31 Days of "Spooky" Music Day 31: Grim, Grinning Ghosts

      Well, here we are. It is Halloween and we are at the end of my 31 spooky songs that you should have on your Halloween playlist. While I have said earlier in this series that this is not a ranked list, today is the exception being easily my number one song (I have at least 10 versions of this song on my playlist). It is the only theme park ride song that I know by heart, it is the one, the only Disney's The Haunted Mansion's "Grim, Grinning Ghosts".

     With music and lyrics by Disney legends Buddy Baker and Xavier "X" Atencio, "Grim, Grinning Ghosts" is just a fantastic and versatile piece of music. Heard in one form or another in every part of the mansion (well, almost all. There is not music in the Stretching Room) from the slow, somber tones you hear when first entering the foyer and hearing the Ghost Host welcome you foolish mortals into The Haunted Mansion to morose chiming bells in the hallway leading to where you board your Doom Buggy. From the festively creepy, slightly off-key waltz in the ballroom to the fully voiced, ghoulishly joyous party version of it playing as you make your way through the graveyard after falling/jumping/being thrown out of the attic window. I love every version of it, and every image of the ride that just hearing it brings to mind.

       This song is actually the only thing I didn't like about "Muppets Haunted Mansion", and it's not that they did a bad version of it, or that it did not make an appearance in the special, but that they did not do a full Muppets cover of it, instead opting to cover "Dancing in the Moonlight" for some reason at the end instead. I mean: what the Hell, Disney?

     I think for most people, the song brings to mind the graveyard's Singing Busts when they think of the song, and that may be partly because they sing it in the clearest, least accented (to a Californian anway) version, and also because Disney has used this version on official soundtrack releases before:

     You know, the thing is not just the vocals in that particular version of the song, and this is meant to be a list about the music more than the visuals, but just look at how much life the performers gave object that have no actual movement to them. Really stop and appreciate the facial acting going on here; the exaggerated expressions that really make them so memorable.

     Of course there is no better way to really appreciate the various versions of the song in the ride than to listen to all of them. We may not be able to go on the ride, but there is this fantastic soundtrack to the whole ride from the foyer to the exit crypt:

     We have this silly version from an old Disney Sing-A-Long VHS. I will be honest: this is not one of my favourites, but it is still worth watching once.

     Then we have cover versions of the song. I have stated earlier in this list that the soundtrack is the only real redeeming feature of the 2003 "The Haunted Mansion" film, and one of the highlights of this is this Barenaked Ladies cover of the song:

     There are of course other covers as well, like this one from The Friendly Indians.

     Possibly interesting facts: this is the same group that performed the theme song for the USA series "Psych", and the lead singer, Steve Franks, is the creator of that show (I wonder how they got to do the theme....).

     Another call back to earlier in this list is an appearance here by The Pyronauts with their cover called "The Ghastly Stomp". It was hearing them play this song that made me originally buy a couple of their CDs.

Which I realize may itself just be a cover of the same song by a group called The Ghastly Ones, but I still like it:

       Naturally any song so iconic is going to have some pretty interesting remixes as well if you want versions you can really dance to:

     This one is a recent discovery for me, but I really like this one, and appreciate the amount of work that went into making it:

     And that's gonna wrap this series up. Those were 31 pieces of music that I think at least deserve a shot at being on your Halloween playlist.

     I hope you found this series interesting or entertaining, and I wish you a Happy Halloween!