Last year, Kate Bush‘s 1985 song “Running Up that Hill (A Deal with God)” topped charts worldwide thanks to its inclusion in the Netflix hit Stranger Things. But it looks like Linda Ronstadt may be the latest artist to have a decades-old hit revived by a TV show.
Linda’s 1970 hit “Long, Long Time” plays a pivotal role in the emotional third episode of the HBO series The Last of Us, which aired on Sunday night. On Monday, Spotify News tweeted, “On Sunday, January 29th, between 11PM and midnight ET, there was more than 4900% increase in U.S. streams of ‘Long Long Time’ by Linda Ronstadt.”
“Oh, so all of our hearts were breaking last night,” read the caption.
“Long, Long Time,” written by Gary White, appeared on Ronstadt’s 1970 album, Silk Purse. It peaked at #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned her a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Female Vocal Performance. The ballad was Linda’s first Top 40 solo hit; she’d previously reached #13 with “Different Drum,” recorded with her former band Stone Poneys.
It remains to be seen if, like “Running Up that Hill,” the song will eventually make its way back onto the Billboard charts and radio stations.
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