31 Days of Halloween Hits: "Werewolves of London" by Warren Zevon

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. 

---

​Warren Zevon is one of the most underrated singer-songwriters of all-time. I absolutely love his third studio album Excitable Boy from 1978 and have always felt like there are three songs on that album that really fit well on Halloween playlists. These next three days of The Word’s 31 Days of Halloween Hits are going to focus on this Excitable Boy trio, starting today with the most obvious and well-known choice from that album. 

Photo: Asylum Records

“Werewolves of London” by Warren Zevon is my favorite Halloween song, even though it’s certainly a track one could and should listen to year-around.
​
The song, written by Zevon, LeRoy Marinell and Waddy Wachtel, off of Zevon’s third studio album Excitable Boy is an interesting tale of a werewolf running amuck in London if you take the lyrics literally. Though producer Jackson Browne has described the werewolf as a metaphor for an upper-class English womanizer preying on women.

Zevon is one of the most underrated singer-songwriters of all-time in my book and “Werewolves of London” was the only top-40 hit of his career, topping off at No. 21 on Billboard in 1978.

The song has one of the all-time great opening lines of any song ever recorded with: “I saw werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand walking through the streets of Soho in the rain.” How cool and utterly weird is that, if taking the character as a literal werewolf, that is?

“Werewolves of London” is a fun song but done with incredible musicianship as Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie played on the recording.

With the witty lyrics and infectious howls in the chorus it’s just a *ahem* howling good time and one that should be tops on anybody’s Halloween playlist.

---