Born in California in 1951, Gold found early success as a musician in the late 1960s, playing backup for Linda Ronstadt’s band.

She has been in charge of Gold’s back catalogue since he died in 2011 at the age of 59. “You meet a 13-year-old and they know him because of this song, which is fantastic,” Leslie Kogan, Gold’s widow, said in a phone interview.

Over the past few years, however, a perfect storm of internet trends has rocketed “Spooky Scary Skeletons” to classic status more than 20 years after its initial release. There’s Bobby Pickett’s “The Monster Mash” and Roy Parker Jr.’s “Ghostbusters.” Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” probably counts, and though it wasn’t conceived for the holiday, Rockwell’s “Somebody’s Watching Me” maybe counts too. In the musical pantheon, there are relatively few Halloween pop hits. In addition to “Can’t Stop” off of their 2002 album By the Way, RHCP also played Andrew Gold’s 1996 song “Spooky Scary Skeletons.”

The band played two songs for the crowd of children. Last Halloween, students at the Viewpoint School in Calabasas, California, received a surprise performance by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Dootdoot playing spooky scary skeleten