The 10 most surprising songs you never knew were Halloween number ones

You’ve heard of Christmas number one – now get ready for Halloween (Picture: Shutterstock/Getty Images)

Halloween is the ultimate time to get your spook on. Freaky costumes everywhere, ghost stories, witches and trolls – it’s what the festival is for.

And over the years, the pop world has welcomed Halloween with open arms, with some of the biggest names in music writing horror classics for October 31.

Michael Jackon’s Thriller, Rockwell’s Somebody’s Watching Me, and Bobby Pickett’s Monster Mash are just three spooky season stalwarts brought out every year.

But what of the pop charts each year on Halloween? Every Christmas, seasonal classics return to the very top as people tune into their festive favourites.

Is Halloween the same? Does Thriller come back to the UK top 10 every year, or do people try to put All Hallows Eve to the back of their mind when buying music in October?

Here are 10 songs you wouldn’t believe people were buying as the nights turned darker, pumpkin jack-o’-lanterns were carved up, and trick or treaters roamed the streets.

Sugar Sugar – The Archies (1969)

In 1969, long before the likes of Gorillaz and Hatsune Miku, The Archies were the world’s first-ever animated band to make an assault on the pop charts.

Taken from The Archie Show and Archie Comics, the fictional American four-piece released four albums in two years and were one of the biggest acts in US pop in the late 1960s.

Sugar Sugar was their worldwide smash, reaching number one in the US and topping the charts for eight whole weeks in the UK, making it the Halloween chart-topper for 1969.

A summery bubblegum hit, the song has become known for its adorable vocals and light-hearted tune – hardly the scariest thing in the world, is it?

David Bowie’s Space Oddity was in the top 10 at the time, despite being temporarily banned by the BBC for its dark lyrical content – perhaps that would have been a more appropriate Halloween number one.

The biggest Halloween favourite from the 1960s is, without doubt, Monster Mash by Bobby Pickett. But despite being a huge US hit in 1962, the song wasn’t released in the UK until August 1973.

Summer Nights – John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John (1978)

John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John were number one for 16 weeks in 1978 (Picture: CBS/Getty)

Another surprise Halloween number one came during the autumn of 1978, when Grease reigned supreme at the box office and the Grease soundtrack dominated the charts.

The John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John musical topped the box office for weeks and the soundtrack album sat atop the UK charts for three months.

After You’re the One That I Want had been at number one for nine weeks in July and August, Summer Nights managed seven weeks between September and November.

Meaning that a song about teenage summer romances was the most popular hit over the Halloween period in 1978, providing another shock number one for the spooky season.

In the top 10 during Halloween week was Donna Summer’s cover of Richard Harris’ MacArthur Park – perhaps the image of melting cake would have been more suitable atop the charts on October 31.

Karma Chameleon – Culture Club (1981)

Alongside Cheryl, Culture Club are the act with the joint-most Halloween number ones, with two. But a year before Do You Really Want to Hurt Me, Halloween 1981 was the time of the Karma Chameleon.

The song came and went from the top of the charts, jumping to number one in late September before staying at number one for six whole weeks.

Despite being a classic on the UK charts, Karma Chameleon is hardly the first song you think of when it comes to Halloween – clearly the UK public weren’t in the mood for sinister songs in October 1981.

Duran Duran’s Union of the Snake was on a climb up the charts at the time, and would eventually reach number three, but clearly we were in the mood for chameleons over snakes 43 years ago.

Two years later, Michael Jackson’s Thriller would eventually be released as the last single from his album of the same name, only reaching number 10 in the UK in November 1983.

End of the Road – Boyz II Men (1992)

Boyz II Men’s End of the Road is one of the few songs in this list to go to number one on October 31 itself, but is another unexpected Halloween chart topper.

Their first big hit in the UK, End of the Road came during a wave of hype that had followed the group over from America, having already notched two major hits in the States.

A slow ballad about an emotional break-up, End of the Road is hardly what you’d expect to have topped the Halloween charts back in the early 1990s.

The song was featured on the soundtrack to the 1992 film Boomerang, but ended up being so successful that it was eventually added to a deluxe version of Boyz II Men’s debut album.

It remained at number one for three weeks here in the UK, and didn’t really receive much of a challenge from any eerie pop hits at the time either.

Barbie Girl – Aqua (1997)

Aqua’s Barbie Girl is a stone cold classic. Don’t even try to deny it. But with that said, it is perhaps the least appropriate Halloween number one of all time.

Life in plastic is fantastic but nothing about this song screams Halloween to us – unless it’s supposed to be about a surreal nightmare where every woman turns into a doll.

