A Surprising And Spooky Halloween Playlist

The leaves are turning, the temperature is dropping, and soon you'll be dodging the undead as they stalk down the street. Halloween is around the corner and when we think of Halloween songs, we tend to think of classics like Bobby Boris Pickett's "Monster Mash." But, KCRW DJ and Soundcheck regular Anne Litt has something different in mind -- a playlist of surprising and spooky songs. Read on for Anne's notes about her playlist while you listen, below:

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Beats Antique, "The Allure"
The combination of the strings and beats is classical-meets-world music gone dark. The weird vocals sound like screams lend a performance art aspect to the music.

Gram Rabbit, "Dirty Horse"
"Desert Halloween:" trippy and psychedelic. I never thought about the desert this way until I moved to Southern California.

M83, "Steve McQueen" (Maps Remix)
Slow it down and drone it out a bit. This song is less shimmery and triumphant. The remix strips the original down to it down to it’s dark core.

David Bowie, "Scary Monsters"
David Bowie was in costume for half his career! It's perfect.

Jack White - “I’m Shakin’”
Jack White always seems ghostly to me! And so primal. The way he sings takes Little Willie John to a much scarier place.

Flying Lotus, "Phantasm"
Flylo's sound is cinematic in a Psycho kind of way, with ethereal beats, crackles, glitches and ghost-like vocals.

Daphni, "Cos-Ber-Zam - Ne Noya" (Daphni Mix) 
This is in a similar vein to Beats Antique, but I love the Ghanaian chant over the track. A listener called when I played it this weekend who was from Ghana. His reaction to the track is what made me include it.

Bobby Vinton, "Blue Velvet"
While not a scary song in and of itself, it’s forever enmeshed in my mind with the David Lynch film of the same title. When I hear it now, it’s disturbing beyond belief.

Nick Cave, "Red Right Hand"
A modern Halloween classic. The title is from Milton's Paradise Lost and is about the vengeful hand of God. Scary.

Vince Guaraldi, "The Great Pumpkin Waltz"
Gotta have one stone cold classic.