Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Halloween Music at 78 RPM

I love vintage Halloween and I love all types of music --- so I have a real fondness for any Halloween themed music I can find from around the 1950s and much earlier. If you can find used CD's of  Halloween Stomp or Haunted House (offering early jazz compilations from around the 1920's to 1940's), I highly recommend them! (A song listing is pretty easy to find via search engines -- click on the images to read some other folks who have blogged about these CD's):


Since hearing those compilations, I've been searching for more music from that era, and at some point I'll have to post an additional listing of desireable tunes. Today, a friend posted an exciting link to the Library of Congress Electronic Jukebox and I located a few choice spooky songs from the early 20th century. Here's a couple of links (I had hoped to embed the players but they were a bit clunky):



If you like this era of music, you'll love the CD's mentioned above. You might also like a station called Radio Dismuke on Live365 which has a general selection of music from the 20's and 30s.
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2 comments:

  1. Belle DeeJuly 15, 2011 at 11:19 AM

    If you like those albums, I would also recommend an album called, 'Halloween Classics Songs that Scared the Bloomers Off Your Great-Grandma'. I'm pretty sure it's downloadable only (I've never seen an actual CD for sale). I got mine from itunes, but they have it on Amazon & some other places as well.

    I'm a collector & seeker of old 'spooky' music myself. I'll have to explore that 'Library of Congress' link some more, although it's a total bummer that you can't download stuff. Skeleton Rag is one of my favorite spooky song ever! There is a downloadable version of it here: http://www.archive.org/details/PremierQuartetAmericanQuartetwithBillyMurray

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  2. Archive LibrarianJuly 15, 2011 at 1:25 PM

    Hi Belle Dee! (I subscribed to your awesome blog of old Halloween tunes)!

    Glad to hear from another audio groupie of old Halloween tunes! I was lucky to get Halloween Stomp at the time of its release (I worked at a music store at the time) and I've been hooked ever since!

    Thank you for the link to the download CD! Love the name and excited to see some tunes I haven't heard yet!!! We really ought to figure out some way to create a library of all these tunes in one place!!!

    Here's a couple of playlists I've made on youtube that you might also find interesting - not sure if you'll find anything new in these:

    Halloween Jazz:
    http://www.youtube.com/user/bumblebin?feature=mhee#p/c/3FA015DB9A99F4E8

    Vintage Halloween Cartoons:
    http://www.youtube.com/user/bumblebin?feature=mhee#p/c/C109DF02E38060EF

    By the way, if you have recording software on your computer (various kinds are out there) it is possible to record the sound as you play it on your computer... and save as an MP3 for your collection.

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