There really isn’t a single holiday, secular or otherwise, that isn’t enhanced by music. Wintertime anthems are likely the first to come to mind. Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is undoubtedly the biggest holiday song ever written. Meanwhile, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” along with its iconic music video, has become synonymous with Halloween.
That said, while the music video for “Thriller” has largely made it the quintessential Halloween track, it’s hardly as spooky as The Beatles’ “Revolution 9,” which could very well be the spookiest song of all time.
Throughout their decade-long tenure, The Beatles underwent a handful of phases in their music: upbeat love songs, psychedelic mania, and textbook classic rock. Even in the depths of their psychedelic phase, starting with the very genesis of psychedelic rock, “Tomorrow Never Knows,” nothing ever came close to the eeriness of “Revolution 9.”
“Revolution 9” Is A Multi-Faceted Scare Fest
Coming in at just under eight-and-a-half minutes, “Revolution 9” really isn’t a song so much as it is a montage of various sounds. It is the penultimate track on The Beatles’ 1968 self-titled double album, commonly known as The White Album. I remember hearing it for the first time as a kid, and also learning about the “Paul is dead” conspiracy at the same time, and thinking it was the creepiest, eeriest song ever recorded.
The “Paul is dead” conspiracy was essentially a series of Easter eggs hidden within various Beatles songs that hinted at the fact that Paul McCartney was killed in a car accident, and the remaining members of the band replaced him with a look-alike to spare their fans the grief. Easily the most morbid Easter egg was hidden in “Revolution 9;” there is a section of the song which, when it’s played in reverse, seems to say “Turn me on dead man.”
Urban music myths and conspiracies aside, that same section of the song played correctly is just as spooky, if not even more so. Set to minor-keyed piano music that is evocative of a murder mystery or haunted house, an incredibly chilling voice sends tingles down listeners’ spines as it deadpans the words “Number nine,” over and over, in an almost mechanical fashion.
To put it plainly: the entire track is an odd, maniacal hodgepodge of spoken word, audio looping, percussion, and sound effects. The result is deeply unsettling, and is easily the spookiest song in the Beatles’ discography, if not the spookiest song recorded by any artist ever.
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