'Tis the season for some holiday music. Don't worry, we're not cueing up Christmas carols quite yet — but Halloween is approaching and it got us to thinking about the soundtrack to this particular holiday. Sure, there's Michael Jackson's "Thriller," with that eerie Vincent Price voice-over, and if you want something kitschy, you've got the "Monster Mash." But after that, you're left in a musical abyss.
Music writer Colin Fleming joins NPR's Rachel Martin to introduce some Halloween music you might not have thought of, including a jazz clarinet piece that's truly scary and an R&B groove to get a mummy dancing. Hear their conversation at the audio link, and check out the music and Fleming's commentary below.
Halloween Music
Artie Shaw, "Nightmare"
Halloween is a big ambulatory holiday, if you think about it. Along those lines, you have Artie Shaw's "Nightmare" from 1938. His clarinet just sort of beckons you out into the night's revels. It's like this benign necromancer that you follow outside.
The Naturals, "The Mummy"
We got a lot of songs like this after the second run of Universal horror films came out with stuff like Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman; it was all trashy and kitschy. "The Mummy is" this empty-calorie, candy type of song, but it gets a pretty good R&B groove going.
Boots Walker, "They're Here"
This is a mega-oddity, by a guy named Boots Walker, that you'll want to save for later. You've had your Reese's Pieces and all that, and it's just a mind-blower at the end of the night.
Camille Saint-Saëns, "Danse Macabre"
Camille Saint-Saëns' "Danse Macabre" is from 1874, so it's 140 years old, and basically the gist of it is: The reaper comes out at midnight on Halloween, starts dancing, calls up all the skeletons and they revel and dance throughout the night. The strings get going and it has the rhythm of a ghost story.
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