Last year, after hearing about a really neat Halloween song set to the classical work, Danse Macabre by Saint-Saens, I did some research (letting my fingers do the walking) and found an online audio clip with scratches, et al, from a recording made in 1969. I never anticipated the number of hits I’d receive *this* year from that same post.
Recently, in the comments section for that post, I’ve had numerous requests for the lyrics to the hands-down Halloween favorite, ‘”H – A – double L – O – W – double E – N” spells Halloween’, so, by popular request, included with the audio clip, here they are!
“H – A – double L – O – W – double E – N” spells Halloween,
“H – A – double L – O – W – double E – N” spells Halloween!
Halloween means ghosts & goblins,
Skeletons, monsters, & howling cats,
Spooky masks & jack-o-lanterns,
Witches & devils & big, black bats!
“H – A – double L – O – W – double E – N” spells Halloween,
“H – A – double L – O – W – double E – N” spells Halloween!
Halloween means ringing doorbells,
Scaring the people who open the door.
“Trick or treat” gets you candy and apples,
Then go to the next house and get some more.
“H – A – double L – O – W – double E – N” spells Halloween,
“H – A – double L – O – W – double E – N” spells Halloween!
I’ve also had several readers asking if this song is still available for purchase or download. To the best of my knowledge, it is not available for purchase on CD or through recognizable online music sources. The original source that I downloaded it from last year took down the link. I imagine that the bandwidth it took for downloads was considerable and costly to that blogger.
However, it is still available through these two sources – Dave’s World 56 which gives you the option of purchasing a Halloween CD from him, or by downloading it directly yourself as a Zip file through Megaupload.com, which is what I did last week.
The Halloween zip file (35.9MB) also includes, besides the favorite “Halloween“, nine other tracks: The Pumpkin Tells, A Weird Happening, The Strange Three, Guess What I Am, The Halloween Dance, She’s Stuck on a Broomstick, Little Orphan Annie, Witch’s Stew, and Pass The Witch’s Broomstick. I plan on sharing some of these ahead in the coming weeks. You do not need an account with Megaupload to download it, but I will confess that it was an extremely confusing process for me.
I also received an email this week from my friend and fellow Kindermusik educator, Daneille Grimes of Norcross, with this little Halloween ditty from her childhood – sung to the theme from “In The Hall of the Mountain King” from the Peer Gynt Suite by Grieg:
On October thirty one, when the sun goes to rest.
It’s the night of Halloween when fun is at its best,
Black cats, ghosts, and princess fair,
Holding hands everywhere,
It’s the night of Halloween –
There’s magic in the air!
Witch’s shadow on the moon,
Casting spells, flying her broom,
It’s the night of Halloween –
Quick! Change to your costume!
For all you musicians out there, here’s the musical notation:
And for your listening pleasure, here’s an audio clip of the orchestral classic that provided the melody:
Enjoy! 🙂
[…] 2008 UPDATE: Complete lyrics are now available at this location on my blog: https://masterworks.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/musical-memories-of-halloween/ […]
Merrri,
Thank you so much for posting this! This song definitly brings back memories! I have been trying to find this for a few years now! I can’t believe I didn’t look on the internet in the past! Thank you for gathering what I had been looking for all in one place!
You’re quite welcome, Sarah. I’m glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
Great song… I remember singing this and parading around school back in 2nd grade, was thinking about it just the other day and figured I would look it up online… thanks for sharing it!
OMG! Thank you SOOOO MUCH! I too was looking for this for years and thanks to the powers of the Internet this year I was able to find it. I remember singing this all throughout elementary school in music class. Our music teacher ,Ms. May, would pull out this on “Record”(man Im old) every year and we were so excited to sing this entire album of music.
Do you by chance know the name of the Album or who the composers/writers were?
Ryan-
Hi all! I am in middle school, but remmeber singing this in 1st grade. Wow is it sentimental!
