The unexpected return. Since Our Bright Future, her last album released in 2008, Tracy Chapman has been discreet. His appearance on the Grammy Awards stage on Sunday February 4 was a major surprise. The 59-year-old star gave a remarkable performance there, performing his hit Fast Car alongside singer Luke Combs. To the point of blowing up his wiretaps. On Monday, the title appeared at the top of the Apple iTunes ranking in the United States, ahead of Miley Cyrus’ title Flowers, which won the Grammy for recording of the year.
Three previous versions of the song have charted on the Billboard Hot 100. Tracy Chapman’s original version reached #6 in 1988 upon release. The title made its first return to 98th place in the rankings in 2016 with the cover by Jonas Blue and Dakota. But it was in 2023 that Luke Combs’ version exploded the counters, lifting the title into the top three of the rankings.
The charts are regularly shaken by the return to favor of an old hit. Among the latest, Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield has been surfing social networks, brought up to date by the American comedy Everything But You. Or Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush, brought up to date by the series Stranger Things. In April 2023, America discovered Lio and his Banana Split almost 45 years after its release thanks to an advertisement for a… yellow phone. The video published on Youtube has more than 20 million views.
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More recently, the British Sophie Ellis-Bextor and her twenty-year-old Murder on the Dancefloor returned to the top of the charts after being included in the soundtrack of the film Saltburn. Result: more than 330 million plays on Spotify. “It’s really magical,” Sophie Ellis-Bextor said in an interview with the BBC. And to be honest, I don’t think I’ve completely assimilated the situation.” A few weeks later, the singer was invited to the Star Academy set to perform her hit with one of the candidates.