Linda Ronstadt’s music streams increased by 4,900% after her music was featured in the third episode of The Last Of Us.
After the episode aired in which the 1970 track was presented in several guises, the number of streaming tracks in the United States increased by a staggering amount. Spotify confirmed this figure in a post on its social media sites.
“Oh, so all our hearts were broken last night,” the Spotify News account tweeted. The message showed that the surge of streams occurred for one hour between 23:00 and 00:00 Eastern standard time (five hours less GMT).
Oh, so all our hearts were breaking last night… 🍓 #TheLastOfUs pic.twitter.com/upTiav0MLw
— Spotify News (@SpotifyNews) January 30, 2023
“Long, long” was heard throughout the episode. This was widely shown, in particular, in scenes with survivors Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett), as well as later in scenes with Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey).
In the case of Bill and Frank, the song plays a key role in their relationship. In this scene, Frank sits down at the piano and discovers Linda Ronstadt’s songbook.
Frank sits down at the piano and already finds a collection of her songs there. He starts playing before Bill comes in to take over and sing the first few lines of the song. The actual syncing of the track is played towards the end of the episode.
The song was chosen by executive producer and director Craig Mazin, but only after it was suggested by his friend Seth Rudetsky. Mazin explained that he was looking for a song in which the two characters could connect.
Speaking to Variety, Mazin said: “I knew that this song should touch on certain things about longing, pain and endlessly unrequited love. I couldn’t find the right song for the life of me.
“I tried and tried, and then I wrote to my friend Seth Rudetsky, the host of Sirius XM on Broadway and a scientist. I told him: “That’s all I need,” and two seconds later: “Linda Ronstadt, “Long, long.” I thought: this is it. That’s it!”
