Top 10 Halloween Songs for 2026
In the past, I’ve put together lists like this, and they all seem to revolve around KROQ-style goth music, which is cool but a bit limiting. In the coming years, I think I’ll tighten these lists by adding thematic rules, so the Halloween countdowns will be more varied and interesting.
Let me know if you guys have any ideas for themes for next year!
10. Concrete Blonde, “Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)”
This song sounds best when played on cassette after 2 am in a Volkswagen Bug, between stops at the AMPM mini-mart, with clove cigarette smoke pouring out of the windows.
9 . Oingo Boingo, “Dead Man’s Party”
From here on out the rankings are just crazy. Kind of don’t pay attention to them but just know that all ten songs could be arranged any old which way and it would still be valid.
I’m in the middle of reading “Ready Player One” by Ernie Cline for the third time since it was released. One of my favorite passages was the opening, where he mention this song, because you can hear, in your mind’s ear, the reverb on the horns in the intro. It kind of sets the stage for an awesome ride.
If you’ve seen the movie Ready Player One but haven’t read the book, and you are of a certain age and a certain dorkiness, I would suggest that you drop what you’re doing now and go pick up a copy of that book.
For those of you who grew up in SoCal in the ’80s, Oingo Boingo was the official kickoff of the Halloween season.
8. Luna, Season of the Witch
I’ve heard lots and lots of covers of this song but I’ve always thought that Donovan and Luna were somehow related in a past life and this is one of those glaring examples.
Totally love this band. Totally love this cover.
7. Danny Elfman, This is Halloween
This is sort of a double up here, Danny Elfman also had a place earlier in the list with the band he fronted in the 80s (Oingo Boingo). So totally cool to see a timeless creative aimed at my generation, then my kids’. Bravo, dude.
6. Sting, Moon over Bourbon Street
Okay I’ll admit I was a latecomer to Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire. I don’t think I was even aware of it until I read the liner notes for this song on Sting’s Dream of the Blue Turtles.
Growing up a total music dork, I read every liner note to every album I bought and usually went out and checked out all of the books referenced at the local public library. This book was specifically referenced in the liner notes, so off to the library I went.
This is kind of a two-for also because we played “Bloodletting” by Concrete Blonde earlier in the week and if my memory serves they’re both based on exactly the same book.
If you’ve seen the movies but haven’t read the book, I would urge you to go check the book out and this is kind of the perfect season to do that
5. Morrissey, “Ouija Board Ouija Board”
there is no way I could possibly make this list without including this track even though we all know Morrissey is not a very nice kid and a very unhappy kid.
But this was one of my favorite spooky releases of all time.
in the ’80s tribes of young people generally gathered by their taste in music and the radio stations they listened to. The kids that listened to KROQ in Los Angeles, the weird kids, always flocked around Morrissey and KROQ. When this song was released and started spinning, all of us weirdos collectively lost our minds
4. Siouxsie and the Banshees, Halloween
Siouxsie and the Banshees was a band that made every weird little kid out there in the 1980s understand that they’re weird. Our weird had a focus, and that focus was Siouxsie Sioux.
Siouxsie taught us that weird was okay so that we could finally understand that weird was cool and ultimately that weird was exceptional
3. The Cure, Lullaby
The release of the Cure’s Disintegration, along with a few other albums, seemed to change the landscape of alternative music. Prior to that, ’80s alternative was something you had to create a dive for and ask the right people about.
When Disintegration came out, it was a more accessible Cure album. While some people disparaged it for being more accessible, I thought it was a great album and a great transition into a new era of alternative music.
This has always been one of my favorite spooky tracks and videos from that era.
2. Bauhaus, Bela Lugosi’s Dead
Of course, everyone knew this one was coming. Really. I could have picked most anything from any of Bauhaus’s albums, but it had to be this one.
The list so far has made me want to drop what I am doing and record a proper 80s era goth album. Maybe one day.
1. Tubular Bells, Michael Oldfield
Anybody who’s known me for more than 10 seconds knows that this was going to be the number one song this. I think it’s been the number one song I picked every year for Halloween. We’re going to have to mix up themes next year so we can knock this one out of the number one position but it always has a special place for me. It’ll always have a number one place for me as this is my favorite movie and favorite book of all time and the music selection for this film is incredible.
Maybe at some point I’ll do a breakdown of everything that went into putting the score and the soundtrack to this film together and we can take that journey together. If you get a chance to see this movie in a movie theater, make sure you pay attention to how perfect this film sounds.
And do not, under any circumstances, send me images from this movie after dark.
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