Hey it's Dustin, and it's time for a special Halloween edition of DWMS. For this scary night, I'll be analyzing "Spooky Scary Skeletons," a sleeper hit turned meme by Andrew Gold.
Unlike most memes, I heard the song before it became one, when my fourth grade teacher played the entire album for the class during our Halloween party in 2005. To be honest, I had forgotten all about the song until it was made famous due to its association with another meme, Mr. Bones' Wild Ride. While I won't go into the details of that phenomenon here as this is DWMS and not Social Media Slipups, I will be going into the song itself.
Mr. Gold uses a lot of alliteration in the lyrics, particularly with the letter S. This strengthens the song with a smooth sassiness only servable with suspense and some swag. OK. That last line didn't make sense, but you get the point. They lyrics sell this song. While the xylophone adds to the ambiance with the sound of clacking bones before and after every verse, they pale in comparison to the words sung.
Like most Halloween songs, this tune is kid-friendly and great for costume parties or headphones while trick-or-treating. While it would not pass for a decont song for the rest of the year, it is acceptable harmless fun for Halloween.
The song is available on YouTube here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2rwxs1gH9w