The 40 greatest Halloween songs for the ultimate spooky party

When it comes to a spooky pop spectacle, Mother Monster has a fair few in her repertoire that befits the season nicely. But for our list we’re under the spell of her bewitching floorfiller ‘Abracadabra’, with its stomping beats and soaring refrain sure to blow out the cobwebs at Halloween parties across all physical and metaphysical realms. Wands at the ready!

While Rockwell’s 1983 hit, ‘Somebody’s Watching Me’ wasn’t necessarily made for the spooky season, its eerie nature makes it a certified Halloween hit. Paired with increasingly paranoid lyrics and synth sounds, the song’s music video leans into the haunted theme even further, decked out with ghosts, ghouls and unsettling characters. With Michael Jackson on the hook and Jermaine Jackson on back up vocals, how can this not be part of your Halloween mix?

Calling someone (ahem, Zack Bia?) a blood sucker and a fame fucker is pretty inspired. And that’s not even the best part of Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Vampire’. An epic pop song split into three parts – making it Gen Z’s equivalent to ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ – this is an explosive exploration into heartbreak, failure and full-on rage. The girlies are all set to be screaming ‘you sold me for parts’ and ‘you sunk your teeth into me’ this year, and while we aren’t all rich, famous and conventionally beautiful ex-Disney stars, we can relate to this experience.

Rihanna’s 2008 classic still holds up as a Halloween banger. There’s even a horror movie-like scream in the first few opening seconds for maximum impact. Made famous by the earworm hook of ‘bum-bum-be-dum’, the song has an eeriness to it thanks to the twisting melodies and Rihanna’s verses of ‘It's a thief in the night to come and grab you / It can creep up inside you and consume you’. What she’s actually singing about is a mystery. But it’ll get you riled up and ready for a night of spookiness.

‘Goo Goo Muck’ has always been a Halloween banger, but it had a massive resurgence last year as the backtrack to Jenna Ortega’s iconic dance (which she apparently made up herself) as Wednesday Addams in the 2023 Netflix horror series ‘Wednesday’. Whether or not The Cramps planned for this rock ’n’ roll banger to be a Halloween go-to, it’s long-since been considered one, with its lyrics of turning into a Goo Goo Muck (whatever that is) when the sun goes down and hunting out people to eat. And Wednesday Addams? She’s cemented it, we’re afraid.

Kim Petras’s 2019 Halloween album Turn Off The Light cemented her position as the princess of slasher pop. It’s the seductively sinister single ‘There Will Be Blood’, with its lyrics of impending doom chasing down its victim over a production of club-rocking synths and beats, which twinkles under the full moon the brightest. Just like the surviving characters in Scream, no matter how much you are warned, you’ll keep coming back for more.

‘I’m not like other guys,’ Michael tells his girl at the beginning of the greatest video ever made, from arguably the greatest album ever made. Did we realize how prescient that statement would be in 1982? So much of ‘Thriller’ shouldn’t work – MJ is a doll, 71-year-old Vincent Price raps, and it’s six minutes long. But together, it’s ballsy genius, riding on an insistent, funky Minimoog bass line. ‘I wish to stress that this film in no way endorses a belief in the occult,’ Jackson wrote concerning the video. No, but the Elephant Man bones and chimp did.

The title leans vampiric but the wordless chorus – literally just Mark Oliver Everett’s sharp woo and bleak howl – is all werewolf. Lyrically, maybe it’s about a breakup or an emotional low, but sonically ‘Fresh Blood’ screams creature-of-the-night: it’s grimy and grim with a sludgy (but borderline danceable) beat that sounds like it’s bumping from a sketch car in an industrial alleyway. It’s no wonder it’s become a go-to track for true crime and supernatural shows.

Don’t get seduced by their slick dance moves, smooth vocals, and sharp attire, as their band name suggests, Saja Boys are quite literally K-Pop grim reapers. “You gave me your heart, now I’m here for your soul,” they croon on the effortlessly cool ‘Your Idol’, which brings big pop energy to the afterlife. They may be the main villains of hit animated movie K-Pop Demon Hunters, but when it comes to delivering a stone cold anthem they will be the heroes of many Halloween playlists.

Yola’s incredible voice commands your attention in this song that starts as a ‘50s bop (it's from Baz Luhrman’s Elvis biopic) and quickly devolves into an atmospheric tale of warning with the help of a ghostly, gospel-ish choir. It’s fun, it’s oddly creepy and it’s simply the best way to set the mood at a party (or maybe to kill it – you decide). Add this Halloween classic to your playlist.