about

First released in 1996, Halloween Howls: Fun and Scary Music was recorded by Andrew Gold to fill a void in seasonal music. How come there were no albums that encapsulated the playfulness of Halloween? In the liner notes for Halloween Howls, he explained, “Each holiday has a mood and usually has music to go with it…However, it’s been very hard to find any tapes or CDs of Halloween music. In fact, there’s mostly just scary sound effects available and very few songs. So, I fixed that.”  Recruiting several of his musician friends to join in the fun, Gold recorded a collection of both classic Halloween tunes (“The Monster Mash,” “The Addams Family” and “Ghostbusters”) as well as whimsically creepy original tunes, including “It Must Be Halloween,” “In Our Haunted House,” and, of course, “Spooky, Scary Skeletons.”

“Spooky, Scary Skeletons” has slowly but steadily become the Halloween song of our times, thanks to its popularity that began a decade ago on YouTube when a user paired the song with a classic Disney cartoon from 1929, becoming a viral sensation with over 34 million views. Now, the track has become a phenomenon yet again following an explosion on TikTok where it’s been making waves soundtracking a dance trend. The infectious nature of the song’s hook has taken social media by storm, with millions of fans demonstrating they’ve got the moves like the skeletons.

Prolific singer, songwriter, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Gold (1951 - 2011) was perhaps most famous for penning the 1978 hit song “Thank You for Being a Friend,”—a cover version of which became the theme song to the popular series  The Golden Girls. Gold also wrote the 1977 Top 10 single, “Lonely Boy,” and the UK Top Five hit, “Never Let Her Slip Away.” As a member of the British pop duo, Wax—with guitarist/bassist Graham Gouldman—Gold found success with singles “Right Between the Eyes” and “Bridge to Your Heart.” Over the course of his career, Gold collaborated with some of the greatest names in music, including James Taylor, Carly Simon, Art Garfunkel, Neil Diamond, the Eagles, and Neil Young, among countless others.

Featuring appearances by Andrew Gold’s longtime collaborator, singer Linda Ronstadt, plus David Cassidy, Nicolette Larson, acclaimed songwriters Karla Bonoff and Stephen Bishop, as well as Gold’s children, Halloween Howls offers sweetly scary songs for the whole family to enjoy.