What’s more Halloween-y than getting your witch on? Thankfully, there are plenty of spellbinding songs out there to inspire you to dig out that old broomstick for some Halloween hijinks this year.

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I Put a Spell on You - Nina Simone

This Screamin’ Jay Hawkins number from 1956 was re-recorded rather splendidly by Nina Simone, but it was made a Halloween classic by the 1993 movie Hocus Pocus starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy. Since then, it’s one of the most iconic witchy tracks of all time.

Spellbound - Siouxsie And The Banshees

Plenty of Siouxsie and the Banshees’ back catalogue is Halloween-appropriate, but Spellbound from 1981’s Juju is one of their most memorable. The lyrics are chilling to the bone and perfect for a Halloween playlist.

Burn the Witch - Radiohead

Taken from their last album release, 2016’s A Moon Shaped Pool, this track is a slow-burning orchestral pop track which shifts from the delicately melancholy to the hair-raisingly sinister. It’s what Radiohead are best at, and it even comes alongside a stop-motion animated video that pays homage to 1960s Trumptonshire series and 1973’s The Wicker Man.

Hunting for Witches - Bloc Party

Bloc Party is pure British 2000s nostalgia and this track is such a perfect post-punk revivalist number. The song is actually about terrorist attacks rather than witches, but there’s a distinct parallel between the two subjects.

Black Magic Woman - Fleetwood Mac

Arguably a more famous version of the track was recorded by Santana in 1970, but there’ll always be a special place in our hearts for the original. Black Magic Woman is an infectious blues number that can be found on the Fleetwood Mac compilations English Rose, The Pious Bird of Good Omen, Greatest Hits and Vintage Years.

Teenage Witch - Suzi Wu

Taken from her EP of the same name, Teenage Witch by Suzi Wu makes tongue-in-cheek references to teen witchery. She wrote the track after being inspired by Terry Pratchett’s Wee Free Men series and Simon Hanslemann’s Megahex comics. 

The Witch - The Cult

In their post-punk days, The Cult dropped this gem of a track as part of the soundtrack to 1992’s Cool World; a cult black comedy movie (pardon the pun) of a live-action/animation blend about a man who gets caught up in a comic book world he believes he’s created.