# It begins!



## Dinosaur1972 (Mar 28, 2007)

Started listening to Halloween Music already this year. 

We start with Monster Halloween Hits. I ran across this collection not long ago. Three CDs of music from the last 60 years or so. This is actually a decent collection, especially for those who just want a big sample of Halloween music without getting in TOO deep.

First, what makes this collection good is that most songs are performed by the original artist. Too many Halloween compilations use crappy cover artists. This one doesn't. It has ALL of the "typical" pop music Halloween songs ... Thriller, Ghostbusters, Frankenstein, Don't Fear the Reaper, Nightmare on My Street, Spooky ... all here. Also a solid batch of oldies ... The Blob, The Purple People Eater, Witch Doctor, I Put a Spell on You, and (naturally Monster Mash among them. These are pretty standard inclusions on any Halloween collection, but at least the performances are from the original artists.
There are also plenty of songs that I had NOT seen on a Halloween compilation. Nice to see Gun's "Race With the Devil", the Strangler's "Waltzinblack", the Automatic's "Monster". Also, a few popular songs brought back to the top 40 by cover artists ... Doctor and the Medics "Spirit in the Sky" and Damian's "Time Warp". I don't like Beatfreakz "Somebody's Watching Me" ... the original by Rockwell is much better. Same for Hayseed Dixie's "Bad Moon Rising". Probably licensing issues.

There are a couple of reaches. "Everybody" by the Backstreet Boys is completely out of place here. "Shakin' All Over" by Johnny Kidd & the Pirates isn't all that Halloweenish either ... and I'm not so sure "Hungry Like the Wolf" by Duran Duran belongs but now I'm just being picky. There are a few surprising omissions ... "Twilight Zone" by Golden Earring comes to mind. On the upside, there are a couple of gems ... "Waltinzblack" by the Stranglers - how have I not heard this before? I love it.

All in all, this looks a lot like my first attempt to collect all the Halloween music I could think of about 12 years ago when my interest in the genre began. It has a good mix of genres ... pop songs from the 50's all the way up to Shakira's "She Wolf", a little prog, a little metal, a little country, a little rock, even a touch of big band and classical. While I was already familiar with all of these songs, it is really nice to see them all in the same place.


----------

