The spookiest of holidays is coming up and with real parties returning in some capacity, it’s worth a continued education refresher on how to balance your Halloween playlist to shake off the rust before the Grand Pumpkin King comes to town.

This is a guide for a casual party, lasting a few hours. You’ll want to take into consideration that if you have a more specific need, you should adjust accordingly. More dance focused? Feel free to ease off the strict “Halloween” rules in service of the groove. Classy dinner party? Get that spooky classical music in there. This framework will be for the All Purpose Halloween Party, a formula you’re encouraged to tweak for your own tastes and needs.

Think of this like the food pyramid, that outdated dietary guide that told you to eat multiple bowls of spaghetti every day. This is a holistic musical diet approach, I’ll break down the song groups you’ll pull from with some serving suggestions. Please enjoy The Halloween Playlist Food Pyramid.

Spooky Pop Songs

Let’s get real, you only have one shot to play a lot of these songs all year. When else would it be appropriate to play André 3000’s “Dracula’s Wedding” (besides at Dracula’s wedding reception)? This is your chance to hit Spotify with searches like “Satan” or “skeleton bones” or “dead guy.” A good shortcut is just dumping something like the Return of the Living Dead soundtrack in there, it’s the Peanuts Christmas Album of Halloween. Here’s a short list of words to search on spotify to help you fill this out: witch, ghost, mask, devil, zombie, vampire, cemetery, moon, spider, and monster. Go wild!

Scary Bands

This is a real dealer’s choice for what you can include here and oftentimes whole albums are acceptable if they don’t take up too much of the total runtime. You can easily drop in the entirety of Roky Erickson’s The Evil One for example, and I recommend it! Feel free to include your pick of anything from Black Sabbath to White Zombie. Find something that suits your tastes, and has enough broad appeal for your guests.

Not Really Halloween But Are Good Dance Songs

Sometimes you’re going to need some leeway for a mix and stretch the definition of what constitutes a “Halloween” song for the sake of it being a jam. This is where you get to add stuff like “I’m Your Boogie Man” by KC & The Sunshine Band or “Rock Creek Park” by The Blackbyrds, which is for sure about having secret sex in the park, but also, maybe it’s about trick or treating? No way to know for sure. These songs can have a title or lyrics that suggest something spooky but isn’t really, or just maybe it’s a weird minor key groove.

Songs From Scary Movies

This category is a little smaller because you need to have the base of knowledge on-hand. There’s no searching Spotify for “vampire” and then just clicking “add to playlist.” These deeper cuts will prove satisfying though. Songs from scary movies don’t necessarily have to be scary! Some good options “Goodbye Horses” by Q Lazzarus or “Looking For The Magic” by Dwight Twilley Band. It gives your “indoor kid” party guests something to talk about (Did you know Q Lazzarus was Johnathan Demme’s cab driver and she was playing her demo on his ride? The teens working at H&M I told this story to a couple years ago didn’t!). The Donnie Darko soundtrack is a good starting point if you need some ideas.

Atmospheric Songs

Similar to Songs From Scary Movies, this will take up less playlist real estate, not because they’re hard to find, but because you can’t do too much without changing the overall tone of the mix. Also this is where you’ll put spooky scores. Even though it’s tempting to pad out a playlist with entire John Carpenter records, people came for the hits. Certainly include the Halloween theme, but dig a little deeper and pull a couple from his Lost Themes records, just don’t drag and drop all three records. Or maybe find some other Carpenter-core spooky synth bands that people may not know. You’re also may be tempted to put a bunch of scary classical music in for this category, and there are for sure some good options, but I just need to remind you that Toccata and Fugue in D Minor is almost 10 minutes long. Try the punchier Hall of the Mountain King. And of course feel free to break any time-related classical rules if you’re having a haunted dinner party.

Novelty Songs

Not to be confused with Spooky Pop Songs Novelty songs include things like “Ghostbusters”, “The Monster Mash” or it’s derivatives (The Monster Swim, The Monster Rap), Svengoolie parodies, etc. Use sparingly. While these songs are good clean fun, they can become annoying. If you end up on shuffle and three or more novelty songs come on in a row it’s like listening to a They Might Be Giants record. A fine thing to do, by the way! Just maybe not the most party conducive vibe.

To Be Avoided

So obviously we’ve addressed that searching for spooky keywords is a great way to find some hits, but I must implore you to vet your songs! Somehow The Cranberries’ “Zombie” get’s on playlists, and while terrorism is scary, it is not spooky. Putting “Zombie” on your playlist is the Halloween version of using “Born in the USA” at a political rally. Do you really want to attract that kind of crowd? Of course all your vetoes are a personal choice, just remember, the best artists are judged not by what they make but what they choose not to make. Restraint is the name of the game.

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