Once upon a time there was light in my life. But now there's only music in the dark.
That was a slight twist on the chorus from the hit 1983 song "Total Eclipse of the Heart" -- which became one of the anthems of Monday's total solar eclipse.
The sun going dark helped shine some light on a few classic songs that had a sudden resurgence in relevance and popularity thanks to the celestial event. Millions of spectators across North America watched the rare occurrence...and set the mood with a space-themed playlist.
The digital music service Spotify announced that searches for "eclipse" increased 7,660% on Monday across the United States, Canada and Mexico. One of the songs that saw a large surge in streams was Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart."
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It had a 635% increase in the United States in comparison to its average streams -- with large surges in areas within the path of totality like Cleveland (2,250%), Buffalo (2,090%) and Dallas (1,425%).
Jimmy Fallon and the band Heart even performed a cover of the song in New York during the eclipse.
Solar Eclipse 2024
Fitting as the song name was for the occasion, others had a larger spike in streams on the day of the eclipse.
Van Morrison's "Moondance" saw a 2,300% increase compared to its average streams and the Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun" increased 2,140%. Other popular choices on the celestial soundtrack included "Face the Sun" by James Blunt, "Space Oddity" by David Bowie (2,000%), "Darkness and Light" by John Legend and Brittany Howard, and, of course, "Eclipse" by Pink Floyd.
Here were Spotify's top-spiking songs in the United States on Monday based on comparison to average streams:
- "Moondance” by Van Morrison (2,300%)
- “Here Comes The Sun” by The Beatles, (2,140%)
- “Face the Sun” by James Blunt (2,100%)
- “Space Oddity” by David Bowie (2,000%)
- “Darkness and Light” by John Legend and Brittany Howard (1,790)
- “Eclipse” by Pink Floyd (1,155%)
- “Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden (1,470%)
- “Blinded By The Light” by Bruce Springsteen (1,600%)
- “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler (635%)
- “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down on Me” by Elton John (550%)
In Dallas, the top song choice was "Eclipse" by Pink Floyd. Here are the songs that had the largest surges compared to the previous week's streams in Dallas.
- “Eclipse” by Pink Floyd (4,515%)
- “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler (1,425%)
- “Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden (390%)
- “Ain’t No Sunshine” by Bill Withers (235%)
- “Here Comes The Sun” by The Beatles (195%)
- “Bad Moon Rising” by Creedence Clearwater Revival (185%)
The next time an eclipse of this magnitude will cross the U.S. will be on Aug. 23, 2044. Start getting your playlist ready.
