David Bowie has scored a posthumous streaming hit with his 1977 single "Heroes" following its appearance in the end credits to the finale of Netflix's Stranger Things.
Since the episode was released on December 31, "Heroes" has seen a jump of almost 500 percent across streaming services, according to Luminate data (via Rolling Stone). The song's daily average of 94,000 digital streams was given a boost of 3.6-to-5 times that number: 342,000 streams on January 1, 456,000 on January 2, and 470,000 on January 3.
The 49-year-old song is no, er, stranger to the series. Peter Gabriel's 2010 cover of "Heroes" was previously used in a pivotal scene in episode three of season one. But according to the show's co-creator Ross Duffer, Stranger Things actor Joe Keery was the one to suggest using Bowie's original version of "Heroes" for the credits.
“Once Joe said that, we immediately knew that was the right song to end the show on because it is, in some ways, an anthem for Stranger Things," Duffer told Tudum. "To use the original Bowie version just felt fitting for the conclusion.”
Bowie's song is the latest artist to get a new lease on life thanks to the Netflix series. Kate Bush's “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" was written into the show as a key plot point in both seasons four and five, and saw the 1985 track re-enter the charts. A similar resurgence happened in season four for Metallica's "Master of Puppets."