This classic track by The Who was not intended specifically for Halloween, but in the recent decades, it has been added to the ever growing Halloween music repertoire.
The song may be inaccurate in assuming that the spider is male. Most of the spiders that people encounter are female. I don’t think that The Who intended any sexism, but maybe it should be “Natasha, The Spider”.
It was first released on the debut album The Who in 1966. It also appeared on an EP called A Quick One
Tim Curry appeared in a made-for-tv movie called The Worst Witch in 1986. He played the role of The Grand Wizard of The Witch Academy. Charlotte Rae also appeared as Miss Cackle the teacher, and Agatha, the teacher’s evil twin.
Curry performed a rather fetching number about Halloween Night in the film.
The movie was then released on VHS and DVD. You can still buy it on amazon but we have not found a streaming service that currently offers this film.
The movie was followed a TV Series of the same name. It can be found on free services tubi and Freevee.
Danny Elfman wrote the quintessential Halloween carol, “This is Halloween” for Tim Burton’s smash hit movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas. Every nerd knows the original. A lot of us have heard the song covered by the sicko whom is never mentioned. How excellent it is to have this new version — and (sort of) LIVE.
Broken Peach is dolled up in death skull makup and play the song live to tape on an overcast day in the woods somewhere. The supporting floor tom drums are the perfect finishing touch.GloOooOoMY.
I suspect this track gained them a lot of new fans since its was first published in 2015.
First there was the Thriller Video by Michael Jackson. You know it. You love it. It was a big hit on MTV when it first came out in 1984.
The dance routine in the original video is sublime and the most famous part of the video. Countless recreations have occurred in professional stage shows, school performances, Rocky Horror Picture Show local cast pre-shows, and so on.
A movie director in India decided to make a knock-off tribute called “Goli Maar” the next year. It was part of a movie called Donga
There are a number of crude uploads to YouTube, None of them are in great shape. The audio quality is always crap. The song does not appear to be available for digital download on Amazon. I wish the original recording would resurface so we can get a proper remaster. I consider it a cult-classic.
This versions is not too bad but they over saturated the colors.
Then a dance group in Japan remade the video (but not the song) in 2009.
Wait there’s more! Somebody did a remix/mashup in 2015. Somehow the video quality is best in this version.
Have a happy Halloween and do share this little story with your favorite wacky Halloween lover.
Here is a small collection of memes, comics and photos. I found most of them last year so you might have seen many of them already. Most of these were posted to the Twitter and Tumbler accounts. Feel free to steal them.
Don’t forget to tune in to FunHouse Radio when the calendar says October. You’ll hear the greatest Halloween songs of all time. It gets EPIC during the last week.
FunHouse Radio 