What's the creepiest song you've ever heard?

Great slide guitar, though

"People are Strange" by The Doors always had an eerie vibe. (Especially in the movie, "The Lost Boys,")

Possum Kingdom by the Toadies. Tyler, by them too. They specialized in misogynistic creeper songs.

Best Pies in London.

This.

Me and Little Andy by Dolly P

"Every Breath You Take" by the Police

Creepy stalker's song

My brother once pointed out that "Windy" by The Association sounds like it's about a girl who is either retarded or autistic, and since he told me that the song now seems really creepy to me.

Rosemary's Baby theme is creepy as well as the Halloween one.

One of these days I'm gonna cut you into little pieces.

"Boadicea" by Enya was used to chilling effect in [italic]Criminal Minds.[/italic]

People are strange is indeed a very good one, especially as the poster said in the movie Lost Boys. The Gregorian chants from that is also quite creepy.

But The Hearse Song is certainly one of the most macabre songs I've ever heard, one I've known since I was a kid.

He Hit Me (And it Felt Like a Kiss) The Crystals

The Worms Crawl In the Worms Crawl Out

Icky

In Every Dream Home A Heartache by Roxy Music. It was used in the show Mindhunter.

Little Bitty Pretty One. It was in all kinds of movie trailers and it's so chirpy and sweet until you realize it's about some guy horny for a kid and waiting for her fo gef slightly older.

Black Flag, Rat's Eyes

THIS! Hands down.

The Kars4Kids jingle?

Sally Go Round the Roses

Is it about a failed lesbian affair? The Black Plague? Both?

That classical Halloween song played directly on the strings of the piano. Can't figure out what it's called, though. VERY spooky.

Tiptoe through the Tulips, by Tiny Tim. Especially after they used the song in the Insidious flick.

Siouxsie & Banshees' Voodoo Dolly

any pop love song...

they're all suited for thriller and horror films.

obsessive love.

Pierrot Lunare

I'm sure for Armie Hammer is a romantic love song.

Girl by Beck

Anything Mariah Carey sings, that screeching hag creeps me the fuck out.

I found the upbeat melody and rhythm of Blue Oyster Cult's Don't Fear The Reaper creepy as a kid. Like luring you in a dark alley with candy.

Run Joey Run

Revolution 9

Swamp Witch

Creep by Radiohead

Very disturbing thinking of some guy singing this to a girl he's obsessing on. Serial killer vibes.

Timothy by the Buoys

Love is Blue was used in an episode of Millennium, A Room With No View guest staring Christopher Masterson. The episode was about a women kidnapping high school boys. I don’t remember all the details, but the episode creeped me out, as well as the song.

This 👇

Another vore for Rosemary's baby.

Also, not necessarily creepy out of context but in context...the hippy folksy sunshine and happiness song they play on the intro of Cannibal Holocaust...considering its obe of the most violent, repulsive and depressing films in existence

Closer - J.J. Vale

I guess it's supposed to be a sexy song, but to my ears it's just gross, especially with the vocal style and the mouth noises he makes in the chorus.

Hurdy Gurdy Man - Donovan

Sycamore Trees - Jimmy Scott

Jackie Blue by Ozark Mountain Daredevils

ODE TO BILLY JOE by Bobbie Gentry. Alway creeps me out.

It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day I was out choppin' cotton, and my brother was balin' hay And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat And mama hollered out the back door, y'all, remember to wipe your feet And then she said, I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge Today, Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge And papa said to mama, as he passed around the blackeyed peas Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense; pass the biscuits, please There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow And mama said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge And now Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge And brother said he recollected when he, and Tom, and Billie Joe Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night? I'll have another piece-a apple pie; you know, it don't seem right I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge And now ya tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge And mama said to me, child, what's happened to your appetite? I've been cookin' all morning, and you haven't touched a single bite That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge A year has come and gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe And brother married Becky Thompson; they bought a store in Tupelo There was a virus going 'round; papa caught it, and he died last spring And now mama doesn't seem to want to do much of anything And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge

Any of that music that played on the record player in The Strangers.

