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Redefining the Halloween canon

By Robin Hilton,
Hazel Cills, Stephen Thompson
Published October 22, 2025 at 4:00 PM CDT
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. We also bring you chilling, thrilling sounds from the haunted house in our Weekly Reset.

Enjoy the show? Share it with a friend and leave us a review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Questions, comments, suggestions or feedback of any kind are always welcome at allsongs@npr.org.

Featured songs

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


Copyright 2025 NPR
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Music All Songs Considered
Robin Hilton
Robin Hilton is the Senior Podcast Producer for NPR Music. He also hosts the New Music Friday episodes of All Songs Considered.
Hazel Cills
Hazel Cills is an editor at NPR Music. Before coming to NPR in 2021, Cills 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 host, writer and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist and guest host on All Songs Considered. Thompson also co-hosts the daily NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created with NPR's Linda Holmes in 2010. 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.)