Could the “Dracula” remix become the new “Thriller”? Tame Impala and Jennie‘s foreboding synth-pop track is well on its way to gaining Halloween staple song status after experiencing a big streaming bump during the spooky holiday. From Oct. 30 to Nov. 1, both the original version and the remix collectively received 16 million global on-demand streams across all platforms, according to music data company Luminate.
Last weekend from Oct. 23-Oct. 25, “Dracula” received 11 million streams during Halloweekend, marking a 44 percent increase . Michael Jackson’s timeless “Thriller” still topped the Global Spotify charts on Oct. 31, but Tame and Jennie’s remix may just beat the song out on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart. According to early chart predictions, the song’s Halloween streaming surge could help it reach a new peak at Number Three, a slot above “Thriller.”
Since it was released in February, the “Dracula” remix has been inescapable — and quickly became one of the biggest songs in the world, notching nearly 1 billion on-demand global streams and earning both Tame Impala and Jennie their first Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.
The original song appeared on the Australian music project’s Deadbeat, but a chance encounter between Kevin Parker, the brain behind Tame Impala, and Jennie led them to collaborate on a new version. “I was like, ‘I really love Jennie’s voice. It’d be great to get Jennie on the track,’” Parker recalled during Rolling Stone‘s Musicians on Musicians interview.
In that same conversation, both Parker and Jennie remarked on the success of the song. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about this. When I first found out about how the song started doing well, even my closest friends, they would all text me saying, ‘The song is amazing.’ Being the artist of the song, I can never fully understand how it started. But it’s your song, [so] I knew it was going to do it,” Jennie said at the time.
“I take a little bit of credit for having the vision,” Parker replied. “I just had the feeling that if you were going to get on it … I was like, ‘I reckon that’s going to take it to the next level.’” You can watch the full conversation on YouTube here.
