I love it when a song you know and love gets used in a film or TV series in such a way that it makes you feel differently about the song. Check out the example above: Waiting For Something by Jay Reatard. The final track on his 2009 album Blood Visions will now be forever reminiscent of the awful scene at the end of the third episode of Season 1 of The Handmaid’s Tale, when Emily (Ofglen) awakes in a nondescript, stark white post-surgical room to discover her clitoris has been removed.
This didn’t make the song a hit, of course — perhaps nothing could manage that. But it did send thousands of viewers like myself immediately to YouTube and Spotify looking to make the furious track a part of their life for the next few days. But sometimes, the use of an old or relatively obscure song can suddenly give it renewed or even long-overdue popularity. So, I thought I’d go through some examples from my own record collection.
Twist And Shout by The Beatles (1963)
in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
I was reminded of this one after watching the most recent season of True Detective last year. The parade scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off — where everyone is dancing to The Beatles’ famous cover — is stuck on a loop at full volume. The Isley Brothers had a Top 20 hit with the song in 1962. The Beatles recorded it as the last track on their debut album, Please Please Me, in 1963. It got released as a single in the U.S. on March 2, 1964 — reaching No. 2 a month later. The only reason it didn’t reach No. 1 is because that spot was occupied by Can’t Buy Me Love. They didn’t put it out as a single in the U.K., but instead issued an EP featuring it and three other tracks from Please Please Me. Both the album and the EP topped the U.K. charts. In Canada, it became the title track of the second album of Beatles material released by Capitol — and also went No. 1. The Beatles’ original recording was released as a single from the Ferris Bueller’s Day Off soundtrack and got as high as No. 23 on the Billboard 100 — but reached No. 16 in Canada. I remember it causing a lot of excitement with Stu Jeffries, host of the music video program Good Rockin’ Tonite during their countdown.
Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush (1985)
in Stranger Things (2022)
Here’s one which became a much bigger hit nearly 40 years after it was initially released. Kate Bush issued the song as a single from her 1985 album, Hounds Of Love. It reached No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100. After being used in the fourth season of Stranger Things, it reached No. 4 — and No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200.
Master Of Puppets by Metallica (1986)
in Stranger Things (2022)
Behold again the power of Stranger Things. The show was able to take a song that was never released as a single and thrust it into the Top 40. I can’t think of many other thrash-metal anthems that got to No. 35 on the Billboard 100.
Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers (1965)
in Ghost (1990)
The Righteous Brothers recorded the definitive, Phil Spector-produced version of the track in 1965 when it soared up the charts to No. 4 on the Billboard 100. The song actually debuted a decade earlier, written for a film fittingly called Unchained. That year, seven different versions of it charted in the U.S. and U.K. Les Baxter, Al Hibbler and Roy Hamilton all reached the Billboard Top 10 with separate versions, while Hibbler, Baxter, Jimmy Young and Liberace all had Top 20 hits with their own versions in the U.K. Baxter, Young, Hamilton and Hibbler all reached No. 1 with the song. When the Righteous Brothers’ version was used in the 1990 Patrick Swayze / Demi Moore film Ghost, it was reissued and topped the U.S. adult contemporary chart for two weeks. It got to No. 13 on Billboard. But here’s the weird thing — The Righteous Brothers (Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield) decided to re-record the song as well, issuing it as a CD and cassette single. It reached No. 19, meaning The Righteous Brothers had two versions of the same song in the Top 20.
Stand By Me by Ben E. King (1961)
in Stand By Me (1986)
This happened around the same time as Twist And Shout, except this time the song was the title track of the movie — Stephen King‘s classic coming-of-age tale based on his 1982 story The Body. King’s incredible song got to No. 4 on the Billboard 100 in 1961 when it was first released. (BTW: The Stand By Me film is set in 1959!). The track was issued on the soundtrack to the film, and got to No. 9 when issued as a single.
Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen (1975)
in Wayne’s World (1992) & Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
This song breaks every rule. At nearly six minutes long, it was about twice the length of most hit singles when released in 1975 but FM radio didn’t care as much about that as AM did, so it got to No. 9 on the Billboard 100 and No. 1 in the U.K. Oh, and No. 1 in Canada, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. Thanks to the Freddie Mercury-approaved iconic headbanging scene in Wayne’s World, the song was propelled back into the charts in 1992 — a year after Mercury’s death. The film sequence, combined with renewed fondness for Freddie, pushed the song back up the U.S. charts to No. 2 and to No. 1 in the U.K. When the Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody hit theatres in 2018, the song charted for a third time, reaching No. 33 on the U.S. Billboard and No. 45 in the U.K.
