Television Tunes

A great pop song can make for a great TV scene — think Todd Rundgren's "Hello It's Me" on And Just Like That..., Tiffany's cover of "I Think We're Alone Now" on The Umbrella Academy, Ben E. King's "Stand by Me" on Euphoria and Survivor's "Burning Heart" on Cobra Kai. Occasionally, a great TV scene can return the favor and make a pop song a hit, even long after it was first released.

That was the case earlier this year with "Running Up That Hill" by Kate Bush. After the British singer–songwriter's most famous song was heard on the fourth season of Stranger Things — it plays as Max (Sadie Sink) flees the clutches of the evil Vecna — it charted higher than it had in 1985.

"We suspected it would have a significant impact, but we were not prepared for how huge that impact would become," says Nora Felder, who won the 2022 Emmy for Outstanding Music Supervision for the episode that featured the song. "Having 'Running Up That Hill' become the song of the summer has truly been a historic, lightning-in-a-bottle moment."

TV exposure has a history of giving new life to old songs.

After "At This Moment," a love song by Billy Vera & the Beaters, was heard on Family Ties during the classic sitcom's 1985–86 season, it shot to number one. On its original release, as a live recording in 1981, the song made it only to seventy-nine on the Billboard Hot 100.

Digital downloads of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" exploded when mobster Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) was eighty-sixed to the 1981 hit on The Sopranos' series finale in 2007. The tuneful passing (not actually seen — the screen suddenly went black, leaving viewers in doubt) gave new meaning to the phrase "mob hit" and brought the band back together. Three years later, Glee featured the same song three times in its first season, sending the cast's cover version to number two, higher than the original's peak at number six.

And almost three decades before Tony Soprano's murky end, a more explicit crime sent a pop tune up the charts. In an infamous 1979 episode of General Hospital, Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary) raped his future wife, Laura (Genie Francis), to the tune of Herb Alpert's "Rise." Despite the violence it underscored, the instrumental by the famed trumpeter went to number one on the Billboard charts in October of that year.

"I doubt that the way that story played out would be told in today's world," says Michael Maloney, senior west coast editor for Soap Hub.

Now, that's something to believe in.

This article originally appeared in emmy magazine issue #12, 2022, under the title, "Claim That Tune."