13 Utterly Ghostly Ghost 👻 Songs

Reading Time: 13 min read

13 Utterly Ghostly Ghost Songs features music courtesy of Carrie Underwood, Depeche Mode, Future, Justin Bieber, and SZA.

Once upon a time, rock collective 🎙 Taking Back Sunday asked the question, 🎵 “What’s It Feel Like to Be a Ghost?”. It’s a fair question. What is unfair is the fact that this great record doesn’t get the full analytical treatment, or a sizable blurb on the ghostly musical compendium, 🎧 13 Utterly Ghostly Ghost 👻 Songs. BUMMER! Regardless, on this haunting sequel to 🎧 13 Songs All About Ghosts…Sort Of (2018), there are plenty of terrific songs by terrific musicians, all of which center around… GHOSTS 👻! 🎧 13 Utterly Ghostly Ghost 👻 Songs features music courtesy of 🎙 Carrie Underwood, 🎙 Depeche Mode, 🎙 Future, 🎙 Justin Bieber, and 🎙 SZA among others. With a little country, alternative, rap, pop, and R&B in the mix, 🎧 13 Utterly Ghostly Ghost Songs has a little bit of something for everybody. So, what we’re saying is, you should totally NOT ghost this ghostly playlist!

1. Ray Parker Jr., “Ghostbusters”

💿 Ghostbusters (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) • 🏷 Arista • 🗓 1984

“If there’s something strange / In your neighborhood / Who you gonna call? / Ghostbusters!” 🎵 “Ghostbusters” is a record that really needs no introduction. This 🎙 Ray Parker Jr. joint is a surefire vibe – a classic years after its genesis in 1984. The lyrics are silly – cheesy as albeit – but that’s part of the charm. Furthermore, Parker Jr. sings well and sells the utter ridiculousness of being GHOSTBUSTERS. Add brilliant production work, that screams 1980s aesthetic, and “Ghostbusters” is easily one of the greatest pop gems of all time.

“Ghostbusters” is by far the biggest hit that Ray Parker Jr. is known for. Shocking to many is the fact that while it’s his sole no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, he experienced success prior to “Ghostbusters” – looking at you, 🎙 Raydio! Ultimately, “Ghostbusters” would be his sole gold single, while the 💿 Ghostbusters soundtrack was ultimately certified platinum. Focusing a bit more energy on the record itself, it is the ample personality shown from start to finish is what really makes “Ghostbusters” excel. There’s no way you don’t grin when you hear Parker Jr. proclaim, “I ain’t ‘fraid of no ghost” or the scandalous “Bustin’ makes me feel good,” which is likely to be misinterpreted by those of us with a dirty mind! Even with other hits to his name, Ray Parker Jr. will forever be known for one song and one song only: 🎵 “Ghostbusters”. Safe to say, he wrote, produced, and recorded a surefire classic. “Who you gonna call? / Ghostbusters!”

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2. SZA, “Ghost in the Machine” (Ft. Phoebe Bridgers)

💿 SOS • 🏷 Top Dawg Entertainment / RCA • 🗓 2022

Ask yourself this question. Did you EVER anticipate a collaboration between 🎙 SZA and 🎙 Phoebe Bridgers? Well, regardless of the answer, that’s what goes down on 🎵 “Ghost in the Machine”, one of the best moments from the 🏆 Grammy-winning musician’s epic 2022 sophomore album, 💿 SOS. The collaboration speaks to the versatility of both musicians. SZA is brutally honest, whether it’s lyrics like, “I just wanna fuck, eat, sleep, love happy,” as well as questions like, “Can you distract me from all the disaster?” The lyrics and theme intrigue with references to robots and social media catching the ear. Bridgers arrives in the third verse and like SZA, drops that salty language too 🤬. Besides the songwriting, the sound and production of “Ghost in the Machine” (🎛 Carter Lang, Rob Bisel, and 🎛 Matt Cohn) stands out too. It’s one of the best moments from SOS, PERIOD.

3. Depeche Mode, “Ghosts Again”

💿 Memento Mori • 🏷 Columbia • 🗓 2023

Following a six-year hiatus, English electronic-driven band 🎙 Depeche Mode returns with 💿 Memento Mori, Latin for remember you must die ⚰️. While extended hiatuses between albums by 🎙 Dave Gahan and company are commonplace, Memento Mori marks the collective’s longest span between LPs. Sadly, in 2022, longtime keyboardist 🎙 Andy “Fletch” Fletcher passed away – a huge loss for the band. The awesome song at hand, 🎵 “Ghosts Again”, was written by 🎼 ✍ Martin Gore and Richard Butler, and slickly produced by 🎛 James Ford.

