“Landslide” by Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac and “Purple Rain” by Prince discover chart success after showing in Stranger Issues.
Photograph by Fin Costello/Redferns/Getty Photos, Photograph by Paul Natkin/WireImage
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Photograph by Fin Costello/Redferns/Getty Photos, Photograph by Paul Natkin/WireImage
Prince is again on the pop charts. So are Kate Bush and Fleetwood Mac. That may solely imply one factor: Netflix’s Stranger Issues finale, which dropped Dec. 31, is shaking up the Billboard Scorching 100.
TOP STORY
The vacation-music rush has been swept off the Billboard charts fully, and the primary surefire blockbuster of 2026 — Zach Bryan‘s With Heaven on High, which dropped Friday — is not but eligible to seem on them. That leaves the charts caught in a liminal house the place the standard assortment of massive canine (Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen, et al) hover at or close to the highest of the charts, seemingly by default.
However one pop-culture phenomenon does make its presence felt, particularly on the Scorching 100 singles chart: the finale of the Netflix TV sequence Stranger Issues, which dropped Dec. 31 and contained many high-profile needle drops.
Three decades-old songs that seem within the finale pop up this week: Prince and the Revolution’s “Purple Rain” at No. 27, Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” at No. 41 and Kate Bush’s “Operating Up That Hill” (which the present had already boosted a couple of years in the past) at No. 46. The rise of “Landslide,” certainly one of Fleetwood Mac’s signature songs, is very notable: Although a reside model of the monitor charted briefly within the late ’90s, the 1975 studio model — the one which appeared on Stranger Issues — had by no means earlier than cracked the Scorching 100.
A more moderen tune that did not seem within the Stranger Issues finale nonetheless receives a fair higher enhance from the present this week. Joe Keery, who performed Steve Harrington throughout the present’s 5 seasons, information music beneath the identify Djo, and Djo’s tune “Finish of Starting” — which peaked at No. 11 in 2024 — re-entered the Scorching 100 final week. This week, it surges to No. 6, marking one of the best chart efficiency of Djo’s profession. (It is No. 1 on the streaming chart, with airplay numbers lagging far behind.) On the Billboard 200 albums chart, Djo can also be ascendant: Resolve leaps from No. 178 to No. 24, whereas The Crux re-enters the chart at No. 125.
Additionally again on the albums chart this week: the soundtrack to Purple Rain, which rides the Stranger Issues wave to No. 41.
TOP ALBUMS
Taylor Swift has been aggressive in her efforts to maintain The Lifetime of a Showgirl on prime of the albums chart. Since its launch in October, she’s dug right into a deep toolbox — vinyl variants, webstore exclusives, treating her followers like they’re paypigs who’re eternally keen to purchase the identical document time and again — to fend off the likes of Morgan Wallen, Bing Crosby (in the course of the holidays) and the soundtrack to KPop Demon Hunters. The outcome: a run of 12 nonconsecutive weeks on the prime of the Billboard 200.
This week, The Lifetime of a Showgirl experiences a momentary setback, as an even-older chart-topper — Morgan Wallen’s I am the Drawback — reclaims the highest spot for a thirteenth nonconsecutive week. Swift isn’t one to take this kind of insolence mendacity down, particularly when her fortunate quantity 13 is concerned, however she’ll seemingly have to attend out Zach Bryan, who dropped With Heaven on High final Friday and would appear well-positioned to prime the chart subsequent week.
Elsewhere within the prime 10, there is not a lot to report. But it surely’s price persevering with to observe the rise of Olivia Dean, whose The Artwork of Loving has been on a pointy upward trajectory for months now. This week, it rises to a brand new peak at No. 3 — the identical place it holds on each the gross sales and streaming charts. With seven songs on the Scorching 100 and a wave of Grammys publicity looming, Dean is ready up for an enormous yr.
TOP SONGS
For the primary time in her profession, Taylor Swift has a tune that is topped the Billboard Scorching 100 for 10 or extra weeks. And all it took was extra ceaseless chart manipulation within the type of vinyl gross sales, an acoustic model, a Loud Luxurious remix and a Chainsmokers remix that dropped final week! “The Destiny of Ophelia” is not precisely lagging in streaming or radio airplay — it is No. 2 within the former, No. 3 within the latter — however no stone goes unturned in conserving this factor at No. 1 on the Scorching 100 for so long as attainable.
This week, the choice — up a spot to No. 2 — is Alex Warren‘s “Bizarre,” which rises on the chart thanks partly to a twenty fifth week at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Radio Songs itemizing. That is nearly a full half-year because the most-played tune in America, and yet one more knowledge level supporting the dual arguments that 1) there is a single one who applications a lot of the nation’s business radio stations; and a pair of) this individual wandered off the job months in the past and hasn’t been seen since.
One last phenomenon price noting: The Grammy-nominated, Ok-pop-influenced lady group KATSEYE now has two songs within the prime 30, because the venerable “Gabriela” reaches a brand new peak (at No. 21) and “Web Woman” debuts at No. 29. Extra momentum to keep watch over because the Grammys strategy and a number of the Scorching 100’s oldest songs fade into oblivion.
