If you’re tired of playing those spooky classics like “Monster Mash” and the “Ghostbusters” theme on loop, here’s the best Halloween song you’ve never heard – and it’s by Hollywood royalty.
Finding success with a holiday-specific song is exceedingly rare these days. Novelty songs like “Monster Mash” may have found their lane in the ’60s and ’70s. But in 2025? Yeah, that whole highway has pretty much been shut down.
The good news, though, is there’s no need to hope and pray for a new Halloween banger when there’s already one that’s locked and loaded and ready for your eardrums.
Hang on a second… that Ryan Gosling?
Yes, the same guy with three Oscar nods is also a pretty talented musician, often performing under the pseudonym “Baby Goose.”
You might remember his piano chops from “La La Land.” He actually learned to play for the movie… kinda. You’d be hard pressed to find any former Mouseketeer who hasn’t tickled the ivories at least a little. But when the movie was in pre-production, he was still wholly unqualified to play a jazz aficionado.
Most actors would have just used stand-in hands for the piano parts, but he made it happen on his own – with some help from a piano teacher. She worked with him for several months ahead of shooting, calling him a “very musical guy.”
But before he was pretending to be an accomplished jazz pianist or singing “I’m Just Ken” in “Barbie,” he’d already tested out his chops on a full album of Halloween-centric material.
Dead Man’s Bones
Ryan and Hollywood producer Zach Shields had bonded in the mid-2000s over their shared love of all things spooky, including Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion ride. So in 2009, they formed a band together called Dead Man’s Bones that would go on to release a grand total of one album.
The eponymous album “Dead Man’s Bones” came out just in time for Halloween on October 6, 2009, and featured a chorus of singers from the Silverlake Conservatory of Music Children’s Choir. Ryan and Zach also toured, looping in a different kids’ choir in each city they visited. (They found the chorus of children’s voices creepy, because… yeah.)
(One of those touring members was actress/singer Dove Cameron, who was just 13 when Dead Man’s Bones cruised through Seattle and gave her her first paying gig. She talked about the project in an episode of “Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard,” calling Ryan incredibly talented and a guy who “can do f*cking everything.”)
“My Body’s a Zombie for You”
The full Dead Man’s Bones album is worth a listen. But if you only give one song a chance, make it Track #5, “My Body’s a Zombie for You.”
It’s 60’s doo-wop meets haunted prom-night rock – like if Tim Burton lived in Motown. Add it to your Halloween playlist and wait for your friends to ask, “Who is this?”
They’ll be just as shocked as you were.
