Bob Jurek’s Spooky Picks:
1. The Twilight Zone by Golden Earring
2. The Egg Plant That Ate Chicago by Dr. West’s Medicine Show And Junk Band
3. Spiders and Snakes by Jim Stafford
4. Wait Til The Midnight Hour by Wilson Pickett
5. I Put a Spell On You by Screaming Jay Hawkins
Sean McPherson’s Spooky Picks:
1. Bloody Hammer by Roky Erickson
2. The Freaks Come Out at Night by Whodini
3. Joey By Concrete Blonde (I’m well aware this isn’t their Halloween song, but it’s the one that scares me!)
Phil Nusbaum’s Spooky Picks (hear them this Saturday Oct 28 at 830am):
1. Shallow Grave by Roe Family Singers
2. Bringing Mary Home by Country Gentlemen
3. I’ve Come to Take You Come by Seldom Scene
4. Missing Ghosts by Anthony Ihrig
5. It’s Just the Night by Del McCoury
6. The Ghost of Eli Renfro by Nashville Bluegrass Band
Patty Peterson’s Spooky Picks:
1. Thriller by Michael Jackson
2. I Put A Spell On You by Nina Simone
3. Witchcraft by Frank Sinatra
4. That Old Black Magic by Ella Fitzgerald
5. Spooky by David Sanborn
6. Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead by Ella Fitzgerald
BONUS TRACK: Lonely Little Plug-In Pumpkin by St Paul Peterson
Peter Solomon’s Spooky Picks:
1. At the top of my Halloween Playlist is Philly Joe Jones’ “Blues for Dracula.” Features Jones’ Bela Lugosi imitation, which anecdotally, Lenny Bruce was a fan of.
2. George Russell’s arrangement of Thelonious Monk’s “Round Midnight“ from the Riverside LP Ezzthetics is a feature for Eric Dolphy’s haunting alto saxophone.
3. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ song “I Put a Spell on You” is a perfect choice for any Halloween playlist.
4. Louis Armstrong appeared in the film “Pennies from Heaven” and sang When the Skeleton in the Closet Started to Dance. He recorded the song with Jimmy Dorsey’s orchestra in 1936. Here’s the clip from the film.
5. Another great Swing era selection for Halloween is Duke Ellington’s 1941 recording “Jumpin’ Punkins” featuring bassist Jimmy Blanton and Baritone saxophonist Harry Carney.
6. Anatomy of a Murder by Duke Ellington contains music that Ellington wrote for the 1959 Otto Preminger film that starred Jimmy Stewart and George C Scott. Ellington and his orchestra appear in the film too.
7. Maybe I should have put this one first. The 1977 recording of Sun Ra at Storyville playing Halloween in Harlem
8. Raymond Scott’s 1937 recording “Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals”
9. Cab Calloway’s 1931 recording “The Nightmare”
10. Artie Shaw’s band with a different tune also titled “Nightmare”
Listen to Jazz88 to hear songs from Crime Jazz albums:
Back in 1997, Rhino records released a fabulous 2 – volume collection of selections written for crime dramas from tv and film. The albums are called Crime Jazz: Music in the First Degree and Crime Jazz: Music in the Second Degree.
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