Ryan,
That *is* the original album cover pictured at the top of this post. It’s titled “Halloween: Games, Songs, and Stories” by Wade Denning & Kay Lande.
It was made by Golden Records (children’s books, publications, recordings, etc.) #LP-242 in 1969. Denning & Lande were known back in the ’60’s for some very creative works in children’s recordings. You can read more about them at this original link which is where I found the *original* recording of this song:
http://scarstuff.blogspot.com/2006/03/wade-denning-kay-lande-halloween-games.html
Enjoy!
I love this song! I’m in college and I was looking for this song to bring back the past! I wish I could find the anthology we used to use with all these songs in them!
THANK YOU!!!! I havebeen searching for this this tune for about 3 years now. I remember this tune back from like forth grade in the early 80’s. WOW!!
Hi! I have been looking for this song just like everyone else. I learned it in 4th grade and still spell Halloween by singing the song in my head. Recently my little cousin (9) asked me how to spell Halloween. After I told her about this song she wanted to know the entire song not just how to spell Halloween. So I had to get the lyrics of this song so that she too could learn how to spell H-A-double L-O-W-double E-N! THANK YOU MERRI!!
You’re quite welcome, Judy! Glad I could help provide a link to the next generation! 🙂
Merri,
I am trying to download the entire Halloween cd from the Megaupload website and I find it extremely confusing as well. Could you please tell me (if possible) how you got it to work? You can email me at laforges@sbcglobal.net
Thank you so much!!!
Mandy
Mandy, this is what I *think* I did that finally worked for me.
When you go to the Megaupload website, there is a three-letter code at the top that you enter into a small window beside it and then click “Download” which then takes you into a new window where you have the option of signing up and paying for a “Premium” account or waiting for about 45 seconds for the download to begin – which it *will* do after a while, after you’ve begun to wonder if it’s going to work or not.
While I *did* sign up for an account for Megaupload, I did *not* use it to actually download the files. Eventually, after waiting for about a minute, the download began. I imagine it also depends on the speed of your connection as well.
It did download as a WinRar .zip file which most PC’s are equipped to handle and unzipping. Good luck!
Thank you so much for posting this wonderful Halloween song!
OMG! I sing this song every Halloween, in fact I cannot even spell Halloween with out singing, “H-A-LL-O-W-EE-N spells Halloween.” Thank you so much for posting this, it takes me back to music class at Crockett Elementary…now I am 32 and still singing it…Cheers!!
Thank you so much! I learned this in 1st grade, and have been trying to remember the words for a couple of years. This week, because of finding it here, I have been able to teach it to my 1st grader, (and his 3 siblings). Thanks again!
My sister Destiny and I were wondering if you could help us. You have a song posted that is close to one that we were taught in school once. This is what we remember of it: On October 31st when the sun goes to rest, its the night of halloween, when fun is at its best. As we say farewell to gloom, Mrs. Witch rides her broom, every pumpkin… Thats all we can remember of this song. We want to share it with her son and our neice but we cant find it anywhere. We would appriciate any help you can give us.
Elaina, I tried this afternoon to find your song, but haven’t had any luck yet. Still have a few other sites to try, so don’t give up hope!
Thanks for stopping by!
Thank You, we havent given up yet, were still looking as well.
Thanks so much for posting this! I was in grade 3 or 4 myself when I heard this at school, and have always remembered since! I have the actual Danse Macabre song we play every halloween, but now that we have kids I really wanted the ‘real’ song from the old days.
Forever in your debt for the download link..nice work!
Thank you so much I sing the first line to myself every halloween. Now that I have a son I wanted to teach him the words but could not remember them. now I do thanks to you 🙂
I love this. We used to listen to this every halloween during lunch period.
Thank you!
I’ve been searching for this song for years! I had no idea what record it was from or what year it came out. Brings back memories of 4th grade. Thanks for posting it!
