Monday, October 30, 2017

Halloween In Singapore With Theme Songs

Passages in blue are, especially for Singapore readers.

Halloween is a festival with a huge following in the United States of America. It is just as huge in Singapore today, with the population celebrating it in certain places on the Red Dot, especially where there are Caucasians and younger Singaporeans.  The youth would probably have been influenced by western upbringing, overseas stints and studies in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

There is a community near the IRAS at Thomson Road where some families celebrate the occasion annually. They gather from all over the area which includes: the Gentle Road area, the Goldhill area and the Chancery lanes. The image below (taken from Google) shows a celebation @ Clarke Quay. 
Since Halloween is the theme, songs from the Fearful Fifties, the Scary Sixties, Screaming Seventies and a few Evil Eighties are listed below. The words in the titles matter, so here they are, taken from the dusty, underground vaults of yore.

The lyrics spell blood, gore and grime. They may not be traditional, scary songs, but they can loosely fit into the Halloween theme by title, by music or by lyrics. So if you're lookin' for trouble, you came to the right place.
"I see the bad moon risin'/I see trouble on the way/I see earthquakes and lightnin'/I see bad times today/I hear the hurricanes a-blowin'/I know the end is comin' soon/I hear the rivers overflowin'/I hear the voice of rage and ruin... (Bad Moon Risin' by John Fogerty.)"

While browsing through local vinyl the nearest I could get for a popular Singapore song was one by The Jumping Jewels with Johnny Lion doing the vocals. It's Marty Robbin's, Devil Woman but Lion stole the show because his version sold so many.
The list is a revised version of a previous posting and Halloween related songs from the 80's have been added:

Bad Blood - 1975 - Neil Sedaka.
Bad Moon Rising - 1969 - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Black Magic Woman - 1968 - Fleetwood Mac/ Santana
Dark Lady - 1974 - Cher
Daughter Of Darkness - 1970 - Tom Jones

Devil Gate Drive - 1974 - Suzi Quatro
Devil In A Sleeping Bag - 1973 - Willie Nelson
Devil In Disguise - 1963 - Elvis Presley
Devil Or Angel - 1960 - Bobby Vee
Devil With A Blue Dress On - 1966 - Mitch Ryder/Detroit Wheels
Devil Woman - 1962 - Johnny Lion n Jumping Jewels
Devil Woman - 1976 - Cliff Richard
Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead - 1967 - Fifth Estate
Evil Hearted You - 1965 – The Yardbirds
Evil On Your Mind - 1966 - Jan Howard

Evil Ways - 1970 - Santana
Evil Woman - 1976 - Electric Light Orchestra
Frightened City - 1961 - Shadows
Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding - 1973 - Elton John
Ghost Busters - 1983 - Ray Parker Jr
Ghost Riders In The Sky – 1979 - Johnny Cash
Hell's Bells - 1980 - AC/DC 
Halloween Theme - 1978 - John Carpenter

Love Potion Number Nine - 1965 - The Searchers
Little Devil - 1961 - Neil Sedaka
Poison Ivy - 1959 - The Coasters
Race With The Devil - 1968 - Gene Vincent
Season Of The Witch - 1966 - Donovan
Spooky -1968 - Classic Four
Superstition - 1973 - Stevie Wonder
Sympathy For The Devil - 1968 - Rolling Stones

That Old Black Magic - 1958 - Louis Prima and Keely Smith
The Devil Went Down To Georgia - 1979 - Charlie Danie's Band
Thriller - 1982 - Michael Jackson
Voodoo Child - 1970 - Jimi Hendrix Experience
Witch Doctor - 1958 - David Seville
Witchcraft - 1963 - Elvis Presley/Frank Sinatra
Witchy Woman - 1972 - Eagles

On the same theme, the Halloween movie was made with a $300 thousand budget but the movie was a hit with a $70 million success at the box office. Now that's a huge profit. 

The reason was partly due to the movie theme song performed by musically untrained John Carpenter himself. It's a piano melody without a symphonic soundtrack. Just listen to it above.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Information from the Net.
Images by Google.
YouTube Halloween Video.

7 comments:

AG said...

What a comprehensive list!

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

Thank you AG. Can't find you on your connection.

Visit the blog again anytime. Appreciate.

RICHARD RAJOO said...

They are around, especially this time of the year. It cannot be a coincidence - both easy and west celebrate and observe the occasion almost simultaneously, ha, ha.

But I love Johnny Lion's DEVIL WOMAN, Elvis' DEVIL IN DISGUISE and Johnny Cash' GHOST RIDERS IN THE SKY, the Shadows' FRIGHTENED CITY, CCR's BAD MOON RISING.

The list goes on...

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

Thanks Richard for comment.

What's your opinion about scary music? How the bassoon bass and high notes on the piano are used to create an atmosphere of fear and anxiety?

Perhaps Horace Wee could say something?

HORACE WEE (PROFESSIONAL MUSICIAN) said...

I play bass clarinet and that evokes suspense, tension, fear and horror as well. Think it's more on orchestration that creates suspenseful or horror scenes though.

FACEBOOK CHATS said...

Do check out my experience with HALLOWEEN IN CANADA and the songs I learnt.

Andy Young
Thanks SER KIONG. First to show the thumbs up.

Koh Daisy
Love the songs by Johnny Lion and Elvis …hot favourites then all year round … not just for Halloween.

Andy Young
Koh Daisy yes it's true. All time favourites.

Freda Hanum
Indeed so many interesting popular songs title are connected to the Halloween... Interesting article Andy and happy Halloween to you too😊

Andy Young
Freda Hanum yes, and all about hantu; frightening actually, thanks Freda.

Hiroshi Deguchi
Andy, is that you who is in brown windbreaker with glasses in the photo? The photo is the most dreadful.

Andy Young
Hiroshi Deguchi thanks for saying so. Yes I was walking the streets and met a few kids who were doing their Tricks or Treat on me. So I took a picture. It was very cold.

Koh Sui Pang
We all scare of hantu ...no happy Halloween la ..👻💀👹🥶..

Andy Young
Koh Sui Pang that's true actually, scary. What about the Malay hantus - pontianak and jerangkong?

FACEBOOK CHATS said...

Fred Ching
Hiroshi Deguchi
Yen Chow
Tin Leong Lim
Freda Hanum
Ho Victor
Poh Huat Tng
Davy Chan
Chow Wen Hing
Jimmy Appudurai-chua
Rose Khoo
Patrick Teng
Stephen Han
Charlie Yap Locomotion
Ser Kiong Tan
El Manso Nobel
BEN
Moody Cash

THANKS TO ALL THE ABOVE FOR LIKING THIS GHOSTLY POST.