“Wasted feelings / Broken meanings / Time is fleeting / See what it brings.” Hmm, given the title of the album, the loss of Fletch, and the title of the song, “Ghosts Again” seems to fit the bill. The second verse sung by the always marvelous-sounding Gahan, projects a similar sentiment: “Sundays shining / Silver linings / Weightless hours / All my flowers.” One of the key lines, which appears on a variable chorus, finds Gahan (and Gore on backing vocals) singing the titular lyrics, “We know we’ll be ghosts again.” Perhaps Gahan describes the song best to Clash Magazine, asserting it “captures this perfect balance of melancholy and joy.” The lyrics do indeed lie somewhere between life and death, while the music is set in a major key, and remains true to the band’s signature sound. There are guitars, keys, and synths – a clear throwback to the 1980s without sounding anachronistic. All told, the band makes a triumphant return with 🎵 “Ghosts Again”. Gahan sounds amazing. Musically, “Ghosts” serves up ample ear candy and top-notch musicianship. Furthermore, the lyrics are compelling, perfectly capturing two varying emotions.

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Appears in 🔻:

Awesome Songs: February 2023

4. Carrie Underwood, “Ghost Story”

💿 Demin & Rhinestones • 🏷 UMG Recordings, Inc. • 📅 2022

“You’re gonna see a shadow / Midnight playing tricks with your head,” 🎙 Carrie Underwood asserts in the first verse of 🎵 “Ghost Story”. The country artist continues singing, “A silhouette float down the hallway / And you’ll reach for the light by your bed.” 👻 Boo – it’s a ghost! Who’s the ghost on this 💿 Demin & Rhinestones standout? Why, the 🏆 Grammy-winning country musician herself! In the crowning achievement, the chorus, she proclaims, “I’m gonna be your ghost story / That keeping you up all night memory / I’ll be haunting you, you’ll be wanting me.” Ooh wee, ain’t that some sugar honey iced tea! Basically, Underwood is a woman scorned, and she makes it crystal clear, BOY, “Oh, you’ll wish you never said goodbye.” With powerful vocals, entertaining and haunting lyrics, and a well-rounded backdrop produced by Underwood and 🎛 David Garcia, “Ghost Story” is hauntingly good!

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5. Benson Boone, “Ghost Town”

💿 Walk Me Home… • 🏷 Night Street / Warner • 📅 2022

“It’s dark, it’s cold / If my hand is not the one you’re meant to hold.” Whoa! 🤩🎵 “Ghost Town” begins 🎙 Benson Boone’s artistic journey on 💿 Walk Me Home…. A gorgeous, soaring ballad, “Ghost Town” plays directly to his strengths. How so? Well, the young man has a robust voice with a wide range, which is successfully captured in this opener. Where does this ghost town come into play? Oh, matters of the heart, of course, as the aforementioned lyrics suggest. The chorus sums up Boone’s heart situation perfectly:

“Maybe you’d be happier with someone else

Maybe loving me’s the reason you can’t love yourself

Before I turn your heart into a ghost town

Show me everything we built so I can tear it all down

Down, down, down, down.”

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Ghost Town: 3 or 4 BOPS No. 20 (2022)

6. Ariana Grande, “Ghostin”

💿 thank u, next • 🏷 Republic • 📅 2019

“I know that it breaks your heart when I cry again / Over him / I know that it breaks your heart when I cry again / ‘Stead of ghostin’ him.” 🎵 “Ghostin” is arguably the most innovative record on 💿 thank u, next, DEFINITELY the best album by 🏆 Grammy-winning pop artist, 🎙 Ariana Grande. Perhaps “Ghostin” isn’t a ‘game changer’ per se, but up to this point in her career, Grande certainly hasn’t released a ballad that sounds quite like this one. Her vocals are hella smooth while the lyrics that she sings are beautiful and thoughtfully penned – “Every tear’s a rain parade from hell.” The longest record on thank u, next, it’s also among the crème de la crème if not the crowning achievement. 🎛 ILYA and Max Martin outdo themselves on the production, which is radiant to the nth degree – awe-inspiring.

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7. Justin Bieber, “Ghost”

💿 Justice • 🏷 Def Jam • 📅 2021

“I know you crossed a bridge that I can’t follow / Since the love that you left is all I get, I want you to know…” 😢 That ‘bridge,’ which 🏆 Grammy winner 🎙 Justin Bieber references in the first verse of 🎵 “Ghost”, represents death 🪦. On the 11^th track from his 2021 album, 💿 Justice, Bieber memorializes a lost loved one. Bieber wrote “Ghost” alongside a team of songwriters including 🎼 ✍ Michael Pollack, Stefan Johnson, Jordan K. Johnson, and Jon Bellion. Bellion, who also produced the cut alongside 🎛 The Monsters & Strangerz, commented that “Ghost” was inspired by the death of his grandmother.

