The songs you need to make the perfect Halloween playlist

The first track on the list is probably the most obvious, give or take a “Monster Mash,” but that doesn’t diminish either its appropriateness for Halloween or its general excellence. “Thriller” has it all: thematic resonance (if you can play the video at your party, do it), terrific production and, maybe most importantly, that great Vincent Price wicked laughter close-out.

Partygoers of a certain age will remember the ubiquity of Ray Parker Jr.’s hit song for the 1984 film of the same name. It's a great slice of '80s awesomeness that still works today.

David Byrne’s creepy vocals, laying out the point of view of a killer, are coupled with a great, pounding bass line in this 1977 Talking Heads jam — very apropos for the holiday.

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins performed the original incarnation of this classic in 1956. While his eclectic performance — complete with screams, grunts and groans — is still the definitive version, it’s hard to go wrong with the original or any of the numerous covers — in particular, Nina Simone’s or Creedence Clearwater Revival’s.

If you’re going to dine out on a novelty song for some 50-plus years, follow Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s example. This 1962 hit hinges on Pickett’s effective Boris Karloff impression (hence the nickname) as well as its charmingly low-budget sound effects.

Like many of the songs on this list, Rockwell (the stage name of Kennedy William Gordy, son of Motown founder Berry Gordy) delivered a 1984 one-hit wonder that holds up well, particularly for Halloween. The song, about a man encountering strange, ghostly visions, does indeed rock well (terrible pun intended) and is given a great boost by its chorus featuring Gordy’s childhood friend Michael Jackson (and brother Jermaine to boot!).

A composition by Danny Elfman (who appears later on this list with an altogether different offering) for Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” soundtrack, this spooky track introduces the titular town of Halloween. It’s probably a little too much on the spooky side for kids (though there is a Kidz Bop version for those inclined), but both this original soundtrack version and the Marilyn Manson cover could serve well for your party needs.

Donovan’s laid-back, psychedelic 1966 jam features a spooky guitar part from none other than Jimmy Page, then a session guitarist. A haunting number, the song’s slinky, autumnal groove can serve as a nice wind-down to the night’s festivities. 

This feature-studded track from Kanye’s 2010 “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” leans hard on its guest stars. While Jay-Z does us a solid and runs down the list of legendary monsters (Sasquatch, Godzilla, King Kong and Loch Ness, to be exact), it’s Nicki Minaj’s acclaimed verse that really elevates this to, ahem, monstrous levels.

A classic from hip-hop’s early-‘80s period, this synthesizer-heavy track from Whodini is largely forgotten today. Ostensibly about the New York City nightlife, the constantly repeated chorus gets the message across.

The college campus favorite for midnight showings where fans throw toast and rice at the screen and dance around in costume in time with the movie behind them on the screen, “Let’s do the time warp again” comes to the forefront of the collective conscience each Halloween because, hey, who can resist Tim Curry in tights?

Gritty guitars and a recurring “trick or treat” refrain drive this 1981 song by English alternative outfit Siouxsie and the Banshees. As the title suggests, it’s more than well-suited for the occasion and will give your shindig some real ‘80s post-punk cred.

If you can think of a better, more danceable song about decapitation than this 2009 track by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, we’d like to hear it. 

The second Danny Elfman composition on this list, “Dead Man’s Party” is a great slice of '80s nostalgia, rife with macabre references, making it a perfect Halloween track. Might as well put “Weird Science” on after for a one-two Oingo Boingo combo. 

Will Smith, then still in his Fresh Prince alter ego days, performed this little rap ditty about Freddy Krueger for inclusion on the “Nightmare on Elm Street 4” soundtrack, though it was ultimately passed over — and Smith’s record label got slapped with copyright infringement. Despite the legal mess, it's still a fun jam that mixes classic, golden-age hip-hop beats with horror movie soundtrack inflections.

Let’s be real for a second: If a musician named Rob Zombie didn’t have a song in his repertoire that was good for Halloween, he wouldn’t be doing it right. Fortunately for us, Mr. Zombie delivered just that in this 1998 metal song.

It’s a song called “Halloween,” and it’s from the Misfits. Really, you could just do well by stringing together any number of Misfits songs.

This postwar satirical ballad starts out very much of its era — a syrupy big-band number crooned softly through its first verse and refrain before giving way to a spot-on Peter Lorre impression that subverts the original lyrics into something blackly humorous and very much in line with the Lorre image. A throwback even in the “Monster Mash” era, it still holds up today.

Warren Zevon’s London-based werewolf starts out harmless enough, seeking out beef chow mein in Soho (menu in hand even), but eventually its baser instincts win out at the expense of a little old lady. This tongue-in-cheek 1978 number rides its three-chord progression as a pleasant little rocker — bonus points if you have a piano player on hand to bang it out and get everyone singing.

Frank Zappa wrote tons of weird songs in his long, storied career, but "Goblin Girl" is definitely way up there on the scale. It's a tongue-in-cheek and chuckle-worthy tune like most Zappa songs are, but this one is perfect for your Halloween party. After all, he mentions the holiday by name multiple times!

This might be legitimately the scariest track on the list. David Bowie, in his eponymous debut album, saw fit to croon a lilting, haunting tune that begins as an ode to a gravedigger but takes a legitimately jarring turn midway through. It's a stark song — no instrumentation, just the sound of rain, thunder, birds and the occasional sneeze from a congested David Bowie. If you really want to up the fear factor, pop this on your playlist.

"Welcome to My Nightmare" might not be Cooper's most well-known tune, but it absolutely deserves a spot on your Halloween playlist. It's fun, danceable and catchy, especially when the horn section comes in. Yes, there's a horn section in an Alice Cooper song. Besides, who doesn't like sweating, laughing and screaming?

You're going to want to read the room for this one. M83's "Car Chase Terror!" is an incredibly stressful and legitimately scary track, even though M83's synths are warm and pillowy. The song itself is interspersed with ominous and creepy voice-overs, and the whole thing calls to mind dark highways at 4 a.m., where any kind of horrific monster could be just beyond the glow of the streetlights.

You may have never heard of Jonathan Coulton (or JoCo, as his fans call him), but he's a master of catchy pop-rock tunes. This one, in particular, is a hilarious earworm all about a creepy doll in a house you just bought. JoCo's lyrics are masterful: "When you come home late, the doll is waiting up for you/When you fix a snack the doll says it would like one too."

We hear what you're saying: "Godzilla"? On a Halloween playlist? Well, yeah! Godzilla is the king of the monsters, after all. Plus, the song itself is a Blue Oyster Cult classic — one that, in our opinion, is severely underrated (and much better than "(Don't Fear) The Reaper").

The story behind this song is a great one. Apparently, Stephen King was a huge fan of the Ramones, and while he was writing the horror classic "Pet Sematary," he invited them to his house as they were touring New England. There, he lent Dee Dee Ramone a copy of the book. Reportedly, it only took Dee Dee an hour to write the lyrics to the song.

A sleeper hit off of "The Love Below," Andre 3000 and Kelis team up to create an incredibly slinky, creepy and sexy tune about Dracula finally finding the love of his life. Special mention goes to Kelis here for providing us with the classic line, "Don't run, I'm not the sun/So much at stake...oh! Bad choice of words."