31 Days of Halloween Hits - "Halloween" by Misfits

by Preston Tolliver
As we welcome October with its cool breezes, and - now socially distanced - festivities, we often think of scary movies, pumpkin patches and killers in masks. Rarely, if ever, do you hear anyone say what they’re looking forward to most about the season, is the music. Granted, Halloween music has nowhere near the mega-market that Christmas music has, but it seems that quality trumps quantity in this particular situation. With songs like Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” Halloween season is a heavy hitter when it comes to music! 
 
That’s why we’re celebrating 31 Days of Halloween Hits here at The Word for the entire month of October. Every day we’re going to bring you a great song that fits right in on your Halloween playlist. Some are songs specifically written for the holiday, but others are great selections you can listen to year-around but have a great theme for the spookiest of all holidays. Some of these songs you’ve certainly heard and some are lesser known that we hope to familiarize you with. 

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Photo: Plan 9 Records

The entire discography of the Misfits during their 40-year run is a rhythmic death march through a haunted house full of monsters, mayhem, makeup and murder.
 
“Halloween” was released in 1981, the fifth single from the horror punk band (during the Glenn Danzig era). While it plays like an anthem to All Hallows’ Eve, and anyone who barely pays attention to Danzig’s lyrics might place it in the same category as “Monster Mash” - a fun, groovy dance tune to throw on at a party. But the lyrics, like most Misfits songs, are macabre; a horror story condensed into less than two minutes, complete with visuals of “burning bodies hang[ing] from poles.”
 
That’s mild, though, for a band that became known for love ballads about murder (some prefer the rage in Danzig’s era; I’ve always been a bigger fan of Michale Graves’ rockabilly approach toward horror - suggested listening for the next few days of October include albums American Psycho and Famous Monsters).
 
“Halloween” isn’t the best Misfits song, but it is plenty apt as we get ready to dress up and celebrate ghouls and ghosts. Moreover, it’s a sort of soft introduction into the fiendish and grotesque style on which the band would build its bloody, battered legacy.

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