Huge ‘Severance’ Finale Bumps for Standards Performed by Mel Tormé & Bobby Darin

This week's Trending Up also looks at a revived Janet Jackson favorite -- and the decades-older pop-rock classic it samples -- and a new rap breakout hit (based on very old rap slang).

Mar 26, 2025 - 22:20

Huge ‘Severance’ Finale Bumps for Standards Performed by Mel Tormé & Bobby Darin

Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip.

This week: The biggest TV drama on streaming dusts off some old renditions of vocal pop favorites, an ’00s smash goes newly viral and lifts the ’70s classic it samples, and 27 years after Will Smith’s Hot 100-topper, it’s time to get jiggy with it again.

**A Streaming Waffle Party for Severance Finale-Bumped Pop Standards**

Did you manage to see the Cold Harbour project through to its completion in the Severance Season Two finale last Thursday (Mar. 20)? If so, you probably heard a number of pop standards in the episode, soundtracking all the innie-and-outtie drama in the action-packed season-ender. While Apple TV’s hit sci-fi workplace drama has resulted in minor gains for some of the more high-profile synchs of its second season, the finale saw a couple songs who were previously racking up weekly streams in the triple or low-quadruple digits exploding to five and even six figures.

The biggest bump was, unsurprisingly, for “The Windmills of Your Mind,” the late-’60s pop standard originally recorded by Noel Harrison for the soundtrack to late-’60s heist flick The Thomas Crown Affair. In last Friday’s Severance, “Windmills” was featured (as performed by legendary crooner Mel Tormé) during the episode’s emotionally heightened-but-ambiguous closing sequence – with viewers rushing to Shazam the mysterious pop ballad. The song has racked up 215,000 U.S. on-demand audio streams in the four days since the finale aired (Mar. 20-24), up over 30,000% from the negligible number of streams it amassed in the equivalent period the prior week, according to early data provided by Luminate.

Similarly gargantuan were the percentage gains for late-’50s and early-’60s hitmaker Bobby Darin’s version of “Work Song,” a jazz-pop standard originally penned by Nat Adderley (with lyrics added by Oscar Brown Jr.), and recorded by Darin for his 1963 album Earthy! After playing over the end credits to the Severance season finale, the relative pop obscurity jumped over 35,000% in streams to over 20,000 for that same four-day period.

Much more modest were the gains for a song featured in the finale that’s never that far removed from American popular culture: The Alan Parsons Project’s spectral prog-rock instrumental “Sirius,” which became an all-time jock jam after being used by the ‘90s Chicago Bulls for their pre-game player intros. After seeing similar usage from Mr. Milchick on Severance, the song jumped 16% to just under 125,000 streams for the same four-day period. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER

Nearly 25 Years After Release, TikTok Revives Janet Jackson’s “Someone to Call My Lover”

Janet Jackson is an indisputable music icon, but her 2004 Super Bowl halftime show controversy effectively railroaded her crossover to younger listeners. Luckily, in the TikTok era, anyone can have a comeback at any time.

Bolstered by a natural love for breezy, springtime pop songs by Black women – the same general trend that’s boosting Ravyn Lenae’s “Love Me Not” — Janet Jackson’s “Someone to Call My Lover” has started to explode on streaming. According to Luminate, streaming activity for “Someone” has risen over 606% over the past four weeks. During the week of March 14-20, the song earned 1.14 million official on-demand U.S. streams, marking a 75% increase from the 651,200 streams it pulled the week prior (March 7-13).

The song originally earned a series of viral X posts and TikToks last fall, and as the weather started warming up, users started gravitating towards “Someone” to capture the mood of the season. The official “Someone to Call My Lover” TikTok sound has earned over 64,200 posts, with that number growing each day.

“Someone” lifts its signature guitar riff from America’s ’70s pop-rock smash “Ventura Highway,” which has also seen a boost in streaming. Activity for “Ventura” has risen over 56% over the past four weeks; during the week of March 14-20, the song earned 2.45 million official on-demand U.S. streams, marking an 8% increase from the 2.26 million streams it pulled the week prior (March 7-13).

A quarter century after it reached No. 3 on the Hot 100, “Someone to Call My Lover” has enraptured a whole new set of listeners. — KYLE DENIS

Zeddy Will Racks Up Another TikTok-Fueled Hit With “Get Jiggy”

Zeddy Will is as much of a regular as an artist can be in this column, and he’s back this week with another one.

Zeddy first teased “Get Jiggy,” a collaboration with B Jack$, back in January, and, the following month (Feb. 6), he shared another snippet with the now endlessly recreated neck-jerking choreography. The first snippet earned 113,000 views, while the second has since topped out at around 575,000 views. The song finally hit streaming on Feb. 27, clocking over one million official on-demand U.S. streams in its first full week, according to Luminate.

That figure leapt 95% to over 2.2 million streams during the week of March 7-13. The next week (March 14-20), “Jiggy” rose a further 26% to over 2.81 million streams. Over the past two weeks, streams for “Jiggy” have soared nearly 148%. The official “Get Jiggy” TikTok sound has garnered nearly 400,000 posts, showing that Zeddy Will is more than validating his status as one of Billboard staff’s 15 Hip-Hop, African and R&B artists to watch in 2025. – KD