The Collapsable Hearts Club’s catchy tune “Easy Street” has clearly struck a chord (no pun intended) with fans of AMC’s zombie horror drama “The Walking Dead,” since streaming on Spotify tripled in the 24 hours following the airing of last week’s episode “The Cell.”
'Easy Street' number 92 in the Top 100
After just one airing of the “Walking Dead” episode on FOX on Monday, Spotify’s number of streams for “Easy Street” skyrocketed from 32,000 to 81,000 by Tuesday, landing it a coveted spot in the Top 100 UK Singles Chart at number 92.
After the episode aired every “Walking Dead” viewer in the UK had “Easy Street” stuck in their head, The Independent tracked down Jim Bianco, who wrote the song, for an interview.
He wasn’t sure how the producers of the show even discovered his song, and when they got in touch with him in order to get permission to use it, he “didn’t really understand why a show like “The Walking Dead” would want to use such an upbeat, over-the-top, in-your-face, happy song,” but when he watched the episode, he understood perfectly: “to torture someone, of course.”
'Upbeat' song used for torture scene
In “The Walking Dead,” the song was played on a constant loop while everyone’s favourite character Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) was being held in the eponymous “Cell” by villainous Season 7 newcomer Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Blasting the Music into the cell was supposed to keep Daryl awake and deprive him of sleep, and the upbeat nature of the song in stark contrast with the sinister nature of Negan and his compound and his treatment of Daryl was an excellent juxtaposition akin to Quentin Tarantino’s use of “Stuck in the Middle with You” in “Reservoir Dogs.”
“Walking Dead” fans had been waiting two weeks to discover the fate of Daryl, who was taken by Negan as collateral in the season premiere “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be” (also known as the grimmest hour of television ever made).
Two weeks is nothing compared to the half a year they waited to discover who Negan’s victim was, only to be shocked by a series of twists when Daryl punches the new antagonist, provoking him to unexpectedly slaughter a second victim. At the end of that episode, he threw Daryl in the back of a truck and drove off, and fans sat through an entire Daryl-less episode waiting to find out what had happened to him.
This week, fans discovered Daryl’s fate to the tune of The Collapsable Hearts Club’s “Easy Street” and are still suitably on the edge of their seats for next week’s episode of “The Walking Dead,” which is reported to see Negan paying Rick (Andrew Lincoln) a surprise visit at Alexandria.
