50 Best Rock Songs About Ghosts and Spirits

Haunted Rock Tracks That Stir Something Strange

There’s a specific kind of quiet that lingers after dark. The kind where every creak in the floor sounds too deliberate and the air feels too still. Then a song slips in, and suddenly it’s like the walls are listening. Some tracks pull that eerie stillness right out of the air and give it a pulse. They haunt without screaming, drag you through their echo, and make you swear something’s there when it’s only feedback. A few of these lean straight into the supernatural, others only sound like they might. The line’s thin anyway.

It’s not always ghosts in the story sense. Sometimes it’s memory doing the haunting, or a voice that lingers after the track cuts. The kind of songs that make your skin buzz because they sound like they’re remembering something too. You can hear it in the reverb, the half-muttered lyrics, the way the guitars never quite resolve. You find it in all kinds of corners—pop, rock, country, and R&B songs—each one trying to name the same invisible thing. Some might not literally summon ghosts, but they still carry that chill, that restless edge that feels half-alive.

No one’s lighting candles or calling spirits here. It’s more like catching a glimpse of something in a window and pretending you didn’t. These songs live in that space where sound feels like presence, where melody turns to mist for a second before vanishing. They make you lean in without knowing why. Here are the best rock songs about ghosts and spirits.

1. 'Don't Fear the Reaper' by Blue Öyster Cult

2. 'Black Sabbath' by Black Sabbath

3. 'Hotel California' by Eagles

4. 'Ghost Riders in the Sky' by The Ramrods

5. 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' by Bruce Springsteen

6. 'The Ghost Song' by The Doors

7. 'Spirits in the Night' by Manfred Mann's Earth Band

8. 'Ghost Town' by The Specials

9. 'Ghosts' by Stevie Nicks

10. 'The Ghost of You' by My Chemical Romance

11. 'Ghosts Are Gone' by Stevie Nicks

12. 'Ghost of Perdition' by Opeth

13. 'Spirits in the Material World' by The Police

14. 'Pet Sematary' by Ramones

15. 'Ghost' by Mystery Skulls

16. 'The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald' by Gordon Lightfoot

17. 'Little Ghost' by The White Stripes

18. 'Ghost of the Navigator' by Iron Maiden

19. 'Dead Man's Party' by Oingo Boingo

20. 'Wuthering Heights' by Kate Bush

21. 'Baby You're a Haunted House' by Gerard Way

22. 'Ghosts of Cape Horn' by Gordon Lightfoot

23. 'Ghost Dancing' by Simple Minds

24. 'There's A Ghost In My House' by R. Dean Taylor

25. 'Ghost Rider' by Suicide

26. 'Ghost Behind My Eyes' by The Who

27. 'Dead Souls' by Joy Division

28. 'The Family Ghost' by King Diamond

29. 'Haunted' by Evanescence

30. 'Shadows of the Night' by Pat Benatar

31. 'Her Ghost in the Fog' by Cradle of Filth

32. 'American Ghost Dance' by Red Hot Chili Peppers

33. 'I Love the Night' by Blue Öyster Cult

34. 'The Jezebel Spirit' by Brian Eno & David Byrne

35. 'The Ghost of Satellite' by The Hives

36. 'The Unquiet Grave' by Shirley Collins

37. 'Haunting Me' by Stabbing Westward

38. 'Your Ghost' by Kristin Hersh

39. 'Black Magic Woman' by Santana

40. 'Season of the Witch' by Donovan

41. 'Ghosts of Saturday Night' by Tom Waits

42. 'The Killing Moon' by Echo & the Bunnymen

43. 'Ghost' by Slash featuring Ian Astbury

44. 'Spirit Carries On' by Dream Theater

45. 'The Ghost of Stephen Foster' by Squirrel Nut Zippers

46. 'Spirit' by Ghost

47. 'Ghost of a Chance' by Rush

48. 'Bloody Hammer' by Roky Erickson

49. 'House of the Rising Sun' by The Animals

50. 'I Put A Spell On You' by Creedence Clearwater Revival