2020 Halloween Dance Mix
Posted on November 1, 2020 Posted by John Scalzi 27 Comments
As promised, here is the playlist from the (virtual) Halloween dance party I DJ’d last night. Enjoy for your own future Halloween enjoyment. Click on any song title to take you to a YouTube video of the song.
1. “Superstition,” Stevie Wonder
2. “Devil Inside,” INXS
3. “Disturbia,” Rihanna
4. “Heads Will Roll,” Yeah Yeah Yeahs
5. “Toxic,” Britney Spears
6. “She’s In Parties,” Bauhaus
7. “Come Alive (War of the Roses),” Janelle Monae
8. “Dead Man’s Party,” Oingo Boingo
9. “The Monster,” Eminem feat. Rihanna
10. “Dragula,” Rob Zombie
11. “Somebody’s Watching Me,” Rockwell
12. “Monster,” Lady Gaga
13. “One Step Beyond,” Madness
14. “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine),” REM
15. “Highway to Hell,” AC/DC
16. “This is Halloween,” Marilyn Manson
17. “I Want Candy,” Bow Wow Wow
18. “Maniac,” Conan Gray
19. “Ghostbusters,” Ray Parker, Jr.
20. “Boogieman,” Childish Gambino
21. “Master and Servant,” Depeche Mode
22. “Cannibal,” Ke$ha
23. “Cuidao Por Ahi,” J Balvin and Bad Bunny (this was a dance attendee request)
24. “Nemsis,” Shriekback
25. “Time Warp,” Rocky Horror Picture Show Soundtrack
26. “Everyday is Halloween,” Ministry
27. “Spiderwebs,” No Doubt
28. “Why Can’t I Be You?” The Cure
29. “Cities in Dust,” Siouxsie and the Banshees
30. “More Human Than Human,” White Zombie
31. “Thriller,” Michael Jackson
Also, here’s how I decided on these particular songs.
— JS
Thanks for including the YouTube links: that makes it easy for me to make my own copy (and we have the no-ads subscription for YT).
Shriekback was a criminally underrated band. “Nemesis” is a straight up classic.
Also gets bonus points for using the word “parthenogenesis” in a lyric.
No “Black Magic Woman”?
Formerly Just Craig:
I mean, the playlist is all there, so, obviously, no.
Otherwise and generally, the answer to why a song isn’t on the playlist is because… it isn’t. You are of course free to make your own Halloween-ish playlist and put whatever song on there, if you like.
I was happy to see Oingo Boingo’s “Dead Man Party” on the list. That was the first song I thought of when you said you were putting together this playlist.
Including Shriekback on your playlist denotes you as a man of exceptional musical taste. As Eric notes above, truly an underrated classic. The operatically deranged background chorus (and use of the word “parthenogenesis”!) just makes me love it all the more.
I only had to buy three tracks that weren’t in my library already. Awesome mix!
Great playlist – hope I can share this little gem I came across for consideration next year
https://open.spotify.com/track/1eBTesQZ72agGVC4kKs6HN?si=m3hSTGq3TA2llcG6xCoMfA
“She’s In Parties” is my favorite Bauhaus song, so Kudos to you (it’s absolutely fantastic live)
Echoing the love for Shriekback and adding a suggestion for next year’s list:
https://youtu.be/WK5Xe1SK0r8
Totally would have had Ghost Town by the Specials
+1 to the Shriekback love. Since you mentioned picking twice as many songs as you would actually need, I’d love to see the also-rans. And my own recommendation for next year:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Gr63DiEUxw&w=560&h=315%5D
Most surprising thing here, to me, is “She’s in Parties” rather than the incredibly obvious Bauhaus Halloween song choice. Kudos!
Ditto to “Semi-Grumpy”, Nemesis is awesome and Shriekback is the shit.
Nice Bauhaus pick.
egl:
If you’re referring to “Bela Legosi’s Dead,” it’s more than nine minutes long and has no real beat, i.e., a very poor choice for a dance.
All solid picks. Ministry is a bold choice. And I appreciate the Shriekback love here. “This Big Hush” is so lush (but not for a dance party)
Lots of tuneful goodness there. The Siouxsie track is a personal favorite.
What was the dress code for the event, if you don’t mind my asking? The wilder the costume the better, or “I’d rather dance in ugly pants in the comfort of a loungeroom in suburbia” [Regurgitator]?
“Thank you, Mister Deejay!”
https://youtu.be/jJ1l4UJW04Y
Yeah, I figured the length was part of the reason.
Not sure I agree with it being a terrible dance song. (I mean, despite my opinion of it being a not great song. It needed to be like 4 minutes long, tops.)
Is there a pattern to the song order?
Some of the transitions are… musically jarring.
Dragula -> Somebodys Watching Me
feels like changing gears without using the clutch.
I was driving somewhere on Saturday when “Monster Mash” started playing, and I thought about your previous post about this dance and why you didn’t include it. I concluded that you’re right, it’s not a dance song at all. But I think it is a killer party background song. It’s the kind of thing you play when your attention is supposed to be somewhere else, like a school costume party, the 7 layer dip, or (in my case) on the road.
I never really thought of “Heads Will Roll” as a dance song. But, I guess it has enough of a beat, so why not?
Two points:
1. Back in the day I lent writer Shariann Lewitt my copy of the Shriekback album with “Nemesis” for a dance party where she was the DJ; it wasn’t QUITE Halloween.
2. Just learned that the whole verse of that R.E.M. song which deals with Lester Bangs, jelly beans and cheese cake refers to a bad birthday party for Bangs the band attended, where the only food WAS jelly beans and cheese cake (See: “Begin the Begin” by Robert Dean Lurie).
Although not a fan of MJ, I just discovered that “Thriller” was produced by the great Quincy Jones. That man did everything! Wonderful documentary on him titled “Quincy” on Netflix. If you like any kind of music, you should watch it.
I diverged from the list with a segue from “Heads Will Roll” into “Psycho Killer” by Talking Heads (unrolled, obvsly; the live version from Stop Making Sense, also obvsly) and this ’80s kid says, “Missed opportunity there, Mr DJ.”
This is great! Any chance of getting the other 30 songs that didn’t make it to the dance floor?
Adding on to the thumbs up for Shriekback- my favorite band. And still making music!