My daughter Eloise had her 8th birthday last weekend.  At the moment, she’s a big fan of the BBC children’s TV series, Horrible Histories, and requested a party based on that theme.

If you’re not familiar with Horrible Histories, let me tell you it’s well worth checking it.  Both funny and informative, the show makes history appeal to kids (and adults) by illuminating some unusual – and sometimes gross – facts from various periods throughout the past.

We’ve all become big fans in our house, actually.  So the party was going to be fun – everyone could dress up as historical characters and entertainment geared to the theme.

Only one thing remained – some music suitable for days gone by.  Not having much music in my collection that was actually from previous ages, I had to dig out some tunes that could fit the bill.  Here’s what I came up with…

1. Hanna-Barbera – “(Meet) The Flintstones [Main Title]”
2. The Bangles – “Walk Like an Egyptian”
3. Mikis Theodorakis – “Zorbas”
4. Iron Maiden – “Alexander the Great”
5. ABBA – “Waterloo”
6. Chuck Berry – “Roll Over Beethoven”
7. Boney M. – “Rasputin”
8. Clutch – “Abraham Lincoln”
9. Trio Guadalajara – “La Bamba”
10. De Danaan – “The Cameronian Reel/The Doon Reel”
11. Iron Maiden – “Ghengis Khan”
12. Mariachi Mexico de Pepe Villa – “El Jarbe Tapatio (Mexican Hat Dance)”
13. Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers – “Egyptian Reggae”
14. Madness – “Night Boat to Cairo” 
15. Sweet – “Alexander Graham Bell”
16. Rodrigo Y Gabriela – “Vikingman”
17. Iron Maiden – “Invaders”
18. The Kinks – “Victoria”
19. Boney M. – “Ma Baker”
20. Sweet – “Wig Wam Bam”
21. Mikis Theodorakis – “Varka Sto Gialo”
22. Bananarama – “Venus”
23. Tom Jones – “Delilah”
24. The Beatles – “Roll Over Beethoven”
25. Christina Aguilera – “Candyman”
26. The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra – “The Raiders March”
27. Eric Rogers – “Carry On Cleo”
28. Eric Rogers – “Carry On Up the Khyber”

Ok, so some of those tracks are less scraping the barrell and more like digging the dust on an archaeological dig, but it did the job.  Basically, without Iron Maiden I’d have been screwed…