We sang this in Aurora, CO, at Tollgate Elementary School in about 1986. Thanks for posting it!
this was my favorite Halloween song from when I was in elementary school back in 1976. Like many we could not find it until now. i was amazed how many memories it brought back. thank you!
I am soooo glad you posted this! I have been searching since my oldest child was born – now 12! I had the album when I was a child, but have not been able to fine it, been searching the web for 5 years. I would still like to find the whole album to purchase.
I finally found this song on Itunes by just searching Danse Macabre.
Thanks for posting this! I remember singing it in music class every year as a child. Great memories!!
I remember this like it was yesterday. We had a class play in 1975 when I was in first grade and we sung this song. How wonderful to hear it again.
I learned the witches brew from Macbeth of the same albumn
“double double toil and trouble
fire burn and cauldron bubble”
Merri, you are amazing!
I can’t say anything that anyone has already said about failing to locate this classic, but I have been singing the one verse I could remember…I only heard this song in Kindergarten with Ms. McDunnah (sp)?in 1977 in Tenafly, NJ…. And I have heard it in my head every year ever since. We moved (back) to Baton Rouge in 1979 and noone here had ever heard it or knew what I was talking about. I actually teared up hearing this for the first time after so long…I can see the classroom in great detail all of a sudden! You’ve really made this stranger’s day!
What a wonderful place the net can be at times!
Thanks a Million for this, I’m so happy my girls (6 and 3) will have this for next year finally!!
Charles
PS – Davesworld56 link is dead, but megaupload site still working as of today!
I was able to retrieve the whole album just now.
CD
Yeah! I just bought this LP…yes, record album…on eBay. Been looking for it for years! I listened to this in the early seventies with my best friend Wendy. We were about 4-6 years old and played it relentlessly. The original album color is not the black and yellow one pictured above but a colorful version with the same graphics. I remember b/c I used to color on it as a kid. The album was indeed produced in 1969. Let me know if you want a picture of the original album cover and I will email it to you. Brings back sooooo many memories! I want my kids to love Halloween as much as I do because of this album.
Tanya
Denver, CO
I never thought I would hear this song again. Thank you for bringing back some incredible, wonderful memories!
Thanks for stopping by, Tanya! Wow, that’s great about finding the album! If you could send me a pic of the original album, I’d really appreciate it! I know your kids are going to love this as much as their mom!
Glad it brought back some great memories, Charles. I love hearing from folks how much they loved this album as I did and still do. 🙂
I am so glad I found this song on your sight i have been looking for yrs. I am 27 and the last time I heard it was in 5th grade. I sang this from k thru 5th grade every year. Its also how i remember to spell Halloween. Wanted to share it with my kids cause their school don’t use the song that I grew up to. Thank you so much.
Thanks so much for posting this! I am *40* and remember singing this in kindergarten and first grade. I wanted to teach it to my students but couldn’t remember the first part….They are going to love this!
rare piece of music..been looking for this
my wife loves this time of year so i’m trying to get into the spirit. BOO
Thank You so much! I too thought I would NEVER hear this song again! As soon as I started playing it my 2yr old caught on to it right away and we have now replayed it over 20 times! Everytime it ends she starts crying and says play it again!
THANK YOU!!
What everyone else said, amazing memories! Thank you!
I was just singing this song to my four year old son and could not remember all the words. I tried so many searches in the past and finally typed out the lyrics and boom there it was!! It brought me and my husband back to our grade school music class and now we get to enjoy it with our son!! Thanks for your efforts in keeping this traditional classic Halloween song alive!!!
Thank you so much for this!! I have been looking EVERYWHERE FOR this song….finally…Thank you so much!
I’m another thirtysomething who listened to this song as a child. It always comes to mind whenever I write or type the word. I’m amazed with how many others share this memory. Looking forward to sharing with my kids. Let it “haunt” another generation! Thanks for posting.
I remember a bit more of the lyrics set to Grieg:
On October thirty-one
When the sun
Goes to rest,
It’s the night of Halloween when fun is at its best.
