Thriller: This iconic song, synonymous with Halloween, nearly had a very different title. Before the title ‘Thriller’ came to Michael Jackson on a whim the song was originally called ‘Starlight Sun’. Somewhere in a parallel universe this song exists with the hook ‘Give me some starlight! Starlight sun…’
Monster Mash: This song, written as a Halloween mix of two famous dances at the time, the mashed potato and the twist, was initially banned in the UK for being ‘too morbid’. Hard to believe a song with the lyrics ‘now everything’s cool, Drac’s a part of the band/And my monster mash is the hit of the land’ could ever be considered too morbid.
Time Warp: The most famous song to come from the cult classic ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’, was originally written to fill time as the original production of the show ran only 40 minutes long. The movie is still in theatres today, 42 years after its release. It has become a wildly popular ritual all over the world to watch the movie and act along with it using props and costumes. The pinnacle of these showings is everyone filling the stage to dance to the ‘Time Warp.’
Zombie: This song from The Cranberries second album was a departure for them into grunge pop, but what you may not know is that the song was written as a protest, in memory of two boys who were killed in an IRA bombing earlier in the year. The video for the song features British soldiers on patrol in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.
Ghostbusters: This song was written to accompany the 1984 movie, and is now a classic alone. What you may not know about it Is that it was written at 4.30 AM when after almost 2 days of trying to create a song, Ray Parker Jr saw a commercial for a drain company that helped him coin the line ‘Who you gonna call?’
Caoimhe Mc Parland – Music Writer
