If you want to scare the pants off your 2-, 3-, and 4-year-olds, but then make them merrily sing along, this Halloween collection could be for you. A generous 18 tracks deep, Spooky Favorites covers the familiar creepy-crawly terrain of "Cockles and Mussels," "Spider on the Floor," and "There Was an Old Woman" with all the right affects. Favorites also trades in Christmas tunes, reworking "The 12 Days of Christmas" as "12 Days of Halloween," while "Green Gremlins" reprises the "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" theme in a halting tempo with a tasty rock guitar solo. And in another ironic twist, the players turn "Bring Back My Bonney" into "Bring Back My Neighbors to Me" and rewrite "If You're Happy and You Know It" as "You're Scary and You Know It." Highly theatrical and leaning on a good interplay of English folk melodies and music-hall styles, Spooky Favorites is proof that you can spoof just about any song for Halloween as long as you dress them up real spookylike. --Martin Keller
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