“Youngblood thinks there’s always tomorrow,” Bieber asserts in the second verse, adding, “I need more time, but time can’t be borrowed.” That is indeed the case, given the passing of this specific person or persons. In the chorus, the centerpiece, Bieber sums up his feelings: “If I can’t be close to you / I’ll settle for the ghost of you / I miss you more than life.” Those are some sentimental, sweet lyrics. “Ghost” arrived at a time that coincided with plenteous loss, given the COVID-19 pandemic (still going strong in 2021), which makes this record mean a little bit more.

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8. Future, “HOLY GHOST”

💿 I NEVER LIKED YOU • 🏷 Epic • 📅 2022

“This some real Pluto shit, nigga.” Word, 🎙 Future. The 🏆 Grammy-winning rapper remains true to self on 🎵 “HOLY GHOST”, the 13^th track on his highly successful, 2022 LP, 💿 I NEVER LIKED YOU. Commencing with an Enigmatic, foreboding, tone-setting intro, “HOLY GHOST” is a surefire flex-fest from Future. As always, the rapper is blunt and unapologetic, delivering fiery bars over a lit 🎛 ATL Jacob instrumental. “When I switch my wrist up, switch my car, switch my bitch up / Every time I hit her, I broke her off then dismissed her,” Pluto asserts in the first verse, further bragging, “I been counting this paper all day, I’m getting blisters / Roadkill, every time I pop out in a new whip.” So it’s giving sex 🍆👅💦 (“Lewinsky, she just gave me her throat inside the Rolls-y”) and drip💧 (“Surfing in Hermès”), It is safe to say, the trap is alive and well on “HOLY GHOST,” which is far from being anything holy.

9. Adam Lambert, “Ghost Town”

💿 The Original High • 🏷 Warner • 🗓 2015

🎙 Adam Lambert is a beast when it comes to singing – an understatement. Amazingly, Lambert failed to win the eighth season of American Idol, coming in as the runner-up to Kris Allen. Nonetheless, Lambert has done well for himself with some pop success. One of the more notable hits of Lambert’s career hails from his well-rounded third album, 💿 The Original High, 🎵 “Ghost Town.”

“Died last night in my dreams / Walking the streets / Of some old ghost town / In God and James Dean / But Hollywood sold out…” Initially, “Ghost Town” commences as a folk-pop cut of sorts, with guitar accompaniment. There’s a ‘cool’ about this number that bodes well in the pop Lambert’s favor. He shows incredible poise vocally, making you lean on his every lyric and note. By the end of the first verse, “Ghost Town” transforms into a more danceable, modern pop record. The second verse successfully blends a dance beat with the folk-pop sensibilities, before Lambert ascends into his upper register on the simple, yet effective and memorable chorus.

“And now I know my heart is a ghost town

My heart is a ghost town.”

Aside from the chorus, the most memorable moment of “Ghost Town” is it’s most explicit – the bridge. Lambert asserts, “I don’t give a fuck if I go / Down, down, down / I got a voice in my head that keeps singing.” Woo!

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10. blackbear, “me & ur ghost”

💿 everything means nothing • 🏷 Alamo / Interscope • 🗓 2020

Up-tempo, energetic pop cut 🎵 “me & ur ghost” is a highlight from 💿 everything means nothing, the 2020 studio album from pop/R&B artist, 🎙 blackbear. “Me & ur ghost” commences with a catchy: “I’m not alone, it’s just me and your ghost / And this cripplin’ depression…” Furthermore, it sets the tone for the feelings the artist is experiencing. Following the chorus, blackbear delivers a short first verse, where he’s basically ‘mad as hell,’ destroying his ex-girlfriend’s belongings: “I got four red bottoms, up in flames now / I burned three Chanel dresses, three words we don’t say now.” The second verse is wordier, performed in a more regretful, pop-rap approach: “I can’t even kick it with the homies that we both know / I can’t even fuck with any places that we used to go…” In the bridge, he tries to erase it all. It’s overdramatic, but ‘bear manages the role reversals well – the man is scorned on this one!

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M Songs Selected with No Rhyme or Reason (2020)

11. The Rolling Stones, “Living in a Ghost Town”

🎵 “Living in a Ghost Town” • 🏷 Promotone B.V. • 🗓 2020

“Once this place was hummin’ / And the air was full of drummin’ / The sound of cymbals crashin’ / Glasses were all smashin’.” The key takeaway from the chorus of 🎵 “Living in a Ghost Town”: everything is dead. Honestly, this ghost town that 🎙 The Rolling Stones describe perfectly captures the way life feels during the coronavirus pandemic. 🎙 Mick Jagger makes it clear that “Living in a Ghost Town” wasn’t inspired by the pandemic but feels appropriate for times such as those. Just as he told Apple music, the lyrics perfectly capture “a place which was full of life but is now bereft of life.”

