Tunes to trick or treat by ... if you dare

Ordinarily, when I think about costumes, the topic of music comes to mind. Mention costumes, and I think about costume balls, which require music. If there were no music at costume balls, people would just mill around, making inane chit-chat and stuffing their faces with free grub.

In fact, that’s actually how Halloween began. See, there was this gigantic costume ball. I think it was in Wisconsin, but it might have been New Jersey. All the men wore tuxes with those black Lone Ranger masks, and the ladies wore gowns with little glitter masks on sticks. But so many freeloaders crashed the party that the crowd spilled out onto the street, and those unlucky enough to get stuck outside with no access to the chow got hungry.

So they went door to door, in their costumes, asking for food. Since it was late at night, most people didn’t have a hot meal handy. So they gave them whatever was available. Usually, it was candy. In those days — I’m talking many years ago, before movie monsters were even created to inspire costumes; people had to dress up like their aunts, uncles and cousins, which created a lot of confusion — people ate a lot of candy. Snickers, Milky Way, Reese’s Pieces, the list goes on. Check out some photos of the early years of Halloween and you’ll notice all the adults are fat, and most of them have chocolate around their mouths.

Eventually, kids got wind of this ritual, and as kids are wont to do, they muscled in. Gradually, over the years, the kids took over this holiday, and costume balls began to fade in popularity. Now you will rarely see an adult in a costume out in public, unless it’s on Hollywood Boulevard.

At least that’s the way I heard Halloween began.

But thankfully, the music remained. Whether it’s kids or adults, Halloween isn’t Halloween without some scary tunes to make your hair stand on end. Here is a list of 10 to make your Halloween smoke like Beelzebub’s hot tub. It’s a blood-curdling, panic-inducing, bone-chilling, spine-tingling mix of styles designed to bring out the beast in you. Listen … if you dare:

1. “Monster Mash” by Bobby “Boris” Pickett
The mother of all mock-terrifying Halloween ditties. It has sold about 4 million copies, making it one of the most popular novelty songs of all time. Pickett began doing a Boris Karloff impression as a youngster who watched horror movies in the theater his dad managed in Somerville, Mass. Later, he would slip in some Karloff while performing with the band The Cordials. He wrote “Monster Mash” with some friends and recorded it with a new band called the CryptKickers. It hit No. 1 on October 20, 1962. It was released three times — in ’62, ’70 and ’73 — and won three gold records. “He did The Mash, he did the Monster Mash; he did The Mash, it was a graveyard smash.” This is the “Silent Night” of Halloween.  (Suggested costume: dress up like Elvis Presley, who once called this song “the dumbest thing I ever heard.”)

2. “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder
This appeared on the “Talking Book” album, recorded in 1972. The song was originally written for guitarist Jeff Beck, but Wonder decided to release it himself, creating a brief rift between he and Beck, who cut his version shortly after. Around the time it came out, Wonder toured with the Rolling Stones, broadening his audience. “Superstition” is about how silly it is to be superstitious: “When you believe in things that you don’t understand, then you suffer. Superstition ain’t the way.” This became Wonder’s second No. 1 in hit in the U.S., after 1963’s “Fingertips.” Obviously, “seven years of bad luck” didn’t apply in Wonder’s case. (Suggested costume: You can’t go wrong with a black cat holding a broken mirror.)

3. “Dead Man's Party” by Oingo Boingo
“It’s a dead man’s party, who could ask for more. Everybody’s comin’, leave your body at the door. Leave your body and soul at the door.” Now that’s spooky. Released in 1985, the album by the same name was the band’s only one to go gold. You might recall this song played during a campus bash in the Rodney Dangerfield comedy, “Back to School.” Oingo Boingo — originally known as The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo — decided to call it quits with one last blast — during a Halloween performance in 1995. Also, one of the key members, Danny Elfman, went on to a spectacular career writing music for scary movies like “Sleepy Hollow” and the upcoming “The Corpse Bride.” (Suggested costume: Either an all-black outfit with a white skeleton painted on it, or go as an alternative rock musician.)

4. “I Put a Spell on You” by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
Sometimes love hurts. You can let time heal the wound. Or you can get revenge! Hawkins wrote this about a girlfriend who jilted him: “I don’t care if you don’t want me, because I’m yours, yours, yours anyhow.” He performed this during a Christmas concert for DJ Alan Freed in 1956, and it became an instant hit. In future performances, Hawkins would come out in a flaming coffin while holding a stick on a skull. Hawkins died in 2000, and it is rumored that he fathered about 50 children. So there’s an outside chance one of the little devils who comes to your door this Halloween might be his offspring. If you think you see one of them, give the kid an extra candy bar, just in case. (Suggested costume:  Put your hair in dreadlocks, carry a skull on a stick, and wear a Shawn Kemp jersey.)

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