And despite Halloween trick or treating becoming a much more popular pastime on October 31st through the 1980s and 1990s, Barbie Girl didn’t face much spooky competition in the top 10 either.

Making up the rest of the top 10 were the likes of Natalie Imbruglia’s Torn, the Backstreet Boys’ As Long As You Love Me, and Barbra Streisand singing Tell Him with Celine Dion.

Believe – Cher (1998)

Cher was number one for seven weeks around Halloween in 1998 (Picture: Dave Benett/Getty)

Another song on the list that went to number one on Halloween, Cher’s iconic dancefloor classic Believe is yet another surprise spooky season number one.

Because while the heavy and extensive use of autotune on the song might have given listeners a glimpse into a sci-fi future, there’s very little hear to scare you.

Bidding for a third Halloween number one, Culture Club got close with I Just Wanna Be Loved, but they wouldn’t stop Believe from achieving seven weeks atop the charts.

Things were a little different in cinemas, however, with 1973 classic horror film The Exorcist going back to the top of the UK box office 25 years after its original release.

However, the genre-defining supernatural horror of William Freidkin wasn’t enough to inspire a re-release of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells after its use in the film.

Dilemma – Nelly & Kelly Rowland (2002)

The scariest thing about Dilemma by Nelly & Kelly Rowland is the frightening shot from the iconic music video when Kelly tries to send a text via Microsoft Excel.

Otherwise, this is totally typical of the scene and era it came from – so typical, in fact, that it was undoubtedly the biggest R&B hit at the time 22 years ago.

However, the song (and video) plays on a budding romance between Nelly and Kelly, and has inspired great Halloween couples costumes in the years since.

Again, there was no real challenge to Nelly and Kelly from other acts, who had largely stopped targeting Halloween for spooky number ones.

With that said, UK cinemas were where things were getting scary, with Danny Boyle’s classic zombie film 28 Days Later topping the British box office for two weeks at this time.

Bleeding Love – Leona Lewis (2007)

Finally, some blood! Only it’s Leona Lewis’ love that’s bleeding on this occasion. Sadly the lyrics contain no allusions to Dracula, or any other vampires for that matter.

The X Factor winner had already topped the charts over Christmas 2006 after winning the talent competition, before waiting 10 months to come back.

With a little help from OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder and actor-singer Jesse McCartney, who both co-wrote the song, Leona topped the charts in both the UK and the US.

While no Halloween songs made it into the chart while Leona sat at the top, the music video for Freemasons remix of Alanis Morissette’s Uninvited played out like a short horror film and helped push it into the top 10 around Halloween.

Elsewhere, Phil Collins’ sinister-sounding hit In the Air Tonight had crept back into the top 20 – a whole 26 years on from its original chart run – but only because of its use on the famous Cadbury’s gorilla drummer advert.

All About That Bass – Meghan Trainor (2014)

One of the biggest hits of the entire 2010s went to number one in the UK for Halloween 2014 – Meghan Trainor’s All About That Bass.

The body positivity anthem might have got on everyone’s nerves eventually but in October 2014 we couldn’t get enough of it, sending it to number one in mid-October.

It stayed at number one for four weeks, beating competition from the likes of George Ezra, Years and Years, Nicki Minaj, Taylor Swift, One Direction, and Calvin Harris to be top of the charts on Halloween.

Around this time, rules about how songs charted changed, meaning that old songs could get back in the top 100 if enough people listened to them on streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube.

In 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2015, Monster Mash by Bobby Pickett made its way back into the top 100, while Thriller had enjoyed renewed chart success in the 2010s following Michael Jackson’s death in 2009.

Taste – Sabrina Carpenter (2024)

Where better to end this countdown than with the current UK number one – Taste by Sabrina Carpenter, who has had one almighty year so far in 2024.

Taste is her third number one of the year and, at the time of writing, has been number one for nine consecutive weeks.

In addition to the seven weeks at number one for Espresso and the five weeks at number one for Please Please Please, Taste’s run at the top made Sabrina the first artist in 71 years to spend more than 20 weeks at number one in a single year.

The last time that happened was 1953, when Frankie Laine’s I Believe, Hey Joe!, and Answer Me Lord Above all got to number one for the American baritone legend.

While the song isn’t particularly scary, the music video is very much appropriate for this tie of year – it heavily features knives, guns, voodoo dolls, gore, shower scene stabbings, and graphic violence.

And it also stars the Gen Z scream queen herself, Jenna Ortega.

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