Following the now iconic scene where Eddie Munson performs the song’s guitar solo to ward off demobats, Metallica crashed into the Top 40 for the first time in 14 years. The band was super excited that their song had such a presence in one of the show’s most powerful scenes of the season, and have even posted an Instagram remix of them playing the song in Eddie’s Hellfire Club T-shirts! Formulated by blending song/show data with music sales and streaming info in the period around the show or movie’s release, pretty much every season of The Umbrella Academy has monopolized the list around its release. Following an appearance in Episode 4 of Season 2 back in July 2020, KISS’s 1979 rock hit saw a sudden peak in streams (4.3 million) and 4,000 digital downloads in the following month. Sure, it was popular — it made No. 9 on the charts — but nearly 20 years later, it shot up to No. 2 following the iconic car singalong scene in Wayne’s World. It also got an updated music video, which ended up being one of MTV’s most-played clips for the year. Wayne’s World wasn’t the only movie to bring the classic Queen song back to everyone’s playlists (well, mixtapes back in the ’90s for Wayne’s World’s reign). As you may expect, the 2018 movie biopic Bohemian Rhapsody also blasted the song back up the charts, but this time only to No. 33. But when the movie Straight Outta Compton landed in 2015, the song of the same name reached No. 38 on the charts and secured N.W.A their very first Hot 100 listing. The moody track secured a spot in 2022’s The Batman, perfectly matching the film’s gritty aesthetics and Robert Pattinson’s broody, grungy-looking take on the man in the cape. From there, the ’90s track finally got its time in the spotlight, appearing in the Hot 100 in March 2022 shortly after the film’s release. The number of on-demand streams in the U.S. increased by 734% in the first four days of The Batman’s release! Like The Umbrella Academy, The Boys is a big player in the Top TV Songs charts. Originally released in 1984, U2’s “Bad” had a spike in downloads and streams nearly four decades after it originally came out. Following its return to the screen, the song saw a 142% climb in streams and a 235% gain in sales. It was also the soundtrack to a TikTok trend where people showed their Goose-esque mustaches! A selection of her own and Fleetwood Mac’s songs appeared throughout the season’s run, with “Seven Wonders” featuring prominently in the season finale. Following that, the song saw a 9086% increase in downloads compared to the previous week. The month after the season’s end also saw Fleetwood Mac’s classic album, Rumours, move from No. 191 in the Billboard Top 200 to No. 59 in three weeks. The soundtrack to the movie itself hit the charts, and the 2002 Elvis album, Elvis: 30 #1 Hits entered the Top 40 for the first time in 19 years. The singer’s hits overall received a 67% boost in streams, with “Can’t Help Falling In Love” coming out on top. Originally released in 2003, the song saw a resurgence in popularity in 2012 when the show’s final season aired, reaching its highest position ever on the UK Singles chart. However, it also had a spike in popularity due to the 2007 finale of HBO’s The Sopranos, which saw digital downloads soar by 482% in the week after the episode aired. Moving from fictional drama to real-life drama, the reality TV show, Laguna Beach, actually seems to be the show from which the Journey song’s resurgence really stems. In a 2005 clip that lasts a mere 40 seconds, two of the show’s stars, Lauren Conrad and Stephen Colletti, mouth along to the words on a drive home. Shortly after the episode was released, the song snuck back onto the iTunes Top 10. Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” saw a bump of nearly 200% following its appearance in Thor: Ragnarok, with a spokesperson for Spotify revealing that the song had increased in popularity by 189% worldwide and 174% in the US alone. It also climbed the charts, and in a strange turn of events, competed with the likes of Selena Gomez and Khalid in the Top 40! On screen, Wednesday busts a move to The Cramps’ 1981 song ‘Goo Goo Muck’, which went from 2,500 daily streams in the US on November 23rd (pre-Wednesday release) to 134,000 daily streams in the US on November 28th (post-Wednesday release). At the time of writing, ‘Goo Goo Muck’ has over 36 million Spotify streams and is enjoying its most popular period to date! Since the TikTokification of the clip, the dust on Gaga’s 2011 song has been blasted away by its speedy acceleration up the global charts from number 168 to number 35. Pre-Wednesday, the track had 1.8 million streams, but as of today, it has 182,845,278 streams on Spotify alone. Cave told Birmingham Live: “So many people come up to me and say, ‘I’m a huge fan’ and have discovered my music through Peaky Blinders.” Anyway, Cale’s version was included in the 2001 animation Shrek, which boosted it to widespread popularity and a surge of covers on TV talent shows. Cohen’s death in 2016 saw his version finally rise to success, entering the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time ever.
