The Last of Us is giving Linda Ronstadt her Kate Bush moment after reviving hit song
Linda Ronstadt’s tearjerker “Long Long Time” is pivotal in The Last of Us’ historic third episode. (Getty/HBO)
Streams of Linda Ronstadt’s gorgeous track “Long Long Time” have soared by almost 5,000 per cent following its use in the historic third episode of HBO’s The Last of Us.
Episode three of the post apocalyptic saga centred on the devastating gay love story between character Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett), and it was Rondstadt’s ‘70s folk song that ignited the romance.
In one of the episode’s most touching scenes, Frank finds the song in Bill’s piano songbook and begins a slightly ropey rendition. Bill then takes over, mastering the song’s emotion and setting sparks flying.
By the way Frank looks at Bill as he plays, it’s clear that the two have immediate chemistry.
Later on in the episode, in the aftermath of Bill and Frank’s heartbreaking end, Joel and Ellie drive away from the couple’s house in Bill’s car, with Ronstadt’s original version playing on a tape.
The song continues to play over the episode’s final shot – of Bill and Frank’s open bedroom window. For all those desperately holding back their tears, this scene was likely the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Posting on Twitter, Spotify said that in the hour after the episode aired on 29 January in the US, streams of the song on US Spotify were up by 4,900 per cent compared to the previous week.
While the song did receive a Grammy nomination in 1971 in the Best Contemporary Female Vocal Performance, it only managed to reach number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100, and failed to chart at all in the UK.
Episode three of The Last of Us was an absolute sobfest for multiple reasons, “Long Long Time” included. But the show has also brought together thousands of people sharing their love for the song, whether newfound or pre-existing.
“Loved her at 17, now at 67, nothings changed,” one person wrote. “What else could you want, poems for the heart.”
“Are we entering into Linda Ronstadt Is Having a Moment territory? Because I am fuckin’ READY,” another said.
Speaking to Variety, Craig Mazin, the show’s co-creator, said the song was recommended by his friend Seth Rudetsky, after Mazin told him he was looking specifically for a song that would “hit certain things about longing and aching and endlessly unrequited love”.
The outpouring of love for “Long Long Time” is comparable to the worldwide attention Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” received last year following its use on that episode of Stranger Things.
Streams of Bush’s ‘80s hit rose by 8,700 per cent globally and nearly 10,000 per cent in the US in May last year, after Stranger Things season four landed on Netflix.
“Running Up That Hill” swiftly became her second ever UK number one single and spent three weeks atop the UK charts. In the US, the song hit number three, becoming her first ever top 40 hit.
At the time, Bush said she was “shocked” and “excited” by the song’s resurgence, adding that “the world’s gone mad”.
Linda Ronstadt, who hung up her microphone and retired in 2009 after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, is yet to say anything publicly about the use of the song in The Last of Us.
However, her official Instagram account shared a vintage clip of her performing the song after the episode went live, much to fans’ delight.
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