Can’t Help Falling In Love by Elvis Presley (1961)
in Elvis (2022)
And here’s another one which fits in nicely with Bohemian Rhapsody. When the Elvis biopic came out in 2022, it sent the 2002 compilation Elvis: 30 No. 1 Hits back into the Top 40 for the first time since its release. Can’t Help Falling In Love was the most beloved of all the songs on the compilation which saw nearly a 70% boost in streams, When the song was originally released as a single from the Blue Hawaii soundtrack, it was a No. 1 worldwide — U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Europe, Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands and Sweden.
Stuck In The Middle With You by Stealers Wheel (1972) in Reservoir Dogs (1992)
The Gerry Rafferty / Joe Egan classic was a favourite of mine on the K-Tel compilation records I inherited from my brothers. The song came out a year before I was born and got to No. 6 on the Billboard 100, No. 8 in the U.K. and No. 2 in Canada. When the song was used as a dark accompaniment while Mr. Blonde tortures policeman Marvin Nash in Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 film Reservoir Dogs, it became immensely popular again. Though not re-released as a single, the song was part of the Reservoir Dogs soundtrack which went Gold in Canada and the U.S. and Platinum in the U.K.
I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) by The Proclaimers (1988)
in Benny & Joon (1993)
The best-known song by Scotland’s Craig & Charlie Reid, The Proclaimers put this out as a single from their second album, Sunshine On Leith. It got to No. 11 in the U.K. and was a No. 1 for the duo in Australia, New Zealand and Iceland. When the song was used in the opening of the 1993 Johnny Depp film Benny & Joon, it finally got some attention on American charts — quite a lot of attention, in fact. The song flew up the Billboard 100 to No. 3 and got to No. 4 in Canada.
Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien by Edith Piaf (1960)
in Emily In Paris (2020)
I remember this song mostly from the 2007 Piaf biopic La Vie En Rose, but the 1960 classic really got a new audience in 2020 when it was used in the Netflix series Emily In Paris. The inclusion triggered nearly 700,000 streams in the U.S. alone, and 4,000 downloads — enough to push it to No. 6 on Billboard’s World Digital Song sales charts. Piaf’s original single spent seven weeks atop the French Singles & Airplay Reviews chart.
Seven Wonders by Fleetwood Mac (1987)
in American Horror Story (2013)
Tango In The Night (1987) was the last great Fleetwood Mac album. It spawned four Top 20 hits. The second of those was Seven Wonders, sung by Stevie Nicks. It reached No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 on Aug. 15, 1987 and No. 17 in Canada. The previous Tango In The Night single, Lindsey Buckingham’s Big Love, got to No. 5 in the U.S. and No. 9 in the U.K. Christine McVie’s Little Lies was the followup to Seven Wonders, and got as high as No. 4 on the Billboard 100. McVie also penned the album’s last hit single Everywhere, which got to No. 14 on the Billboard 100, No. 4 in the U.K. and No. 1 in Canada. The third season of American Horror Story was dubbed Coven and includes a character who idolizes Nicks. The singer appears in the series twice — performing Seven Wonders in the opening Season 3 episode in 2013, and again in the season’s final episode in 2014, which was titled The Seven Wonders. As a result, the song reached No. 18 on the Billboard Rock Digital Songs chart with sales of 13,000.
The Entertainer by Scott Joplin (1902)
in The Sting (1973)
The classic piano rag was written by Scott Joplin in 1902 and first appeared on player piano rolls in the 1910s. The Blue Boys were the first to record it in 1928. It entered the modern mainstream in 1970 when Joshua Rifkin released a recording on the Nonesuch record label. It sold 100,000 copies in its first year and eventually became Nonesuch’s first million-selling record. But the best-known version is that of composer / pianist Marvin Hamlisch, who recorded it for the soundtrack of the Paul Newman / Robert Redford 1973 blockbuster The Sting. It was used as the film’s main theme and got to No. 3 on Billboard that year.
In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel (1986)
in Say Anything (1989)
It’s a pretty iconic scene: John Cusack’s character holding the boombox over his head, blasting In Your Eyes. It was enough to haul the three year-old song back into the Billboard 100 to No. 41. Still not as good as when it was originally released as the second of five singles from his album So in 1986. It got to No. 26 and No. 29 in Canada.
