Blue Oyster Cult's 1976 Hit Tops Billboard's September TV Songs Chart
Blue Oyster Cult's "(Don't Fear) the Reaper" is the No. 1 song on Billboard's Top TV Songs chart for September 2026, the chart said on 30 October 2026. The track's return to the top of the listings came from its use in Prime Video's action series Reacher.
The song was placed in the sixth episode of the show's fourth season, which aired on 2 September 2026. Episode six is titled "Plum Out of Luck," according to Tunefind, the site that logs music used in TV shows. A placement like this, known in the industry as a "synch," is a deal that lets a song play alongside on-screen action.
Billboard's Top TV Songs chart ranks songs by how much they are heard and bought after appearing on television. It combines Tunefind's data on which shows use which songs with sales and streaming figures tracked by Luminate, the company that gathers chart data for Billboard. In September, "(Don't Fear) the Reaper" earned 11.8 million official streams in the United States, according to Billboard. It also sold 1,000 downloads.
The song is far from new. It first reached the Billboard Hot 100, the main weekly singles chart in the United States, in 1976, peaking at No. 12. That remains the band's highest Hot 100 placing.
The rest of the top 10 shows how varied the chart can be. Ambrosia's "How Much I Feel" came in at No. 6 after appearing in Neagley, a spinoff of Reacher that premiered on 16 September 2026. The song had 6.7 million streams. Ambrosia's track peaked at No. 3 on the Hot 100 in 1978.
Mondo Cozmo's "Sweet Forever" ranked No. 10 after appearing in the Reacher season finale, which aired on 16 September. It logged 207,000 streams and 1,000 downloads.
Further down the top five, House of Pain's "Jump Around" was No. 2 through Ted Lasso. Bronski Beat's "Smalltown Boy" was No. 3 through Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story. When in Rome's "The Promise" was No. 4 through Chad Powers.
What stands out is how a single episode can move a 50-year-old song back up the charts. For the band, the chart position is a new entry in a long catalogue. For the streaming services, it is a reminder that a scene can send listeners to a catalogue track within days. Listeners who first heard the song as a background cue in a crime drama can now find it in one tap.