It's my favorite from the album, but the first time I heard it as a child, "The Great Gig In The Sky" really fucked with me.

D.O.A. by Bloodrock

You take my breath away by Queen. It's so eerie and melancholic. The music and the lyrics. Like a song that would play after an obsessed lover kills you in passion. The final "I love you" phrase always leaves me so unsettled.

R42 - THIS Hurdy-Gurdy Man:

This one, just listen.

Basically anything that Jarboe (formerly of Swans) has ever released

Alice Cooper played a song on his radio show. It was written from the perspective of someone dying in an airplane crash. I've search for the song for over half an hour and can't find the title. Does anyone remember it?

Gah, R38. I hate that damn movie and that damn song!

Du Hast by Rammstein has always given me chills.

54 posting and no Angie Baby yet? Where’s the body Angie, where that creepy boy who looked into your windows Angie??? What did you do with him?

This

You're So vain

r45

r53, meet r48

Helter Skelter - The Beatles.

There's a few, one of them being Crawler by Holly Herndon. It's truly an unsettling experience.

And another one is The Host of Seraphim by Dead Can Dance. It always had a very ancient, alien, end of the world vibe to me.

"Love Is a Stranger" - Eurythmics

I was a kid when I first saw this video, and it gave me the creeps. But now, I think it's a great song.

Tommy Seebach’s Apache

'Nuff said

Sally Go Round the Roses

"Lullaby" by The Cure.

"The Bay" - PJ Harvey

Revolution 9

Because of an ER episode it was in. Scared the hell out of me.

This song used to scare the shit out of me as a kid. I remember my father would play this when I was a kid and we’d drive around at night to get something from the corner store and being so scared someone was going to kill us in a drive by or something.

The piano and echos are scary.

This song is rather unsettling and could never be recorded today.

"Tonight You Belong to Me" by Prudence and Patience

"Devil Devil Go Away" -- Little Marcy

"One Hundred Years" - The Cure

Host of the Seraphim used in the film "The Mist"

Another one by the Doors. Riders on the Storm. Part of the song refers to an actual serial killer’s murder of a family who picked him up hitch hiking.

There's a killer on the road His brain is squirmin' like a toad Take a long holiday Let your children play If you give this man a ride Sweet family will die Killer on the road, yeah

Little Marcy was creepy as fuck

Incense and Peppermints - Strawberry Alarm Clock

“Jungle Jezebel” by Divine

See Emily Play - Pink Floyd (1967)

Written by Syd Barrett shortly before he went completely mad from using LSD.

R55 I almost posted Angie Baby - there was a weird trend in the 70s to write songs about the mentally ill. My contribution was Jackie Blue, which is just as eerie as Angie Baby.

R12/ R14 Thank, I LOVE this! Gone to grab all his stuff on Deezer for some great workout playlists

This track is pretty creepy - "Just a Crush" by the Pine Box Boys, if you like creepy tunes you'll love these guys, extremely dark

"I Drove Her Out Of My Mind" by Johnny Cash is pretty amazing too

The 90's were great for creepy grungy emo vibes like the songs referenced above: Possum Kingdom, Creep, any Nine Inch Nails song, and this one, "Change (In the House of Flies)".

In the Air Tonight has always creeped me out.

One of my favourites is 1993’s “Geraldine” by Gallon Drunk. It’s sung in a creepy whisper/shout - he’s asking if somg’s subject will be thinking of him as everything is ending and the earth is disintegrating into fire and blood.

^SONG, obviously!

"She's In Parties" - Bauhaus

El Condor Pasa used to creep me the fuck out when I was a kid but I kind of like it now, but I still find it a bit creepy and sad if I'm in the wrong mood to listen to it.

Hollywood 7 was a hit in Australia for a guy called Jon English. Its about a woman who leaves Omaha for Hollywood looking for fame. She moves into a cheap hotel until she makes it big. When she fails to get any acting work she resorts to prostitution to pay the rent and is murdered by a John. It's a good song but definitely creepy.