“Life was so beautiful / Then we all got liked down,” Jagger sings in the first verse, continuing, “Feel like a ghost / Living in a ghost town.” The second verse is also very representative of the times: “So much time to lose / Just starin’ at my phone / … Please let this be over, not stuck in a world without end, my friend.” Adding to the excellence are vocals infused with ample personality, and an instrumental comprised of ripe guitars, a robust bass line, groovy drums, and harmonica. “Living in a Ghost Town” is just what the doctor ordered!

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12. Michael Jackson, “Ghosts”

💿 Blood on the Dance Floor – HIStory in The Mix • 🏷 MJJ Productions, Inc. • 📅 1997

“There’s a ghost down in the hall / There’s a ghoul upon the bed.” 😱 In the 1990s, 🎙 Michael Jackson, THE king of pop, adapted his sound to the times: New Jack Swing. The 🏆 Grammy-winner’s studio albums 💿 Dangerous (1991), the somewhat controversial 💿 HIStory (1995), and the remix album, 💿 Blood on the Dance Floor – HIStory in The Mix (1997), reflected this brand of R&B. 🎵 “Ghosts” was written and produced by Jackson and 🎼 ✍ 🎛 Teddy Riley, who is renowned for his New Jack Swing contributions. The drum programming is electrifying, even if by today’s standards it sounds more dated. At the time, especially, the sound of this record were incredibly slick, and, dare I say, haunting 👻! Notably, “Ghosts” is a soundtrack cut from the short film, 🎦 Michael Jackson’s Ghosts.

The biggest attraction, beyond the sound of “Ghosts” are the prodigious vocals by Jackson – the man was incredibly gifted. Furthermore, the songwriting is a blast too with its ghostly intentions. “There’s something in the walls,” MJ continues singing in the first verse, adding, “There’s blood 🩸 up on the stairs.” Later, in the second verse, “There’s a ghostly smell around / But nobody to be found.” Frightening AF 😬 😱! Ultimately, Jackson admits, “Don’t understand it,” before unveiling the centerpiece of the record, the chorus:

“And who gave you the right to scare my family?

And who gave you the right to shame my baby, she needs me

And who gave you the right to shake my family tree?

You put a knife in my back, shot an arrow in me!

Tell me, are you the ghost of jealousy?

The ghost of jealousy.”

All told, 🎵 “Ghosts” is another memorable Michael Jackson gem even if didn’t earn the same height of his greatest hits.

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Appears in 🔻:

Michael Jackson, “Ghosts”: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 46 (2023)

13. Mavis Staples, “Holy Ghost”

💿 One True Vine • 🏷 Anti • 📅 2013

“Some holy ghost keeps me hangin’ on, hangin’ on.” Intriguing, 🎙 Mavis Staples. The 🏆 Grammy-winning, legendary soul/gospel icon commences her 2013 album, 💿 One True Vine, with the spiritual record, 🎵 “Holy Ghost” 🙌. “Holy Ghost” appeared previously on the original, The Musical Hype ghost-filled musical compendium, 13 Songs All About Ghosts…Sort Of (2018). It’s just two good NOT to include once again! Although “Holy Ghost” has a brief runtime, it is incredibly impactful.

“I feel the hands, but I don’t see anyone, anyone,” Staples sings, referencing the unseen member of the Trinity. She adds, “Now, I don’t know much but I can tell when something’s wrong / And something’s wrong / But some holy ghost keeps me.” Interestingly, “Holy Ghost” is a cover 🤯! It was originally performed by Minnesota indie-rock trio 🎙 Low on their 2013 effort, 💿 The Invisible Way (written by 🎼 ✍ Alan Sparhawk). Throughout “Holy Ghost,” Staples sounds commanding and soulful atop the folky production of 🎛️ Jeff Tweedy. Although reserved, Staples still packs a punch, particularly with her earthy, expressive vocal cracks. You can definitely feel the presence of the holy ghost partaking of this one 🙌.

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13 Utterly Ghostly Ghost 👻 Songs [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Alamo, Anti, Arista, Columbia, Def Jam, Epic, Interscope, MJJ Productions LLC, Night Street, Promotone B.V., RCA, Republic, Top Dawg Entertainment, UMG Recordings, Inc., Warner; ]

13 Utterly Ghostly Ghost 👻 Songs | Playlist 🎧

Published by the musical hype on March 22, 2023March 22, 2023