R.E.M.'s 1987 classic debuts on the Hot Rock Songs & Digital Song Sales charts.
As Billboard reported last week, the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted many songs whose lyrics tie in to the coronavirus to surge in sales and streams, from R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” to Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” and more.
The trend has continued in the latest tracking week (ending March 19), with some titles scaling Billboard charts decades after their original releases.
R.E.M.’s “World,” which hit No. 16 on Mainstream Rock Songs in 1987, and No. 69 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988, debuts on the all-genre Digital Song Sales chart at No. 22, up 482% to 5,000 downloads sold, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. The bump, and a 169% gain to 1.7 million U.S. streams, also sparks the track’s No. 4 debut on the Hot Rock Songs chart (which launched in 2009).
“World” additionally places at No. 2 on LyricFind’s U.S. ranking. (The LyricFind U.S. and LyricFind Global charts, whose latest tracking week ran March 16-22, rank the fastest-momentum-gaining tracks in lyric-search queries and usages in the U.S. and globally, respectively, provided by LyricFind.)
Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive,” which spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 in 1979, bounds by 81% to 1,000 sold and rises 9-4 on the Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales chart. It also rises by 5% to 3.4 million on-demand U.S. streams.
Here’s an updated look at other notable songs related to the coronavirus, and social distancing, that gained in the tracking week ending March 19.
Disturbed, “Down With the Sickness”
Up 31% in digital song sales to 1,000
Up 3% in U.S. streams to 2.6 million
Fifth Harmony feat. Ty Dolla $ign, “Work From Home”
Up 11% in U.S. streams to 1.2 million
Tim Heidecker, “Work From Home”
Up 66% in U.S. streams to 7,000
The Knack, “My Sharona” (as it rhymes with “corona”)
Up 50% in digital song sales to 1,000
Up 28% in U.S. streams to 1.1 million
“Weird Al” Yankovic, “My Bologna” (parody of the song above)
Up 52% in U.S. streams to 24,000
Shwayze, “Corona and Lime”
Up 37% in U.S. streams to 161,000
The Minutemen, “Corona”
Up 95% in U.S. streams to 122,000
Joy Division, “Isolation”
Up 132% in U.S. streams to 63,000
At the Drive-In, “Quarantined”
Up 70% in U.S. streams to 7,000