It’s interesting that threads like these (creepy this, favorite that, etc) generate zero discussion. No one comments on anyone else’s posts. It’s about as fulfilling as walking into a crowded room where everyone is buried in into their phones, oblivious to anyone else.

Jump in My Car by The Ted Mulry Gang.

Very 1970s.

Only Sixteen by Dr. Hook

I miss the 1970s!

R97 A great film could be made based on that song.

R98 Be the change you want to see.

I used to think R96 was creepy but now I can't hear it without visualizing the projectile vomiting of blood.

"He ate the chip."

Didn’t Simon and Garfunkel steal that song from some indigenous group in the Andes and give them no compensation?

Yes, there was a lawsuit for copyright infringement according to wikipedia, r104.

The song almost has a Goodbar feel to it in ways, r101.

lol, what's the reference r103?

R105, it's a new vampire learning the hard way that food is off limits.

Oh, thanks, r106.

R22 Is this the one?

[quote] It’s interesting that threads like these (creepy this, favorite that, etc) generate zero discussion. No one comments on anyone else’s posts. It’s about as fulfilling as walking into a crowded room where everyone is buried in into their phones, oblivious to anyone else.

And yet all the while here YOU are, discussing other people's posts so intelligently and consistently!

The first time I heard this, I thought it would be the perfect background song for any serial killer or vampire movie. The lyrics are basic, but the music and the way it's sung give it that creepy edge.

R109 why, thank you! I feel seen.

Color me shocked when I bought Connie Francis’s “Cocktail Connie” album & first hear the Tom Jones classic “Delilah,” thinking it’s about Samson’s chick, only to find it’s about a jealous guy who kills his girlfriend! Connie, how could you?

Another vote here for Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man". I heard it for the first time in association with the movie Zodiac, so that is probably what initially made it so creepy for me, but even just listening to it now, trying not to think of that, there is still something unsettling about that song.

Context helps when songs scare you or not too. The first time I ever heard Joanna Newsom, my mate and I burst out laughing at her voice. But used in The Strangers, it was quite creepy.

I once heard a really creepy cover of "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child", but honestly it was probably primarily due to it being used on a really odd video. Similarly, out there somewhere is a really creepy version of "Gloomy Sunday" that I once heard as background to a video.

Some artists are able to use words to give a slightly unsettling feeling, even if the song is not scary at all. "Wuthering Heights" isn't scary, but the line: "I'm so cold, let me in your window" is creepy if you think about it.

[quote] Hurdy Gurdy Man - Donovan

I was going to nominate Donovan's Season of the Witch, but you're right, Hurdy Gurdy Man is creepier.

Roxy Music - Love is the Drug

This 1969 version of “Hurdy Gurdy Man” is also very creepy. It’s a cover by a late 60s group that experimented with microtonal music and jazz.

There was a fun thread about this song a while back and while Into The Night is somewhat creepy, the video is super duper creepy.

The comments under the youtube video for it are comedy gold, r117.

I used to do acid in my youth and two songs creeped me out so much that I can barely listen to them to this day.

Here's the first one. The lyrics in this give me nightmares. To this very day the lyrics, "In the fields, the bodies burning As the war machine keeps turning," and "Day of judgement, God is calling ,On their knees, the war pigs crawling, Begging mercy for their sins, Satan laughing, spreads his wings," gives me the fucking chills.

One night it came on while I was at a friend's place and I made him skip the song. Maybe the song is so creepy because it's too damn close to the truth?? Plus, whatever is going on with the drums and the bass at the beginning are kind of scary.

Debbie Reynolds - If I Had a Hammer

The other song that creeps me out is this one. It caused me to have a very bad trip and I get a creepy feeling listening to it. Bad vibes from this one, real bad vibes. War Pigs is scary in its lyrics, this one isn't, but it creeps me out nearly as much.

Down by the river I shot my baby dead.

Gotta love that Neil Young!

OMG, this song is creepy too.

"Some Velvet Morning" used to be played on Coast to Coast I think, so it makes me think of that kind of spookery.

As a kid, it was a toss-up between Angie Baby and Year of the Cat.

Ugh. Al Stewart.

