New albums by The Weeknd and Gunna impact this week’s global charts, totaling 40 songs on the Jan. 22-dated Billboard Global 200. But while their 2022 material helps usher in a new year, some finely aged tunes balance the pendulum.
Particularly venerable, Edison Lighthouse‘s 1970 hit “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)” debuts at No. 147 on the Global 200. The British pop band has enjoyed about a month of increases in streams and sales sparked by a sudden boost from TikTok, a virtual museum of deep music discovery for older and contemporary acts alike. (On SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio, the song was the seventh-most played in the week ending Jan. 19, with 55 plays, according to MRC Data, mingling in the top 10 among the likes of the Encanto cast, GAYLE and SZA.)
“Love Grows” becomes the oldest non-holiday song to hit the Global 200 (dating to its September 2020 launch), surpassing Queen’s 1975 opus “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which has spent 67 weeks on the chart. On the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. tally, that distinction belongs to Neil Diamond’s 1969 anthem “Sweet Caroline (Good Times Never Seemed So Good),” which spent a week at No. 167 in July 2021 after a jolt in popularity during the Euro 2020 soccer (er, football) tournament.
In the week ending Dec. 16, “Love Grows” drew 178,000 streams and sold nearly 100 downloads globally, according to MRC Data. Over the course of four weeks, those numbers have ballooned by 5,165% and 2,597%, respectively, to 9.4 million streams and 2,700 sold worldwide in the week ending Jan. 13.
As the Internet took notice, streams for “Love Grows” moved at nearly an identical pace both outside and in the U.S., up 36% in both measures the week ending Dec. 23, and then by 1,135% and 1,105%, respectively, the following week.
But in the two tracking weeks of the new year, streams outside the U.S. maintained a manic pace (up 232% and 41%), while domestic clicks rose by a less striking but still strong rate (up 90% and 31%). Going back to the week ending Dec. 16, the song’s streams split nearly equally, with 122,000 in the U.S. and 121,000 outside. By now, they’ve diverged to 6 million internationally and 3.4 million domestically. (The song’s international prowess came up just short this week of the 200-position Global Excl. U.S. chart, as it bubbles just under the survey.)
“Love Grows” became Edison Lighthouse’s breakthrough hit, first hitting the Feb. 21, 1970-dated Billboard Hot 100 (based on U.S. data). By late March, it reached No. 5, peaking there for three non-consecutive weeks (as juggernauts in Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and The Beatles’ “Let It Be” crowned the chart). The band scored one more Hot 100 entry, as “It’s Up to You Petula” reached No. 72 in February 1971, while frontman Tony Burrows forged a noteworthy solo career.
