Thanks to the iTunes Store’s latest, and ongoing, sale pricing, five classic soundtrack hits return to Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart dated May 8, led by Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me).”
Older songs are eligible to appear on the Billboard Hot 100 and its subgenre charts if ranking in the top half and with a meaningful reason for their resurgences. In the case of these five titles, all were discounted in the chart tracking week to 69 cents on iTunes as part of the retailer’s “69¢ Soundtrack Hits” sale (timed around the April 25 Academy Awards).
Simple Minds’ anthem, a 1985 Hot 100 No. 1 from The Breakfast Club, paces the group at No. 14, up 834% to 5,100 sold in the week ending April 29, according to MRC Data. It also re-enters Alternative Digital Song Sales at No. 1 for its first week atop the list, which began in 2011. Additionally, the song earned 3.4 million radio airplay audience impressions on stations that report to the multi-metric Hot 100 and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs charts, up 4%, and 2 million streams in the same tracking frame, up 1%.
The other movie titles to reach Hot Rock & Alternative Songs boosted by iTunes’ sale: Prince’s “When Doves Cry” (No. 15; 4,000 sold, up 593%), Twenty One Pilots’ “Heathens” (No. 16; 1,700 sold, up 510%), Prince and the Revolution’s “Purple Rain” (No. 18; 4,400 sold, up 510%) and Bryan Adams’ “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” (No. 19; 3,400 sold, up 372%).
The Prince songs are from 1984’s Purple Rain; “Heathens” was written for 2016’s Suicide Squad; and Adams’ classic was featured in 1991’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
Among all genres, the biggest beneficiary of the soundtrack sale for the week was Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mya and P!nk’s “Lady Marmalade.” The 2001 Moulin Rouge! soundtrack smash surged by 2,976% to 9,000 sold and bounds in at No. 5 on the all-format Digital Song Sales chart.