I hadn’t heard this song until I was in my fifties.

I couldn’t believe the Everly Brothers would record such a song. The fucking EVERLY Brothers.

Their ‘sound’ certainly adds to the creepiness of it.

This song is creepy, hilarious, bizarre.... Take your pick. It really gets good at 3:05. An adult actually did this.

This one's kind of creepy.

R126 That’s the song a sings to the baby in Raising Arizona!!!

The fall of western civilization is inevitable. Exhibit A.

Big Black - Jordan, Minnesota

Has no one mentioned Cher’s Dark Lady? Singing and dancing, lit the candles one by one?

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, featuring Kylie Minogue - Where the Wild Roses Grow

From one of the creepiest movie scenes in Silence of the Lambs, Goodbye Horses.

[quote]Another vote here for Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man". I heard it for the first time in association with the movie Zodiac, so that is probably what initially made it so creepy for me, but even just listening to it now, trying not to think of that, there is still something unsettling about that song.

I too thought of 'Zodiac,' but the one from that soundtrack that impressed me even more than 'Hurdy Gurdy Man' was 'Bang Bang' by Vanilla Fudge.

One that has always creeped me out is Grand Funk Railroad's 'I'm Your Captain/Closer to Home.' It's always reminded me of ocean-bound horror, like the 1974 double murder of Mac & Muff Graham at Palmyra Island (cf. 'And the Sea Will Tell' by Bugliosi and Henderson), or the terror I felt at the end of 'Jaws' 1975, when the two survivors paddled home, clinging to a piece of wreckage. I wasn't ever secure in the knowledge that the shark was dead; it was the ocean, man. I dread the ocean.

Most hair metal songs.

I'm shocked at how few there are on this list.

[quote]like the 1974 double murder of Mac & Muff Graham at Palmyra Island (cf. 'And the Sea Will Tell' by Bugliosi and Henderson)

Snap, R137, I literally just wrote about this case on the Galapagos thread last night. Funny how when you hear about something in one place it comes up again and again.

[quote] Another vote here for Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man"

The best use of a Donovan song in soundtrack is still to watch DeNiro and Pesci kick the shit out somebody to the ethereal tones of Atlantis.

Timothy by The Buoys.

Just have to mention this oldie again. When I was only a 10 y.o. I knew what the lyrics meant.

Creepy singing. Creepy lyrics.

Stalking? Check

Knife play? Check

Murder? Check

Tom Jones? Check

The silicone chip inside her head, got switched to overload. And nobodies going to go to school today, she’s going to make them stay at home. And daddy doesn’t understand it, he always said she as good as gold. And he can see no reason, for there is no reason, what reason do you need to be told? Tell me why? I don’t like Mondays. Tell me why? I don’t like Mondays. Tell me why? I don’t like Mondays. I’m going shoot, the whole day down.

They outdid themselves after R145 =

I like this now but it creeped me out as a kid.

Especially the spoken word part at the end, which always made me think of a satanic incantation from a 1970s horror movie.

The hidden ending of ‘Two Tabs of Mescal!ne’ by experimental posthardcore Glassjaw (from the stunning album WORSHIP & TRIBUTE) always freaks me out, because I forget it’s there waiting to pounce.

Like whenever I’m just vibing and enjoying the track, lettinf it play out, waiting for the next track on the record...suddenly there’s that spooky nightmare-inducing jumpscare scream & static. Every time it gets me again. I love Daryl Palumbo but honestly fuck him for that.

I love this one. It was playing constantly in my middle school cafeteria in 1968. Takes me right back to hear it all these years later.

I'm with r131, Charlene: Never Been To Me

What kind of messed up mind would write that shit, let alone release it?

Chicago - Wishing You Were Here

The Flamingo’s version of “I Only Have Eyes For You.”

The End by The Doors.

^^^Link:

"Captain Howdy" gave me the creeps

Not a "song" but the theme to an old TV show. Perry Mason. it still scares and creeps me out

Many cuts from A Perfect Circle but especially ‘Pet’, written from a gaslighting abusive and too-possessive Dominant POV.