How Two Prince Songs Found Their Way On The ‘Stranger Things’ Finale

On Dec. 31, Stranger Things aired its series finale. After five seasons, the show that earned a devoted fanbase came to its conclusion, which generated some mixed reviews. But most agreed that the late musical genius Prince was a welcome addition to the last episode, “The Rightside Up.”

No, the show, set in the ’80s, didn’t use any AI trickery to bring Prince back to his heyday. Instead, they used his music, specifically, “When Doves Cry” and “Purple Rain.” Those songs were big hits for Prince from the 1984 Purple Rain soundtrack. That year, he became the first artist to have a #1 single and #1 movie in the same week. Purple Rain would ultimately sell more than 25 million copies, establishing Prince as a global superstar.

But since his death in 2016 sparked a fight over his estate that took six years to settle, Prince’s vast music catalog has been sparsely utilized. “Let’s Go Crazy,” another song from Purple Rain, was once used randomly for a Capital One ad. Minnesota sports teams, including the Vikings and Timberwolves, play his music in games, and there have been three special deluxe edition album re-releases since his passing, including multiple unreleased tracks.

Before Stranger Things, the rights for several songs were granted to Black-ish for a Prince tribute episode and to Spike Lee for his Netflix series She’s Gotta Have It. Lee also secured a song for his Oscar-winning movie Black KKKlansman, which ended with an unreleased version of Prince singing the gospel standard “Mary Don’t You Weep.”

But Prince was not the first choice for Stranger Things. Before they could even start securing rights, music supervisor Nora Felder, president of Picture Music Company, had a challenging task. The Prince songs were not a request from the show’s creators, Matt and Ross Duffer. Felder just had a directive from them to find two songs from an ’80s vinyl album that started with one song on the A or B side, and ended with another on the A or B side. And it had to be the same artist.

Easier said than done, Felder told Variety. Fortunately, Felder has two decades of experience as a music supervisor and a music collection that includes more than 15,000 albums and CDs. Prince became the artist that best fit the criteria, and for those who have seen the finale, it fits the scenes as well.

Once Felder settled on Prince, the next hurdle was getting approvals, which in this case meant a buy-in from Primary Wave, the company that owns half of the Prince Estate, and Warner Bros., which, despite Prince fighting for ownership of his masters, still owns his Purple Rain album in a deal crafted after he died. Universal Music Publishing, which administers his publishing, had to approve the usage as well.

“The good news is, I majored in English in college, and that helped with creating what I call “theses”: where you give the rights owners all the information of how the song’s going to be used, and the backstory of it, the meaning of it — Jennifer Barron, my clearance coordinator, and I went deep on this one,” Felder told Variety.  “So we spoke to Marty Silverstone at Primary Wave. He goes, “Well, we all know it’s a tough one, but let’s try.”

The approvals were granted shortly before filming started. Not only did Prince increase social chatter on the Stranger Things finale, but it also helped generate renewed interest in his music. Per Variety, the song “Purple Rain” jumped 243% on Spotify with an emphasis on the Gen Z demographic. “When Doves Cry” jumped 200% with 128% of Gen Z streams.

When Kate Bush’s ’80s hit “Running Up That Hill ( A Deal With God)” was played on an episode, it sent the song to the Top 10 for the first time. Bush also reportedly made more than a million dollars due to the song’s resurgence.

Felder saw the finale in theaters during its limited release. She says the addition of the Prince classics generated different emotions in the audience.

“You know, I quickly whipped my head around, and I saw some of the older audiences, a thing of familiarity obviously came across their face, and I heard some ahs,” she told NPR. “But then I also, you know, was clocking some of the younger people. And I was wondering – I don’t think they know what it is, but they’re liking what they’re hearing. It was more of a ‘what is this?’ Ah. This is a cool song. So for the older people, it was nostalgia. For the younger people, it was new experiences. It all just came together that this is why the soundtrack has contributed so much to the success of the show.”

Watch “Purple Rain” below:

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