Once again, an old hit from decades past has been given new life by a breakout television or film hit.

This time it’s Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Murder on the Dancefloor, which features in cult-hit film Saltburn. 

Appearing on Ellis-Bextor’s first solo album Read My Lips in 2001, Murder on the Dancefloor made the top 10 in several countries around the world, including Australia, when it was released.

The song had a music video to complement it, where Ellis-Bextor sabotages other contestants in a dance competition to take out the prize.

Now, more than two decades later, the song is having a resurgence in popularity.

In Saltburn, the song is featured in full and Ellis-Bextor was told by the film’s director, Emerald Fennell, exactly how the song would be used and that it was the only song she wanted for the scene, Entertainment.ie reported.

The song has been used by a whole new generation on TikTok, many of whom were too young to appreciate it in the early 2000s.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s hit was used in the movie Saltburn. Photo: Getty

It’s also now appearing on the US Billboard chart, a feat it didn’t achieve when it was initially released. It has also topped the UK Dance Chart and has popped back on the ARIA Chart.

Ellis-Bextor also announced she would be releasing a vinyl of the single next month.

Speaking with Nova‘s Ben, Liam and Belle, Ellis-Bextor said she was enjoying the new-found success of Murder on the Dancefloor.

“I feel really sort of happy for the song, which probably sounds a bit weird, because I feel like the song has gone on its own journey. So I’m here like a proud parent, ‘like oh, look at it go’,” she said.

“It’s also fun … You mentioned the scene in Saltburn and it’s quite extraordinary to be shown … a new reflection of yourself, because it’s a song I know so well, I’ve sung it so many times.

“And I’m seeing not just from the film, but all these like viral interpretations … All these people they now own it a little bit, and they’ve got their own version of it. And I just think … it’s such an adventure. It’s brilliant.”

Ellis-Bextor has also praised Saltburn, telling People she really enjoyed it and said it was a “clever, funny, smart film”.

Other songs given a second life

Murder on the Dancefloor isn’t the first song to experience a new wave of success years after it was released.

It was a similar story when Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill was featured in the fourth season of Netflix’s Stranger Things.

Running Up That Hill peaked at No.3 on the UK singles chart when it was originally released in the 1980s, when the show is set.

After the song was featured in the show, it climbed up the charts on streaming giants like Spotify and Apple Music and just like Murder on the Dancefloor was all over TikTok.

Also appearing in the fourth season of Stranger Things was Metallica’s Master of Puppets.

Character Eddie Munson performed a guitar solo from the song and subsequently it charted in the US for the first time in more than a decade.

Tim Burton revived the iconic character of Wednesday Addams in 2022 for another Netflix series, Wednesday, with Jenna Ortega as the titular character.

Film and television have helped give old songs new life. Photo: Netflix

In one scene, Wednesday dances to The Cramps’ Goo Goo Muck and that song also became a viral sensation online, with people also trying to replicate Ortega’s kooky dance.

Goo Goo Muck originally appeared on the band’s 1981 album Psychedelic Jungle, but it’s a cover.

Goo Goo Muck was released by Ronnie Cook & the Gaylads in the 1960s.

Nirvana’s song Something in the Way also saw success after The Batman was released in 2022.

The track from the band’s album Nevermind might have been outshone by Smells Like Teen Spirit when it was released in the 1990s, the film led to a surge in streams.

Another proven classic that has seen multiple spikes in popularity is Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing.

Back in 2007, when downloading music was still a thing, The Sopranos used the song in the final episode and led to 482 per cent surge in digital downloads, according to Buzzfeed.