I Was Made For Lovin’ You by KISS (1979)
in The Umbrella Academy (2020)
KISS’s big disco hit from their 1979 album Dynasty got to No. 1 in Canada, No. 11 on the Billboard 100, but only No. 50 in the U.K., despite also topping the charts in the Netherlands, Belgium and New Zealand. Like Stranger Things, The Umbrella Academy has also given a second life to several hits of yesteryear. When I Was Made For Lovin’ You was used in Season 2, Episode 4, it resulted in 4.3 million streams and 4,000 digital downloads the following month. The kind of thing that makes Gene Simmons deliriously happy. It’s one of two things.
Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin (1970)
in Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Led Zeppelin weren’t exactly a singles band, and sometimes they had to fight to keep their label from releasing their songs as singles. But they wholeheartedly put Immigrant Song out as a single from Led Zeppelin III, backed with Hey Hey What Can I Do — a rarity for many years. Canadians loved it, thrusting it up the chart here to No. 4, compared to No. 109 in Zep’s native U.K. The thunderous track — oft-used as a concert opener when it was fresh — got to No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was introduced to a new generation of fans when it was included in the 2017 Marvel film Thor: Ragnarok. Streams of the track saw a 189% jump on Spotify worldwide and 174% in the U.S. alone. It also got back on the digital sales charts, reaching No. 54 in Canada, No. 109 (again!) in the U.K. and No. 69 (giggity) on the Billboard digital singles chart.
Straight Outta Compton by N.W.A (1988)
in Straight Outta Compton (2015)
I guess it’s something like Stand By Me, in a way — a movie named after a 20-year-old song propels its title song back into prominence. N.W.A and Public Enemy were the shit when I was 15 years old.I was pretty keen on hip-hop for a while before I started falling behind and eventually honed-in on lo-fi indie rock as my jam for the next decade or so. I can’t say I’m not surprised I never heard Straight Outta Compton on the actual radio back in the day, but I sure heard it an awful lot when the movie came out in 2015. In fact, it even broke the Top 40 on the Billboard 100, despite lyrics like this:
“When I’m called off, I got a sawed off
Squeeze the trigger, and bodies are hauled off
You too, boy, if ya fuck with me
The police are gonna have to come and get me
Off yo’ ass, that’s how I’m goin’ out
For the punk motherfuckers, that’s showin’ out.”
Something In The Way by Nirvana (1991)
in The Batman (2022)
Here’s another one which was never released as a single initially, but became a huge hit thanks to a film. I was one of the dudes who had Nirvana’s Nevermind on vinyl, so this was the last song on the album. My friends who had the CD got the bonus track Endless, Nameless. This was always just a fan favourite, until the first trailers started appearing for The Batman in the summer of 2020 — two years before the movie came out (thanks, Covid). Something In The Way got to No. 2 on Billboard’s U.S. Rock Digital Songs sales chart, and No. 5 on their U.S. Alternative Digital Songs sales charts. It got into the Top 20 on both Amazon Music and iTunes (Apple Music) as well. In March 2022, it finally appeared on the Billboard 100 at No. 46 — 20 years since the band’s last time on that chart.
Old Time Rock And Roll by Bob Seger (1979)
in Risky Business (1983)
The bona fide anthem was the fourth single from Seger’s album Stranger In Town. It got to No. 34 on the Billboard 100 at the time and No. 31 in Canada. It was re-released as a single four years later thanks to its iconic use in the Tom Cruise film Risky Business, when Cruise’s character dances around his home and mimes the song in sunglasses and underwear. In 1983 the song got back on the Billboard 100 and rose to No. 48.
Lust For Life by Iggy Pop (1977)
in Trainspotting (1996)
Iggy released the title track from his 1977 album as a single, but it only really charted in the Netherlands and Belgium. But when it was re-released as part of the Trainspotting soundtrack in 1996, suddenly Jim Osterberg had a hit on his hands — and a future cruise-line jingle. Lust For Life reached No. 26 in the U.K. and No. 44 in Canada. What gives, U.S.?
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Area Resident is an Ottawa-based journalist, recording artist, music collector and re-seller. Hear (and buy) his music on Bandcamp, email him HERE, follow him on Instagram and check him out on Discogs.
