The Songs That Scare

By NPR Staff

Published October 28, 2011 at 12:44 PM EDT

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<p>Clockwise from top: Sufjan Stevens, Iron Maiden's "Eddie" mascot, <em>Psycho</em>'s Bates Motel, Tom Waits.</p> — Clockwise from top: Sufjan Stevens, Iron Maiden's "Eddie" mascot, *Psycho*'s Bates Motel, Tom Waits.

If you're going out this weekend, there's a good chance you'll hear "Monster Mash," Purple People Eater" or the Addams Family theme at some point — and you won't be scared at all. On this edition of All Songs Considered, Bob Boilen and Jacob Ganz, editor of NPR's music news blog The Record, put those Halloween staples aside to focus on the music they and our listeners find truly, deeply terrifying.

Included are suburban horror stories from Tom Waits, Liars and Hayden, fantastical tales from Iron Maiden and The Decemberists, Bernard Herrmann's legendary score for a fictional killer and Sufjan Stevens' creepily empathetic ode to a real one.