Ghost have scored a Top 5 hit in the UK with Mary On A Cross after the three-year-old song went viral on TikTok.
The song, which originally featured on 2019’s Seven Inches Of Satanic Panic single, hit No.5 in the UK today (August 19).
The unlikely popularity of Mary On A Cross stems from its appearance on a Stranger Things-related TIkTok published at the end of July.
As with Metallica’s Master Of Puppets and Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill, the Stranger Things connection helped push Mary On A Cross to a much wider audience.
The song subsequently appeared on several other TikToks, soundtracking scenes from 2002’s Spider-Man 2 and 1988 movie Dead Poet’s Society. The upkick spilled over to Spotify and YouTube, with streams and views both rocketing.
The inevitable backlash to the song’s belated popularity is already underway.
One Twitter user wrote: “I’m not bothered about ‘Mary on a Cross’ being used on TikTok but I AM afraid of the inevitable day I hear a 12-year-old singing it in public.
Another tweeted: “Just saw a tiktok of someone taht [sic] just bought ghost pit tickets and they only know mary on a cross (they literally said so). the end is near.”
Thankfully, a few Ghost fans are clapping back at the gatekeepers, with one Twitter user writing: “idk why we are bullying people for liking mary on a cross. not everyone is gonna be hardcore Ghost fan… Music will mean different things to everyone and sometimes that’s just a oh Neat moment and thats FINE.”
Ghost’s US tour begins on August 26 with Mastodon and Spiritbox as support.
Source: loudersound.com