Minnesota music ended up being part of the “Stranger Things” goodbye. But it wasn’t from the artists many had predicted.
Speculation had been running wild online that the Replacements, the iconic Minneapolis group, might be featured in the popular show’s two-hour finale.
That’s because the group was mentioned in the penultimate episode that dropped Christmas Eve. In that episode, Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke), who works as a radio DJ when she’s not fighting monsters, raves about the band. She suggests that one of its tunes would provide the perfect soundtrack for an upcoming attack.
But when the finale dropped New Year’s Eve on Netflix, which crashed for several minutes due to high traffic, viewers discovered that the local lads weren’t invited to the party. Instead, they got Prince.
It’s too early to reveal any spoilers about the finale to one of the most buzzed about series of the past decade. After all, it only just became available.
But we will tell you that private investigator Murray Bauman (Brett Gelman) drops the needle on side B of the “Purple Rain” album during a climactic scene, giving viewers a chance to hear a chunk of “When Doves Cry.” Later, the song “Purple Rain” can be heard during a flashback montage that probably triggered the most reaches to the tissue box.
It makes sense that the Duffer Brothers, who created and ran the show for all five seasons, would turn to the late legend’s most popular album. “Purple Rain” came out in 1984. The series covered a time span of 1983-1989.
It might have been more interesting if the producers had used the long goodbye to spotlight more unconventional choices like it did in the past with Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God),” which returned to the charts some 30 years after it was first released, and Diana Ross’ “Upside Down,” which she performed Dec. 31 during ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest.”
