It's Halloween night, and if you've already done the Ghostbusters single and the Monster Mash, here's another way to fill the crate: songs about the devil on vinyl. Rock and pop have been flirting with Old Nick since the blues, and the British charts of the late 60s and 70s were full of him. Glam stompers, a fiddle duel, a drum solo and a shock-rock LP with the lights turned down. Every record below is in our Mansfield record shop crates right now, and most of them cost £3.
If you want the spooky singles and goth 12"s, we covered those earlier in the week in our Halloween vinyl records guide. This one's for after the trick-or-treaters have gone home.
Why the devil sells records
The devil makes a great character in a three-minute song. He's a rival, a dare, a bad influence, a place you're not supposed to go. Songwriters have used him for all of it, and most of the time it's pure pantomime, which is exactly what you want on Halloween.
There's a practical reason to buy these on vinyl too. Most of them were big hit singles, pressed in huge numbers, so they turn up second-hand for pocket money. You can put together a proper Halloween party stack for less than a takeaway, and it'll still be playing next October.
The 7" stack: devil singles for £3
Atomic Rooster – Devil's Answer
Atomic Rooster – Devil's Answer / Tomorrow Night 7" (OG9391), graded VG/VG, £3. Atomic Rooster were Vincent Crane's heavy organ-rock band, and in the summer of 1971 Devil's Answer went to No. 4 in the UK, spending three weeks at its peak in August. This copy is the 1984 Old Gold reissue, which is handy, because it puts both of the band's big hits on one record: Tomorrow Night had reached No. 11 earlier in 1971. The vinyl's a VG, so it's been played and you'll hear some surface noise, but two hits for £3 is hard to argue with.
The Gun – Race With The Devil
The Gun – Race With The Devil 7" (OG9193), graded VG/VG+, £3. Written by Adrian Gurvitz, who played in the band with his brother Paul, Race With The Devil is one of the heaviest things in the British Top 10 of the 60s. It peaked at No. 8 on Christmas Eve 1968, which is a fairly unseasonal thing to have at the top of the chart. This is the 1982 Old Gold reissue with Black Betty on the flip. The vinyl's a VG and the sleeve VG+.
Sweet – Hell Raiser
Sweet – Hell Raiser 7" (RCA2357), graded VG/VG+, £3. Pure 1973 glam: sirens, shouting, and a chorus built for stamping your platform boots. Hell Raiser was another Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman song for the Sweet, and it reached No. 2 in the UK in May 1973, stuck there for three weeks. This is the original UK RCA Victor single on the orange label, with VG vinyl and a VG+ sleeve.
Cozy Powell – Dance With The Devil
Cozy Powell – Dance With The Devil 7" (RAK 164), graded VG+/VG, £3. A drum solo in the Top 3. Cozy Powell, the drummer who went on to play with Rainbow, Whitesnake and Black Sabbath, had his own hit with this thumping instrumental on Mickie Most's RAK label. It entered the chart in December 1973 and peaked at No. 3 in January 1974. The vinyl's VG+ on this copy, so it plays nicely, which matters when the whole record is drums.
Suzi Quatro – Devil Gate Drive
Suzi Quatro – Devil Gate Drive / In The Morning 7" (RAK167), graded VG+/VG, £3. Suzi's second and last UK No. 1, two weeks at the top in February and March 1974. Another Chinn and Chapman song on RAK, and the "Welcome to the Dive" opening is still one of the great shouted intros. This is a UK RAK pressing with VG+ vinyl, so light marks and a good clean play.
The Charlie Daniels Band – The Devil Went Down To Georgia
The Charlie Daniels Band – The Devil Went Down To Georgia 7" (S EPC 7737), graded VG/VG+, £3. The devil challenges a young fiddler called Johnny to a contest for his soul, and loses. It went to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, won a Grammy, and over here climbed to No. 14 in November 1979 on Epic. It's the one country record that'll get a rock crowd joining in. The vinyl's a VG and the sleeve VG+.
The late-night end: 12"s and LPs
The Cult – Lil' Devil
The Cult – Lil' Devil 12" (BEG 188T), graded VG/G+, £10. By 1987 the Cult had swapped their goth roots for big AC/DC-style riffs, with Rick Rubin producing the Electric album. Lil' Devil was a single from it and reached No. 11 in the UK. This 12" on Beggars Banquet has four tracks, including Zap City and a live She Sells Sanctuary, and the snake-and-devil picture sleeve is a cracker, even at G+.
Kiss – Creatures Of The Night
Kiss – Creatures Of The Night LP (CANL4), graded VG/G+, £20. If you want a Halloween album cover, four painted faces glowing blue out of the dark will do nicely. Creatures Of The Night was Kiss going heavy again in 1982, after a couple of softer records, and it reached No. 22 in the UK. There's a well-known quirk: Ace Frehley is on the front cover, but he didn't play on the album, and Vinnie Vincent handled much of the lead guitar. A 1985 reissue swapped in a new cover without the make-up, so check the sleeve if you want the original artwork, like this one. The cover is G+, so expect visible wear, and the vinyl is VG.
Laibach – Sympathy For The Devil
Laibach – Sympathy For The Devil LP (LP MUTE 80), graded VG/G+, £15. The oddest record here, and maybe the best for a Halloween party with people who think they've heard everything. Slovenian art-rock group Laibach recorded a whole set of versions of the Rolling Stones' Sympathy For The Devil, first issued on Mute in 1988, then gathered together on this LP in 1990. Each version takes the song somewhere different, and all of them are a bit sinister. This copy has the insert. Fair warning, the back cover is ripped and the cover is graded G+, so it's the record you're buying here.
A five-record Halloween party stack
Short on time? Here's what we'd play, in order: Race With The Devil to set the mood, Hell Raiser and Devil Gate Drive to get people up, Dance With The Devil for the drum-solo show-offs, and The Devil Went Down To Georgia to finish, with everyone shouting the last verse. That's five devil singles at £3 each. Add Creatures Of The Night for when the lights go down.
Buying used devil records: what to check
Read the grade, not just the title. A VG record has been played plenty and you'll hear some noise. VG+ means light marks and a quiet play. The first grade is the vinyl, the second the sleeve. Our vinyl grading guide has examples of each.
Know an original from a reissue. Two of the singles above are on Old Gold, a reissue label that kept hits in the shops through the 80s. They're cheap, and they often put two hits on one record, but they're not first pressings. Our guide to original vs reissue vs repress explains the difference.
Check the catalogue number. Every record above has its catalogue number listed, so you can check it against Discogs and see exactly which pressing you're getting. RAK 164 and RAK167 are the original UK RAK singles, for example.
Don't panic about company sleeves. Most 70s UK singles came in a plain paper or label-company sleeve rather than a picture sleeve, so a plain bag is normal for Sweet, Suzi and Cozy. The 80s 12"s, like Lil' Devil, usually had picture sleeves, and they add to the value.
Multi-buys, Autumn10 and a proper clean
Buy any three records and 10% comes off the whole order at checkout. New customers can use Autumn10 for 10% off instead (one code per order). Every record gets a clean before it's posted, and you can add an ultrasonic clean; details are on the cleaning service page.
Got a box of records gathering cobwebs?
If there's a box of old singles lurking in the loft, we'd love to hear about it. We buy single records and whole collections, from glam to metal. Have a look at how we buy vinyl records, or get in touch with a few photos.
Dig the crates
There's plenty more in the shop than we can fit here. Browse the full shop, or tell us what you're hunting for on our wanted list. You can reserve online and collect from our Mansfield record shop.
Happy Halloween. Mind the devil doesn't get your stylus.
