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Redefining the Halloween canon

Phoebe Bridgers
Olof Grind
Phoebe Bridgers

Who's the Mariah Carey of Halloween? Labels and artists are trying to capitalize on spooky season, but these are the songs that belong in the canon, from the truly terrifying to autumnal and nostalgic.

Featured songs:

1. Phoebe Bridgers: "Killer" from Stranger in the Alps
2. Fever Ray: "If I Had A Heart," from Fever Ray
3. Sufjan Stevens: "John Wayne Gacy, Jr" from Illinois
4. Jack Lenz: "Goosebumps" (theme from the TV show)
5. Disneyland Records: Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House
6. Alice Cooper: "Welcome to My Nightmare," from Welcome to My Nightmare
7. Oksana Linde: "Horizontes lejanos," from Travesias
8. Florence + the Machine: "Everybody Scream," from Everybody Scream
9. Ethel Cain: "Housofpsychoticwomn," from Perverts
10. girl in red: "We Fell In Love In October" (single)
11. Mimicking Birds: "Bloodlines," from EONS
12. Van Morrison: "Moondance," from Moondance
13. The Cramps: "I Was A Teenage Werewolf," from Songs the Lord Taught Us
14. Dead Man's Bones: "My Bodies a Zombie for You," from Dead Man's Bones
15. Vince Guaraldi: "The Great Pumpkin Waltz," from The Great Pumpkin

Weekly reset: Chilling, thrilling sounds from the haunted house

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Questions, comments, suggestions or feedback of any kind always welcome: allsongs@npr.org

Copyright 2025 NPR

Robin Hilton
Robin Hilton is a producer and co-host of the popular NPR Music show All Songs Considered.
Hazel Cills
Hazel Cills is an editor at NPR Music, where she edits breaking music news, reviews, essays and interviews. Before coming to NPR in 2021, Hazel was a culture reporter at Jezebel, where she wrote about music and popular culture. She was also a writer for MTV News and a founding staff writer for the teen publication Rookie magazine.
Stephen Thompson
Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)