Preparing for the end of the world, scheduled for Friday according to some interpretations of the ancient Maya calendar, is a tricky business. Unfortunately, there’s just no such thing as a fashionable haz-mat suit. Obamacare is vague on the co-pays for apocalyptic mishaps. And there’s simply no way to foresee the tax consequences of Armageddon until Congress and the White House resolve this fiscal-cliff business.

But whether we go by fire or ice, famine or pestilence, one thing is clear: We need to have the appropriate music on hand well in advance. The iTunes help desk is not all that great even when zombie hordes are not rising from their graves to eat the brains of the living.

So here’s a helpful playlist, an unlucky 13 songs to ensure that whatever unpleasant side effects the end of the world may have, it will still rate at least an 85 and have a beat you can dance to.

13. The End of the Run, Deborah Harry (1989). Blondie lead singer icily delivers Rule No. 1 of the apocalypse — no whining: “That end of the run. We almost won. The end of the run. We had our fun. The end of the run.”

12. Eve of Destruction, Barry McGuire (1965). This record reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart despite being widely banned as too morbid, with lyrics about “the poundin’ of the drums, the pride and disgrace/You can bury your dead, but don’t leave a trace/Hate your next-door neighbor, but don’t forget to say grace.” The tune’s writer, P.F. Sloan, always said he considered it a love song. Maybe, if you’re dating a Manson girl.

11. The Final Countdown, Europe (1986). The bleating synths! The big hair! Go out in Big ’80s style. Plus, the Swedish rockers helpfully suggest a new destination to start all over: “We’re heading for Venus/And still we stand tall/’Cause maybe they’ve seen us/And welcome us all.” The Maya calendar, unfortunately, is silent on that possibility.

10. We’ll All Go Together When We Go, Tom Lehrer (1959). Harvard mathematician by day, satirical folk singer after dark, Lehrer was always one to look on the bright side. And the end of the world, he noted, would be a triumph of egalitarianism and world harmony: “We will all go together when we go/Every Hottentot and every Eskimo/When the air becomes uranious/We will all go simultaneous...” And Tweeting it, no doubt.

9. Armageddon It, Def Leppard (1987). Sure, the song’s about sex: “Are you gettin’ it? Armageddon it!” But you might as well go out with a bang.

8. Bad Moon Rising, Creedence Clearwater Revival (1969) Though John Fogarty’s diction was clear enough as he sang lyrics like “hope you got your things together, hope you are quite prepared to die,” the tinny AM radios of the day often made his refrain — “there’s a bad moon on the rise” — sound like “there’s a bathroom on the right.” Which, probably, would be pretty helpful to know as the giant fire-drooling face of Beelzebub thrusts itself through your living-room window.

7. (Don’t Fear) The Reaper, Blue Öyster Cult (1976). Admittedly, this is a song about a lovers’ Romeo-and-Juliet suicide pact rather the end of days. But it makes oblivion sound so damned romantic — “Seasons don’t fear the reaper/Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain/We can be like they are” — that it was the soundtrack for the opening scenes of the TV miniseries of Stephen King’s apocalyptic novel The Stand.