As we say farewell to gloom,
Mrs. Witch
Rides her broom.
Every pumpkin ’round the place becomes a funny face!
Dressed in white the spirits howl,
Goblins prowl,
Here and there.
Off the shelves
Come tiny elves —
Better beware!
Pretty jack o’lanterns glow,
Everywhere
That you go.
It’s the night of Halloween
[something I can’t remember here]
Fun!
Fun!
On October thirty-one there’s fun for everyone!
Fun!
Fun!
On October thirty-one there’s fun for everyone!
I would dearly love to have a recording of this, or at least the complete lyrics. I found this artist/album information on another site:
“On October 31 (Halloween Song)” adapted from “In the Hall of the Mountain King” from “Peer Gynt Suite” by Grieg
Sung by Bob Hannon with Jerry Sears and His Orchestra
Copyright 1946 Albert Gamse
The person has a 78 RPM recording of this song on a record collection called:
Songs for Little Folks by Majestic Records
I want that album!
I’ve been looking for this song for years! The teacher played this in my First Grade class & this is how we learned how to spell Halloween! NOBODY knows what I was talking about when I’d try to tell them about this song! Thanks
Thanks Merri
I remember this song from elementary school in the early 70’s and it has stuck with me !! I even remember the album cover! Thanks for the memories!
Allison
Thank you so much for posting this song, I have been singing it to myself for years. I am in my 40s and have fond memories of singing this song in school and the anticipation of Halloween.
I remember singing this in 1st grade almost 30 years ago. To this day I cannot spell Halloween without acidentally saying H A double L O W double E N.
I’m so excited to find this! I’m another thirty something who grew up with this- I had this album as a kid and I love it. I think my mom still has the record, but it’s hard for me to digitize records and I was shocked to not find it on iTunes! I really, really appreciate that you took the time to do this and to provide it to everyone looking for it!
I HAVE this whole record collection. It’s from Bullock’s Los Angeles and it was originally sold to the original owner for $4.67. I bought it for a quarter at an estate sale in Scottsdale, AZ a couple of months ago! Tara, your lyrics are correct-I’ll have to listen again for the part you think you forget, but I think it’s just musical measures at that point with no lyrics and then he yells out FUN! does anyone know where I can find more information about the significance of my “find”?
This post was in response to:
Tara says:
October 28, 2010 at 7:23 pm
I remember a bit more of the lyrics set to Grieg:
On October thirty-one
When the sun
Goes to rest,
It’s the night of Halloween when fun is at its best.
As we say farewell to gloom,
Mrs. Witch
Rides her broom.
Every pumpkin ’round the place becomes a funny face!
Dressed in white the spirits howl,
Goblins prowl,
Here and there.
Off the shelves
Come tiny elves –
Better beware!
Pretty jack o’lanterns glow,
Everywhere
That you go.
It’s the night of Halloween
[something I can’t remember here]
Fun!
Fun!
On October thirty-one there’s fun for everyone!
Fun!
Fun!
On October thirty-one there’s fun for everyone!
I would dearly love to have a recording of this, or at least the complete lyrics. I found this artist/album information on another site:
“On October 31 (Halloween Song)” adapted from “In the Hall of the Mountain King” from “Peer Gynt Suite” by Grieg
Sung by Bob Hannon with Jerry Sears and His Orchestra
Copyright 1946 Albert Gamse
The person has a 78 RPM recording of this song on a record collection called:
Songs for Little Folks by Majestic Records
I want that album!
WOW! I have been thinking of this song every October for the last two and a half decades! I sang it as a child in elementary school. I was teaching her how to spell HALLOWEEN this week and, of course, taught her this part of the song. I couldn’t remember the rest so I thought I would search for it. THANK YOU! Had no idea it was written in 1969! WOW!
Happy Halloween!
Thank you for “ON October 31”. My family had the 78rpm recording and this was a favorite of mine as a little girl.
