You Better Not Steal the Moves: How Sync Is Catapulting Archive Tracks Into the Charts

It’s likely that in that first week of 2024 you have heard Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s ‘Murder on the Dance Floor’. The 2002 hit has recently re-entered, is steadily climbing, the charts once again, 22 years after its initial release. On 31st December 2023, ‘Murder on the Dance Floor’ received its highest daily global streams ever (1.5M), resulting in a whopping 360% increase in US streams (Spotify News). The reason? The track was recently placed in the final scene Emerald Fennell’s black comedy Saltburn, which currently storming the UK and US box office. ‘Murder on the Dance Floor’ is the latest in a string of tracks in the past few years, that have had an incredible resurgence all thanks to sync. Sync has the amazing power to breathe new life into old tracks, bringing past hits to a new global audience, and catapulting archive tracks up the charts. Here are a few of our favourite, and now iconic, chart-worthy syncs from film and tv in the past few years. 

‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’, Kate Bush x Stranger Things

One of the most iconic sync moments ever came from Stranger Things in the summer of 2022. Following ‘Running Up That Hill’s now famous placement on the Netflix hit, Bush received her first ever UK number one an incredible 37 years after the tracks’ initial release. In fact, thanks to Stranger Things, ‘Running Up That Hill’ outperformed its original release: in 1985 it reached UK number three and US number 30. It has now hit over one billion streams on Spotify, and the official video has now been viewed 237M times. 

‘Master of Puppets’, Metallica x Stranger Things 

Hot on the heels of ‘Running Up That Hill’, Stranger Things effect also reached Metallica’s ‘Master of Puppets’. The 1986 hit climbed not only the Spotify charts, but charted in the UK for the first time ever, giving the band their first UK Top 40 hit since 2008. In the US ‘Master of Puppets’ re-hit US Billboard Hot 100 at number 40.

‘Truth Hurts’, Lizzo x Someone Great 

Lizzo’s big break famously after ‘Truth Hurts’ featured prominently in the Netflix rom-com Someone Great (2019). The sync directly led to a huge 272% rise in streams and an overall 870% increase in the rest of Lizzo’s catalogue on Spotify (Spotify for Artists). All this came a whole two years after initial release in 2017. The track didn’t original chart in 2017 but gave Lizzo her first number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2019. 

‘A Man Without Love’, Englebert Humperdink x Moon Knight 

As Englebert Humperdink entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe, his song ‘A Man Without Love’ re-entered the charts. The song featured in the opening scene to Moon Knight, bringing the 1968 track to a new global audience. Legions of Marvel fans rushed to Shazam to find the track, which promptly entered number two in the US chart and number three in the UK. ‘A Man Without Love’ also reached number one on Billboard’s April 2023 Top TV Chart. 

‘Goo Goo Muck’, The Cramps x Wednesday 

Wednesday Addams sent The Cramps’ ‘Goo Goo Muck’ viral after her iconic prom dance on the Netflix hit Wednesday. Streams of ‘Goo Goo Muck’ reportedly jumped by a jaw-dropping 8650% from previous years. Subsequently, The Cramps achieved their first number one on a Billboard chart, topping the Alternative Digital Songs Sales list in November 2022. Their only other appearance in the chart was at number 10 on the Alternative Airplay list in 1990. 

‘Something in the Way’, Niravana x The Batman

Nirvana’s song charted for the first time in 31 years, thanks to The Batman in 2022. According to Spotify, following its inclusion in the film, streams of ‘Something in the Way’ were up 1200% which in turn launched it to number two in the Rock Streaming Songs and Rock Digital Song Sales chart and number four in the Alternative Digital Song Sales and Alternative Streaming Songs chart.