I have loved these 'Now' music collections ever since I started collecting them on double vinyl LPs back in England as a teenager. They were always the go-to gift to obtain at Christmas for us lovers of all-things chart hits, and to have them all in one place, on two LPs, at the touch of our fingers (well, stylus, actually) was just everything a teenager of music fandom could ever want from his parents.

That still hasn't changed today, albeit the schoolboy crush on having to obtain them on vinyl has sadly diminished over time, of course! And sure the bands aren't as "classic" or as "good" as they seemed to be back in the 80's, but this Halloween collection of songs most assuredly contains no duds, nor any lame ducks on the entire album, that's for sure.

Yup, NOW That's What I Call Music!, the world's best-selling multi-artist album series, has indeed just released the quite brilliant NOW That's What I Call Halloween. Remarkably, it is also NOW! brand's spooktacular first foray into the tricks and includes such classic Halloween cuts as treats from TV (True Blood) and movie themes also (Halloween, The Exorcist, etc.).

We begin this hauntingly exquisite musical adventure with the one, the only truly known horror theme, John Carpenter's 'Halloween Theme, and back that up with both Rob Zombie's fun 'Dragula' and then the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra & Chorus on 'O Fortuna.' Next comes Mike Oldfield's 'Tubular Bells' (aka the theme from 'The Exorcist'), which is followed neatly by Blue Oyster Cult's classic '(Don't Fear The Reaper),' INXS' smooth, sultry vocal rumble of 'Devil Inside,' and both Jace Everett's 'Bad Things' (the theme from TV's 'True Blood') and then, the sand out uber Halloween classic, on this album and ANY other album of its ilk, Warren Zevon's delightful romp, 'Werewolves Of London.'

The spine-tingling collection of 18 bone-chilling hits, jams and instrumentals, continues onward with The Special's flashback "ballad", 'Ghost Town,' and that is backed by both Oingo Boingo's funky 'Dead Man's Dance' and Bobby "Boris" Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers' old-school classic, 'Monster Mash.' With so many memories wrapped up in all these songs, for us ALL, we next get the delights of the lesser known 'This Is Halloween' from The Citizens Of Halloween, Donovan's 'Season Of The Witch,' and both 'Nina Simone's 'I Put A Spell On You' and composer Danny Elfman's 'Beetlejuice' (Main Title/End Title).'

Great to leave playing in the background at a holiday gathering, NOW That's What I Call Halloween is, as you can tell, simply chock full of (mostly) all recognizable songs. That continues even as the album comes to a close, with RUN-D.M.C's brilliant take on Ray Parker Jr's 'Ghostbusters' classic, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince on 'A Nightmare On My Street,' and to wrap it all up, the always-fun to listen to, and watch the video to, if you're near YouTube, 'Somebody's Watching Me' from Rockewell.