Halloween Songs from Erin Lee and Marci

Children’s musicians Erin Lee and Marci bring us the next of their regular posts with thematic recommendations for kid-friendly music, plus activities to make the songs an interactive experience for the whole family.

Look for Erin Lee and Marci here on the first Monday of each month, or visit their homepage, www.gottaplay.org.

I’ve created links to Amazon for the full albums (click the album image or name), plus links to Amazon MP3 downloads, when available, for those who want only the singles. (Click the song name.) I also have a widget after the jump that will let you preview most of the songs without leaving Mombian.

It’s Halloween…our favorite time of the year! Creepy costumes, spooky stories, lots of candy…and, oh no! Another party has ground to a halt because somebody put dance music on and the only creepy dance music on hand was The Monster Mash! Brilliant, we love it, but all too frequently overused. Don’t let that happen at your party! There’s lots of monster music out there that’s perfect for dancing, stomping and sneaking. Here are two of our favorite not-too-terrifying tunes:

“Spooky Dance” (Rebecca Frezza, Special Kind Of Day)

“Ghostly noises, eerie voices, feeling kind of spooky…
Wind is howling, something’s growling, feeling kind of spooky”.

The best thing about this song is that Rebecca leaves it entirely up to the listener to decide where the noises are emanating from. It could be coming from a ghost or a vampire…or just a kitty cat or the wind. You and your imagination can make this song as spooky (or not spooky) as you dare.

“The Tarantula Tango” (Miss Amy, Underwater)

Kid’s fitness guru Miss Amy will have everyone exercising to this creepy little tango sung by a tarantula. She always takes care to not overwhelm even the youngest of listeners, so this tarantula is on the prowl for Mosquitoes on Doritos and Bug Burritos — not human prey!

“The Moonlight Wolfbite Batjuice Jamboree” (Snowdance) is our all out monster dance extravaganza. The choreography is aptly described in the chorus if you want to follow along, or feel free to do your own improvisational dancing (or howling, or bone-rattling or paw-stomping or flying.) So get on up and dance like crazy!

PS: Here’s a post Halloween treat: Uncle Rock’s “Picnic in the Graveyard” celebrating Day of the Dead, from his CD Plays Well with Others. Our Spanish is terrible, but even we were singing along with this bilingual, not-so-spooky explanation of the Holiday. We love it!