Last night’s episode of The Last Of Us has genre TV fans everywhere buzzing, thanks in part to a certain vintage pop hit. And now, like another specific piece of music before it, the song is seeing a huge surge in popularity.
Episode three of The Last of Us was called “Long, Long Time” named after a song of the same name by singer Linda Ronstadt. The song plays a key role in the relationship of survivors Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett), and comes back later in the episode with Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey), too. Immediately after the episode aired, popular music streamer Spotify reports the song saw a 4,900% increase in plays compared to the previous week.
It’s similar to what happened last summer when another popular genre show, Stranger Things, used another period hit song, Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” in a memorable episode. That song saw a huge surge in popularity and even began to get regular radio play again. Not to mention, Bush herself reportedly saw a nice bump in her residuals.
It’s only been a day since The Last Of Us used Ronstadt’s song in its beautiful, poetic, painful episode—but one has to imagine, as more people watch it and fall in love with Bill and Frank, that number will only go up. Or, you know, you can press play on this right now and listen here.
Originally released in 1970, the song spent 12 weeks on Billboard’s top 100 list, peaking at number 25, and garnered Ronstadt a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Female Vocal Performance. (She lost to Dionne Warwick’s “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again.”)
The Last of Us episode called “Long, Long Time” is now streaming on HBO Max.
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