not mis-remembering this, because I found a thread on a UK forum where someone was asking about the same thing. If anyone has an audio clip of this, I'd love to get it.
> 
> Tonight is the night
> When dead leaves fly
> Like witches on switches
> Across the sky,
> When elf and sprite
> Flit through the night
> On a moony sheen.
> 
> Tonight is the night
> When leaves make a sound
> Like a gnome in his home
> Under the ground,
> When spooks and trolls
> Creep out of holes
> Mossy and green.
> 
> Tonight is the night
> When pumpkins stare
> Through sheaves and leaves
> Everywhere,
> When ghouls and ghost
> And goblin host
> Dance round their queen.
> It's Halloween.



I remember singing this song in the fourth grade. I can still remember the tune.


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## Pierre Clarke

Charlierock said:


> We sang it in music class in the 70s. I remember it being spooky in the spirit of / though faster tempo of The Alfred Hitchcock show.


Your animation is beautiful. I recall the tune differently. And I still hear it in my fourth grade teacher Mrs. Moran's quavery voice.


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