D major · Camelot 10B · 113 BPM
Skulls
by Misfits
- 113
- BPM
- D major
- Key
- 10B
- Camelot
- 47
- Danceability
- 0
- Acousticness
Glenn Danzig wrote "Skulls" and sang it as frontman of the Misfits, the horror punk band he had formed in Lodi, New Jersey in 1977. The track was recorded at Mix-O-Lydian Studio in Boonton, New Jersey no later than August 1981, with Jerry Only's brother Doyle on guitar alongside Only on bass. It appeared on the band's debut album Walk Among Us, released in March 1982 through Ruby Records, an imprint of Slash Records.
The song later turned up on the 1986 compilation album Misfits, also known as Collection I, and every track on that compilation was included in the 1996 boxed set The Misfits. Aaron Lariviere of Stereogum ranked it No. 3 on his list of the ten best Misfits songs, calling it a wistful, yearning love song for a severed head. Author James Greene, Jr. described it in his book This Music Leaves Stains as a thrashing delight and a twisted love letter, noting that Danzig poured so much passion into the performance that the startling reality of the words could be forgotten.
Other musicians took to it as well. Andy Biersack, lead vocalist of Black Veil Brides, listed "Skulls" among his favorite Misfits songs. The Lemonheads recorded an acoustic cover described as sensitive and folky for their release Favorite Spanish Dishes, while Duster cut a slower version that never appeared on a studio album.
Skulls runs at 113 BPM, the tempo of pop, funk and disco-leaning dance. In classical terms it sits in moderato territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2.12 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 531 ms. It is in D major, Camelot 10B, which shares its notes with B minor and mixes cleanly with G major and A major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.