A Halloween playlist can travel much further than the obvious horror classics. Michael Jackson, Eminem and Rihanna join artists from several generations in a selection of 25 hits linked by monsters, ghosts, devils and other seasonal images. From “Monster Mash” to “Vampire,” the songs show how a spooky title or atmosphere can connect very different moments in pop history for one autumn night.
A Halloween playlist almost inevitably finds its way to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” Its zombies, choreography and cinematic atmosphere have made the video part of the season’s visual language. But the wider collection of songs associated with the holiday reaches across far more styles and decades than one recording could represent. Novelty pop, film soundtracks, rock, hip-hop and contemporary chart hits can all find a place, sometimes because of their subject and sometimes because of a suggestive title.
“Monster Mash,” recorded by Bobby “Boris” Pickett with the Crypt-Kickers in 1962, supplies the classic monster-party idea. Its humour makes it a different sort of seasonal record from a genuinely frightening soundtrack. Ray Parker Jr.’s “Ghostbusters” brings the cinema connection, while the Edgar Winter Group’s instrumental “Frankenstein” adds another route into the theme. Placed together, they show how little a Halloween playlist needs to depend on one specific sound to feel coherent.
Eminem and Rihanna’s “The Monster” introduces a much more recent pop and rap partnership. Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf” provides another example of a major hit finding a seasonal home without having been written as a Halloween celebration. The point is not that every track tells a ghost story. A word, an image or a particular atmosphere can be enough to place a song within a themed selection, even when its original emotional subject is quite different.
Here are the 25 songs in this listening selection. The order below groups the titles for discovery and should not be read as a ranking of this year’s Halloween streams. It includes both directly seasonal favourites and songs connected through their titles or imagery. That distinction leaves room for a much wider range of musical personalities, from playful creatures and cinematic ghosts to darker metaphors used in otherwise familiar love songs.
Bobby “Boris” Pickett & The Crypt-Kickers: “Monster Mash”; Ray Parker Jr.: “Ghostbusters”; The Edgar Winter Group: “Frankenstein”; Eminem featuring Rihanna: “The Monster”; Duran Duran: “Hungry Like the Wolf.”
Bobby Brown: “On Our Own”; Rockwell: “Somebody’s Watching Me”; Cher: “Dark Lady”; Janet Jackson: “Black Cat”; Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels: “Devil With a Blue Dress On/Good Golly Miss Molly.”
INXS: “Devil Inside”; Imagine Dragons: “Demons”; Classics IV: “Spooky”; Cliff Richard: “Devil Woman”; Creedence Clearwater Revival: “Bad Moon Rising.”
Santana: “Black Magic Woman”; The Charlie Daniels Band: “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”; Kodak Black: “Super Gremlin”; Michael Jackson: “Thriller”; Bobby Vee: “Devil or Angel.”
Elvis Presley with The Jordanaires: “(You’re the) Devil in Disguise”; Justin Bieber: “Ghost”; Olivia Rodrigo: “Vampire”; Golden Earring: “Twilight Zone”; Blue Öyster Cult: “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.”
The range is part of the pleasure of a Halloween playlist. A humorous 1960s novelty can sit beside a contemporary pop song, while a film theme can connect with an instrumental rock performance. These are not interchangeable recordings, and they do not approach their imagery in the same way. Listening across the differences makes the theme feel more expansive, rather than turning the evening into a repetition of one mood.
There is also an important difference between a seasonal favourite and a historical chart calculation. A song’s place in a long-term Hot 100 assessment depends on its wider chart performance, rather than only on how often people play it in October. High positions and the length of a chart run affect that history. As a result, a record strongly associated with Halloween today need not outrank a song that achieved greater commercial success at the time of its original release.
That helps explain why “Thriller” can feel more central to the holiday than a simple chart comparison might suggest. Its significance includes an enduring music video and a recognisable visual world, neither of which can be reduced to a single position on a list. The track reached number four on the Hot 100 in March 1984. For a listener putting together an evening’s music, however, cultural familiarity can matter as much as the details of its initial chart run.
The same freedom applies to the newer selections. “Ghost” and “Vampire” enter through different emotional and musical worlds, but their titles make them natural companions to older seasonal favourites. A Halloween playlist need not pretend that they were all created for the same purpose. Its appeal comes from finding connections after the songs have been released, allowing listeners to hear established hits through a different frame.
Choose a few familiar starting points, then follow the less obvious turns. “Ghostbusters” offers an immediate film memory, “Black Cat” changes the texture, and “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” brings another kind of narrative energy. The selection is a reminder that a Halloween playlist can be playful, dramatic and surprising in the same evening. Its 25 songs share a theme while keeping the individual character that made each one worth returning to. Building a Halloween playlist this way leaves room for discovery as well as recognition.
