Spooky Music for Halloween & the Day of the Dead (Updated for 2015)

It's that time of year for scary, spooky music. And whether you want such tunes for a party, your workplace, or just to listen to at home, we're got some options below—and you can listen to some of them free online.

One of the inexpensive Halloween albums on sale at Amazon.com.

Pandora has a few Halloween-themed stations this year. I've been listening to the Spooky Symphonies Playlist, which includes scary or creepy classical pieces like "Night on Bald Mountain" and Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt suite. Pandora also has Halloween Party, which lets you rock out to familiar Halloween pop tunes like "Monster Mash."

If you've got young people around, the Family Halloween Playlist might be more appropriate, with its holiday-themed songs designed not to strike fear into the hearts of children.

Interested in buying and keeping some ghoulish music? Amazon.com has a number of albums for the occasion. For example, there are two "Halloween Haunted House" collections for just three dollars each. One features 250 songs and sound effects for spooking your friends and other guests, while the other offers a continuous music playlist.

And there are soundtracks to movies including "Rosemary's Baby" and "Halloween II." 

Similar to Pandora's "Spooky Symphonies" playlist is Amazon's "99 Must-Have Halloween Classics" for $5.49, and "Scary Classical Music for Halloween" for $5.99 $7.99. They include familiar pieces such as the theme from "The Exorcist," "Ride of the Valkyries," "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," and several selections from "The Rite of Spring." (Note: both the Pandora and Amazon collections contain songs that aren't really spooky per se, but sound dramatic, or were used in a dramatic movement of a movie (such as tunes from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" or "Harry Potter" films.)

If you want to observe Day of the Dead, check out my post from a couple of years back, "Spooky Spanish Tunes for Day of the Dead," which features videos from NPR Music's Alt.Latino program, and a list of the songs used in a seasonal episode of the defunct music podcast Ritmo Latino.

Update, Nov. 2015: Alt.Latino has put out a new Day of the Dead music mix this year, which it's calling the "horror movie mix-tape." See the tunes and listen to it here. 

Also new (new us) for 2015: Songwriter Andrew Gold (who penned such hits as "Thank You for Being a Friend" and "Lonely Boy") has a collection of Halloween songs for young people & adults called "Halloween Howls," which you can listen to on SoundCloud.

Happy scary listening!

Spooky Spanish Tunes for Day of the Dead

The radio show Alt.Latino has put together a playlist of scary Spanish tunes.

UPDATE, Oct. 31st, 2017: For some non-Spanish tunes, check out this Spotify Halloween playlist from NorthJersey.com that includes classic (though overplayed) songs such as Monster Mash, Thriller, etc. If you want some less conventional Halloween music, see "10 Songs that Actually Give Us Chills" from San Francisco radio station KQED.

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UPDATE, Oct. 31st, 2014: L.A. radio station KCRW has put together a Dia de los Muertos/Halloween Playlist that you can stream on Spotify or listen to on YouTube. It includes spooky tracks from Kinky, Ozomatli, Los Carniceros Del Norte, and more. Enjoy!

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A few years back I did a post pointing out a great podcast of spooky Spanish-language pop songs appropriate for Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) parties or commemorations. That podcast was an episode of Ritmo Latino, the great show of Spanish-language music that, sadly, later came to a close.

However, the public radio show Alt.Latino has an article this week with videos for 11 scary Spanish songs for Day of the Dead (and descriptions of some spooky stories from Spanish-speaking countries). The article is called "¡Que Miedo! Terrifying Tales And Scary Songs From Latin America."

Granted, clicking on each video to see it isn't as easy as just playing the continuous music of a podcast. But you can always create a playlist on YouTube (or Spotify, Rdio, or other streaming service) of these songs. (You can also stream or download the show's podcast, which includes clips of each of the songs as well as introductions and discussions of the songs, at the link above.)

Here are the songs in Alt.Latino's playlist of spooky Spanish tunes for Day of the Dead (which is celebrated on November 1st and 2nd):

"La Bruja" by Tien-Huicani
"Witch" by Dani Shivers
"El Fantasma" by Tijuana No
"Tango de Pecado" by Calle 13
"Diablo" by Davila 666
"Lobo Hombre en Paris" by La Union
"Diablo" by Gobia
"Monster" by Guarco
"Calaveras y Diablitos" by Fabulosos Cadillacs
"Llorona" by Chavela Vargas
"Yo Soy la Muerte" by El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico

Some videos are spooky, others are funny or silly, but they should help set the mood for your Halloween, All Saints Day, or Day of the Dead commemorations.