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by Julian Spivey 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.  Screenshot It was just two lines in a television show spoofing Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s “Monster Mash” and other Halloween novelty songs, but “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah,” by the fictional character Tracy Jordan played by comedian/actor Tracy Morgan on “30 Rock,” instantly became one of my favorite pop culture Halloween moments. Those two lines: “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah, spooky, scary/Boys becoming men, men becoming wolves” still have me in stitches nearly every time I hear them 13 years after the “30 Rock” episode “Jack Gets in the Game” aired. The lines were written by that episode’s screenwriters Robert Carlock (one of the show’s showrunners) and Tami Sagher, who wrote much of the lyrics according to an oral history of the song conducted by LAist. It was literally just an eight-second clip from the episode, but it hit so big among the fans of the series that it was decided to record a full-length version. Carlock and Sagher were joined by the “30 Rock” musical director Jeff Richmond (also the husband of the show’s creator Tina Fey) and writer Donald Glover (who’s now a multi-talented musician as Childish Gambino and award-winning actor and showrunner of FX’s “Atlanta”) to fledge out the lyrics of the song. When it came time to record the full-length “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah” Morgan wasn’t around, so Glover – who did a good Tracy Morgan impression – stepped in and did some of the vocals and ad-libbed some of the talking in the song. “30 Rock” is one of my all-time favorite TV comedies and this was my single favorite moment from the show. It’s just so absurd, and so mocking of these ridiculous Halloween novelty hits that I couldn’t get enough. In the end it became its own sort of Halloween novelty.
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