Here’s how we sang the part you didn’t remember and the end was slightly different. My memory could be wrong, but this is how we have always sung it (and my children now sing it, too).
On October thirty-one
When the sun
Goes to rest,
It’s the night of Halloween when fun is at its best.
As we say farewell to gloom,
Mrs. Witch
Rides her broom.
Every pumpkin ’round the place becomes a funny face!
Dressed in white the spirits howl,
Goblins prowl,
Here and there.
Off the shelves
Come tiny elves –
Better beware!
Pretty jack o’lanterns glow,
Everywhere
That you go.
There is fun for everyone October Thirty One
Fun!
Fun!
There is fun for everyone October Thirty One!
Wow! Thank you so much Mrs. Merri! Wow! I had this album when I was a child and never thought I ever hear it again! Thank you! Thank you!
Thank you so much! I sang this in the very early 80’s in elementary school. I’ve thought about it often& I am SO glad to have it. I have an 18 month old I can’t wait to share it with!
So glad to find this. I’m almost 40 and sang this to my 1st grader tonight and
he said he was singing this with his teacher, who sang it when she was a kid.
I was glad to play this for him and to hear it for myself again. 🙂
I cannot thank you enough for posting information about this album. It was a huge part of my family’s youth and our Halloween tradition. My Mom bought the album in 1970 because of the Lil Orphan Annie story she heard in her youth told by her Grandmother. The whole album of songs and stories became a Halloween tradition as my three younger sisters played it at least a million times. As we grew older, we made fun of it until we all had kids and realized the tradition we were missing. Mom lost the record in a move, so we would try and remember all the words to the stories and songs for our kids. My Mom (now Grammy) would laugh as each child remembered the melody but only some of the words for her grandchildren. In addition, there was a Christmas album we finally tracked down on the Internet, which also was a childhood tradition. Grammy was delighted as she was able to share this happiness with all her family.
Mom passed away last May, after a second battle with breast cancer. She made every holiday special with small things like these albums. I found your link today, searching for the album on a whim then downloaded the songs and immediately sent them to my three sisters. We were all teary eyed listening to childhood Halloween music and remembering the many gifts and much love Mom gave each of us and our children. Thank you for bringing such happiness and memories to four children and 12 grandchildren. We all promised to pass along the music to OUR grandchildren to keep the fire lit…
God Bless…
I think there are as many variations to ‘October 31’ as there are kids who remember it from school -mine was more than 50 years ago! with just a few variations, TARA’S version is what I remember. Instead of ‘dressed in white the spirits howl’ I learned ‘it’s the night when spirits howl’. Instead of ‘pretty jack o’lanterns glow’, I learned ‘spooky jack o’lanterns glow’, and after ‘it’s the night of Halloween’, came ‘watch out for a scare’ (to rhyme with the ‘better beware’ line). there was also something somewhere about Autumn leaves blowing, but I can’t figure out where it went, unless there was another whole verse I can’t come up with.
Well, it looks like every fall more & more people will come to find your page when they type in their search bar (& say in their heads…) “H – A double L – O – W- double E – N” (“spells Halloween!”) …and then struggles to remember the rest of the song that their teacher taught then so long ago! That’s me!! THANK YOU for posting this! I also had no idea this song had been around for so long, or even that there was a record to accompany it! I never heard the record, our teacher just taught us to sing it. That was great to hear!! Thanks again!
Reblogged this on MechanisticMoth and commented:
GUYS, I’ve been singing this to myself for years!
I grew up with an album set of 78’s — it contained the “On October 31” song and one called “At the zoo, the great big zoo”. I’m hoping the leads to the Jerry Sears Orchestra pan out — the later half of the 40’s would be right. Any help is more than welcome, to hear that album, or own it, would be wonderful. Please keep me in the loop.
Reblogged this on jkshay.com and commented:
My favorite holiday is the fourth of July, followed closely by Halloween. My patents had a record in their collection with this song. This brings back some memories.